Mother of the Bride's Dress picked! Father's day weekend.

I finally picked out my Mother of the Bride's dress! This is the general style, but the color and fabric will be a little different. I also had them take the dress my mom wore at my wedding as a template for her dress. In a different color and length.

It was so good to see Frances again! She is just the BEST. I'm having my dress for Alexandria's wedding (2 weeks before ours) and my rehearsal dinner dress taken up at the shoulders. Pru went with us and she's getting the dress they got at Macy's altered to fit and Ummi will take hers in on Monday.

Christa brought her wedding dress in and they are going to put in a corset back as well as shorten it to fit her outrageous heels. They are also going to put in a way to bustle up the train. Looks VERY pretty!

They also have the vests that Christa wants for ushers!  A bit of a contentious bone when I had bought a set of patterned pink vests after consulting her only to be told the groom didn't like them after they arrived.  My real problem with that was he was very fast to say he didn't like them, but not willing to help find replacements.  I was going to stand my ground on that one until Frances came up the exact ones Christa liked.  Crisis averted.

I picked my mom up from her SNF and got her ready.  Put on make up and curled her hair.  The girls met me there, but we decided to take 2 cars to make everyone more comfortable.  My mom is pretty good with everything except getting into and out of the car.  She has the strength and ability, but the concepts are gone.  We have to show her every time how to scoot back first then bring her legs in to get into the car and how to hold on to our necks to help lift her out.  She can walk with her walker, but gets tired easily and prefers her chair.

When we go to Frances' whom should we meet, but my friend Corina and her daughter, Alexandria.  They were bringing a straggling bridesmaid to get measured.  It was a great time hanging out with each other as we planned our daughters' weddings!

After, Christa, Pru, Grandma and I went to lunch at Polly's.  My mom is so funny now.  Whenever we go out to eat, I have to remind her to not say anything about the prices and to find something she can eat on the menu without complaining.  She usually likes the chicken pie, but she doesn't want it today.  The girls decide what they want and I know what I want.  I show her several things on the breakfast menu since she doesn't seem to want lunch items.  I point out her favorite soup.  Nothing is good.  Christa tried to help and shows her a few things; she shakes her head.  I say I'm really surprised that you don't want the chicken pie.  She says, "They have chicken pie?  That sounds great!"  We all stifle laughs.  The waitress comes and takes our order.  She doesn't want anything to drink. Not even water.  I order a water and a coffee for her.  When the coffee comes, she adds 4 creamers and 2 sugars.  Tastes it and says she needs more.  One more creamer and 3 more sugars later and she loves it.  We had a good time eating with each other.

Randy has to work this weekend so I took him to see the Green Lantern in 3D for Father's Day.  I give it a C+.  I really had hoped it would have had better 3D effects.  It just wasn't that great.  But there was a lot of eye-candy.

I also got him a cover for his Nook which he loved.  Unfortunately, they messed up the rest of the order and sent Kindle accessories.  But it was still cheaper than just the cover would have been at Barnes and Noble.  And he can still use the light and the ear buds, so not a total loss!

Shopping for Mother of the Bride's dress and Memorial weekend. Or How I bought a $600 dress for 50 bucks!

I am still tunneling through the things I brought back from Tucson as well as all the stuff I need to get rid of from here!  We are going to have another garage sale on the weekend of the 11th.  Trey and Christa came over and helped us get ready by moving things around since the stuff was just dumped where ever when I got back last week.  Trey thought we should empty Grandma's living room, give it a thorough cleaning and put everything back in.  I have to admit it was a good idea, but very tiring.

They also brought wonderful food and we had a really nice family bar-be-que with them.  Very yummy and lots of left overs.  Trey puts oil on everything he cooks and it does make it taste yummier.

After that, since Christa was here, we put in huge orders on line for various wedding stuff at Oriental Trading,  Wedding Accessories.net (for all her Cherry Blossom items), and Smarty had a Party (for disposable china since we can't use glass at her venue.  We charged so much that when I went to order a dress at Nordstrom's,  they wouldn't take my debit card. I had to call fraud prevention and get it reactivated.  I guess I'm happy that they are looking out for unusual activities, but a call would have been nice Chase!  I mean, what if I would have been out shopping?  THAT would have been so embarrassing!

Nordstrom's Dressing room with #1

Our friend's son, Siva, is going to UCI and occasionally we meet up to Auntie and Uncle him a bit.  He decided we should go to South Coast Plaza.  Good for me, I

need to pick up my dress!  I think he might have been sorry for suggesting it, LOL.  I wound up needing the dress in a smaller size.  I'm not sure weather to say "Yeah, I'm toning up!" or "Yeah, Vanity Sizing!"  Because I can believe I went down a dress size, but TWO dress sizes?  I'm not so sure. They had it in the size smaller, but not any smaller than that. Dress Number One Picture.  

Norstrom's Dressing Room Dress #2

They had the dress that Christa liked in my new size, so I tried that one on. Just didn't fit quite right.  Then I tried on one that Randy picked out.  I wound up getting it.

We had lunch with Siva at Macy's Wolfgang Puck's Bistro.  Caught up with each others lives and had a great time.  Sive, like me is not an Apple fan, so we snubbed them and went to the Sony Store.  I didn't realize until after the mall closed, that there was also a MicroSoft Store.  Oh well, next time.  We bummed around for a while and then I saw it.  Like a moth to a flame, I was drawn in.  BLOOMINGDALE'S.

$598 dress for $50 Not bad!

Big Brown Bag Sale.  I picked out a couple of dresses, but didn't really like them.  The sales lady, Lauren, was so sweet and so expert, she picked out things I would have never thought to try on.  I had never even heard of David Meister.  But I tried on this dress.  Wrong Color!  Short Skirt. Lots of Bling.  I'm just doing it to be nice to her since she is so nice.  It was fantastic on!  I didn't notice the original price, but it was marked down to $99.  I thought that was the sale price.

I hope someone has this in my size!

I tried on a halter dress she brought me in a size too small. Randy said I took his breath away in it.  Well, when my husband says that, I don't care how much it costs, find me that dress in my size!  Lauren checks.  It is no longer on line.  She says it is in one store in New York and 2 in New Jersey and they are both closed due to the time difference.  She will call me tomorrow and let me know the results of her looking.  Keep your fingers crossed!

I tell Lauren, I'm going to take the purple one regardless. She says, I know, that's such a deal on a $600 dress.  I'm like what?  She said, yes, it's David Meister. LOL  I still don't know who he is, but I love his dress!  So I ask timidly, Do I get 40% off the mark down or is that with the mark down?  She lets me know that not only do I get the 40% off, since it's on clearance I get an additional 20% on top of that.  I walk out of the store with that dress for $50.98 including sales tax!!!!  Steal of the DAY!

I will probably take the Nordstrom's dress back.  Or I may wear it for the rehearsal dinner.

Nordstrom's dress that might be going back

Siva in his new shirt.  NICE

Although he really didn't want me to, I got Siva a cute shirt at American Eagle for all his patience!  He's quite handsome in it and, ladies (around 20) he's single!

We did manage to stop by and see my mom.  It was after hours so we only visited for a few minutes.  How come everyone I've told in person that I just bought a $600 dress has asked, "For how much?"  Am I really that predictable?  LOL I think the answer is yes.  My mom, Corina, Christa and even Alex all said exactly the same thing.  I get such a rush out of getting deals!

Wedding Dress Purchased!

Started out the day going garage saling with Randy.  Very slim pickings despite the lovely weather.  Randy did manage to get a whole block of really nice quality knives for $5.  So not a total loss.

Christa and I had a Noon appointment at David's Bridal.  She was just going to get an idea of what she wanted.  We had planned to go to my girl Frances at Frances Boutique in Wilmington http://www.yelp.com/biz/frances-boutique-wilmington  after we figured out what she actually wanted.  I started out at her house and we looked at dresses on line and called the place we are thinking of using for catering www.stonefiregrill.com  We are pretty excited about the choices we have there.  Also, looking at party rental sites since Christa is adamant about having round tables instead of rectangles. And went over the rough draft guest list.

Not a favorite :-(

Didn't like it at all!

We stopped at Chic-fil-a to get Nuggets and soup since by blood sugar was so low and proceeded to our appointment.  The girl that helped us was named Veronica.  She was soooo cute. She was maybe 5 foot even.  I thought she was 14 when I first saw her.  Christa tried on about 10 dresses.  She really liked the first one, lacy and elegant and the third one, asymmetrical and satin, lace up back.  She tried on a couple of short dresses, but they just didn't look enough like a wedding.  Then she tried on the first dress in her correct size.  She liked it even more.  But not enough to buy it.  Then she had noticed one at the front of the store.  It was her size (6) and it was on SALE!  She tried it on with the veil she fell in love with earlier.  Everyone (about 35 people) turned and looked at her when she came out and drew in a collective sigh.  They continued to stare at her and smile.  She was just LOVELY.  It was her dress!  Then Veronica told her the sale price and Christa said, "SOLD!"  She is thinking about getting a lace up back put in instead of a zipper and of course, it needs to be shortened a little bit and have the bustle put in.  All that will be done by Frances.

The dress is hanging in the closet in my Mom's room so there is no peeking, LOL.

Between this one and the one below.   Except it wasn't!

When I got home, my wonderful husband had removed the old film from my window.  Unfortunately, he missed seeing a hole in the ground and twisted his ankle fairly badly.  So he spent the afternoon and evening icing.  We both have pretty bad colds too.  Which wasn't helped by my lovely daughter's perfume that aggravated my allergies, lol.  We took a nice nap for about an hour and a half after Christa went to work.

Oh yeah, I got to meet her new kitty, Madeline.  Very cute.  She loved sniffing me, but didn't want me to hold her.  She was too busy playing.

She did like the pin enough to keep it for the dress she bought.

There is also a crisis with the venue.  Neither of the couple bothered to read the contract they were signing and didn't see there there were no glass dinnerware allowed at the venue.  They don't want to use paper products and Trey currently feels that it's a deal breaker.  I tried to point out that there are plastic dinnerware that looks just like china.  We'll see.  Christa told him if he wants to find another venue, she's fine with it.  But she just can't face looking again.

We'll see what tomorrow brings.  My sisters are coming to visit Mom and I have a date with a pig.  A whole roasted-in-the-ground pig at Olivia and Josh's!