Change Is a'Comin

...and not just because I've recently decided to look for a different pair of wedding shoes (yes, it's true. Badgley just isn't as comfortable as I thought). Stay tuned for an official announcement tomorrow regarding something much more exciting than my shoes!!

I will be blogging during The Bachelor so I thought I'd put my prediction out now:

Winner: Emily
Runner-up: Chantel

I know, I know. There are only 3 girls left so this isn't much of a bold statement but this season has been hard to predict! Those guys at ABC have good editing skillz.

Wedding update: we have received two amazingly cute Save The Dates in the past couple of weeks that are now decorating our fridge. I love seeing everyone's different styles and am really getting excited for wedding season of 2011! Shout-out to my fellow bride-friends: Ashley, Kari, Lindsey, Melissa, and Katie!

The Goods Have Been Delivered

I know that you were all holding you breath as to whether or not the Man in Brown came through and he did!  UPS delivered two packages filled with three lovely items yesterday!!  I haven't tried the dress on yet because I want to wait for a more sanitized environment (dog hair... know what I'm sayin'?) so for now I just tuck it in at night, check on it in the morning and again when I get home from work.  Want to see a picture?!

See below...

That's it - on the bottom!!  Shoes are on top!!
What, you really thought I was going to show you a picture of the dress?
I haven't decided if the shoes will be worn on The Big Day but regardless, they're beautiful and I'm keeping them.  Due to popular demand, I'm actually including a photo:

Color is nude with gold embroidery.  Badgley Mischka.  I love them.   
Almost as much as I love our wedding gift from MOB and FOB...

A KITCHENAID MIXER!!!!!

And we haven't even registered yet!!!  I cannot find the words to express how excited I am about this beautiful appliance.  We're registering next weekend, yes, on Superbowl Sunday, so we'll have to decide what fun attachments we would like to go with it.  Oh, the possibilities...

In other fun exciting news, FOB just got a HUGE promotion at work!  Congratulations, Dad!!  Or should I say DIRGC ;)

All in all, it's been an incredibly exciting 24 hours in Lafayette, CO.  I'm going to meet with a seamstress on Saturday to try on the dress in a clean place get a quote on alterations.  Everyone should have received their Save The Date's by now - hope you appreciated the hole punches! 

Until next time... and here's to hoping we have exciting house news soon...

Scheduled Delivery: Wednesday, 01/26/2011, By End of Day

OMG.

The dress.

My dress.

Supposed to arrive "by March 16th."

The shoes.  Oh, the shoes.

Ordered late last week.

By sheer coincidence, UPS tracking is telling me that both items will arrive on Wednesday.

OMG.

Both being delivered to the Groom's office.

Please, please bring them home.

Open Letter to Mr. Choo

Dear Jimmy Choo,

I saw you in the store today.

You didn't notice me.

So I went up to you to say Hi.

Why did you have to scare me with those three numbers: 9-5-0?

Sincerely,
Natalie

E-Picturessss

I know that you've all been holding your breath about how our engagement pictures turned out so I'm here to finally tell you that you can breathe again!  Whew!  We got to view all of our pictures online and I'm now sitting here anxiously awaiting the doorbell so that I can grab the DVD out of the UPS guy's hands.  I was very nervous about how they were going to turn out mostly because I was nervous about our choice in photographers.  As you all know, I look at a lot of bridal blogs.  Like, A LOT of blogs.  So I'm looking at these gorgeous photos all day and when it came down to choosing a photographer for our wedding, I just couldn't make myself spend $10,000.  Yes, that's ten thousand dollars and yes, that's an actual quote I received.  We went with someone a little newer to the biz and I am now confident that I made the right decision.

Goal for the week: as soon as I get the DVD of photos, I am going to figure out how to customize this blog so that one of our photos is displayed.  Anybody know how to do that?  I figure I can find a custom template of some sort...

The save-the-dates are the next big project and I'm slowly but surely figuring them out.  I have all of the paper and most of the wording but I need to put together a sample.  That way, when I have all my girlfriends over, they can help me put them together.  Raise your hand if you're excited!

Life is good... two more weeks until my week of vacation/save-the-date extravaganza (that's the goal at least).  What are YOU doing for the holidays?  And can I just say that I'm s.h.o.c.k.e.d that not a single one of you fashionistas commented on my shoe post? Um, hello, I said SHOES!

XOXO

Let's Get Some Shoes

Ah the search for bridal shoes... sounds easy to some (just pick a pair already!), difficult to others (I can't decided between shades of white) and exciting to... well, me.  I may be a slightly a-typical bride but the search for a comfortable, brightly colored pair of heels sounds like just the task I'm up for.  When originally thinking about shoes, I didn't connect the dots on the fact that I'll have to wear this pair for 7-8 hours while walking, dancing, standing.  Makes that extra padding worth the extra $$.

Sarah to the rescue!!

My dear friend, Sarah, decided to do some research for me and sent me a few options... however, she didn't include the link so I'm unable to include the pictures in the blog :(

In the research I came up with, apparently there is a reason that Stuart Weitzman, Jimmy Choo and Christian Louboutin charge so much ... they're ... comfortable.  Hard to imagine, I know.  But another little trick that Sarah and I learned at the Bridal Boutique is that Ballroom Dancing Shoe manufacturers are now branching into bridal shoes because they're extra padded and non-slip (they make the shoes with suede on the bottom.  revolutionary).

Comfortable and attractive.  Not my style, however.  I need something more like these (below):

 Or these:

 or these (!!):

I haven't started my search yet but you better believe that I'll keep you posted!  Ideas, comments, suggestions welcome...