Saturday, May 14, 2005

starting to come together

At least, I hope they are! Time is slipping away on us and now we're at less than three months!

As Michael chronicled below, we've had a heck of a time finding a photographer to meet our modest needs. I've emailed my brother today to see if he will be able to take some pictures; Michael's stepdad will take some too and hopefully we can rook in a couple of other friends. I understand that we do not represent "big business" in the wedding industry, but it is kind of depressing when people disappear or won't even lower themselves to answer your initial enquiries! Oh well...we didn't want to go that route anyway and now we're spared from feeling we "have" to.

I've been dress shopping a lot lately, though I still haven't found anything right. On my second expedition, I found a really beautiful dress at Dillard's department store. Very Old Hollywood Glamour. Ivory satin, with a cowl neckline and a skirt that draped down to flare slightly at the hem. Backless, with gathering at the base of the spine. The only problem? The cowl was, well...a little bit too cowl-y. After numerous wardrobe malfunctions in the five minutes I had it on in the dressing room, I had to admit that a dress that so easily slipped off my shoulders to expose me from shoulder to waist à la Tara Reid was not a good wedding day choice.

Yesterday, I tried on a dress at a Susan Rose, created by a local designer. Again, it was beautiful, but.... it was a nude-colour fabric, with blue beading details, fitted to about halfway down the thigh and then with a deep ruffle hem that was shorter in front than in back (slightly lower than mid-shin in front, and draping to a small train in the back). Kind of a 1920s flavour. However....seen from a distance, I looked naked with a uterus drawn on my belly in blue beads! A situation only exacerbated by the blue rosette design on the back, below the base of the spine. Plus it was eight hundred dollars.

Sigh.

However, I did try on a dress afterwards in Caché that I really liked. Imagine, a slim, sheath-type dress actually cut so that it hides any bulges in your stomach and thights, instead of emphasizing them! Without lining! I don't want to describe it too much because I might end up getting it, and I'm not sure if I want Michael to know about my dress beforehand or not. I will say it's very elegant, a little different, and a bright colour.

This week, we'll be working more on our invitations and the ceremony. I want to get our invitations sent out in the next week or so. My mom is coming to visit in early June--I suppose we will talk a lot about party menu, decorations, and such then. Plus, hopefully we'll be putting more things in our registry soon.

Wednesday, May 11, 2005

No photographer

Well, we have stopped looking for a photographer after a few months of on again and off again searching. We had first corresponded briefly with a photography student at NAIT but we gave up after they seemed to disappear from the face of the earth by not returning our emails. So Keith gave me a name of a photographer who had done his sister-in-law's wedding. However, the individual had decided to not do weddings. But he gave me a contact at Studio9 Photographics. Unfortunately, theirlowest priced package was still too expensive for our needs. Next I emailed administration at the University of Alberta's Department of Art & Design and Grant MacEwan College's Visual Communications Design Program. The U of A quickly got back to me with a contact at Living Images Art and Photography. But they have a wedding scheduled the same day and were not available. So we did our best but, I think, it came down to the fact that most professional photographers want to do big weddings. We didn't want dozens of candid photos and tons of official portraits and having to buyan expensive leather bound album. We refuse to be sucked into the wedding industry trap of paying gobs of money for stuff because it's what's expected. So we'll go with plan B and have friends and relatives take photos. We're both comfortable with that. More news later....