Reason #5,823 Why I love Mr. Cotton Candy

Remember this bracelet that was oh so pretty and so perfect it had me considering dropping $200 plus on an accessory? For the past couple of weeks I’ve been driving myself mad searching for a bracelet that would make me forget my first love. I became a woman obsessed, every day I would search like a mad women for THE perfect bracelet and every day I would moan to Mr. CCandy that nothing else compared to the Kate Spade and why can’t we be independently wealthy so I could buy a truck full of perfect bracelets.

Needless to say I was driving Mr. CCandy crazy so when I casually mentioned Kate Spade’s friends and family sale he tossed me his wallet and told me to buy the freaking bracelet. Surprisingly I said no, even with the discount I couldn’t justified spending almost 200 bucks on a piece of jewelry I would wear for one day.

Mr. CCandy wasn’t too happy with my decision; he was tired of hearing about the damn bracelet and gave me what he calls his David Tutera speech. He told me, and I quote, “for our wedding day as long as it is within our means I should get what I want. Yes its only for one day but it’s THE day and he would hate knowing that on our wedding I was regretting my choice of accessories because I wanted to save what equaled to a couple of dinners out. Swoon, Have I mentioned I love this man? I melted and agreed to head down to the Kate Spade store in Pasadena to see the bracelet in person.

Unfortunately for me they didn’t have the bracelet in stock but they did have several others that I had be eying up on-line, one in particular caught Mr. CC eye and he proclaimed to me and the sales associate that it was the one and bought it on the spot!

Here she is in all her sparkly bauble glory-

And with the Rest of my accessories-

It’s completely different from the original bracelet but I love it even more and it looks perfect with the rest of my accessories. I also love that Mr. CC feel in love with it too and the price was about 80 bucks cheaper than the pearl bracelet so win all around.

Has your fiancé surprised you during your engagement? Has anyone else’s fiancé involved in selecting your accessories?

The Bridal Cherry on Top Part 2

Thank you Hive for all your wonderful comments and opinions on this post! After going back and forth between my top two favorite veils and polling every person who listens to my rambling on about veils I finally bit the bullet and ordered this beauty!

Photo via weddingchicks.com Veil by Tessa Kim

Oh she’s lovely and she’ll be heading my way in just a few short weeks. While I wait for my new piece of bridal flair to reach our home I’ve been busy at work putting the final touches on my equally as lovely hair comb.

When I purchased my dress a couple weeks ago I knew that I wanted a hair piece that would complement the crystal applique on the bodice of the dress. Something kind of like this was high on my list of possible combs.

Image via Etsy Designed by Twigs & Honey

Since I refused to pay over 200 bucks for an accessory I would only wear once I decided to get creative and recreate the look on my own. After some brain storming I came up with a pretty simple process and headed down to Michael Levine in Downtown were I picked theses pretties for 11 bucks each.

I later picked up some gold tulle, fusible interfacing, nylon thread and silver hair comb at Joann’s. After about 2 nights of stitching, cutting and gluing I had my very own sparkly hair comb all for about 30 bucks!

The process was pretty simple I started by played around with the appliques until I came up with an arrangement that I liked and then using my clear nylon thread to stitch both pieces together to create one large applique.

I then took my tulle with the interfacing already fused on and stitched the applique on with my clear thread.

Once applied to the comb the tulle and light weight fusing added just enough support to the applique to help it hold its shape. I read a tutorial online that instructed you to apply decoupage glue directly onto the applique to make it ridged but I really wanted the back of my comb to look neat and I didn’t want to risk ruining my appliques with glue.

Once completely stitched I trimmed the excess tulle from the applique and using some E-6000 glue I attached it directly onto the comb. Since I’m paranoid, I reinforced the glue by stitching the comb onto the applique with some embroidery floss making sure to only go as far as the tulle and not catch the actual applique

And that’s it! Easy peasy hair comb that looks like it cost twice the price of your supplies!

Anyone else making their own hair accessories?

A Brides Prerogative

It’s a bride’s prerogative to change her mind and boy have I ever changed my mind. Remember this post were I discussed the details of my one of a kind custom dress? Well forget everything I said in that post because I bought a dress!

Its all Mami CCandy fault, a couple of weeks ago we were heading to Joannes to pick up some fabric for our ceremony pillows when she causally mentioned that she wanted to pop in Davids Bridal to see what they had to offer in terms of Mother of the Bride dresses. It took her oh about 5 minutes to dismiss every MOB dress in the place and start wondering over to the big froofy wedding dresses.

I’m not going to lie to you Hive I did absolutely nothing to move her away from them. Considering my horrible first dress shopping experience you think I would have rushed us out of the store but the dress were oh so pretty and the selection in my size was so large and tempting that I started to get the dress shopping itch. I resisted though, and we almost made it out of the store until I saw it. THE DRESS, it made my heart skip when I saw it and better yet they had it in my size so I could try it on!

We quickly scooped the dress up hunted down a sales associate for help, threw in a couple more dresses in the pile for comparison and headed to the dressing room. My lovely sales associate April was savvy enough to save the show stopping dress for last and the moment I tried it on I knew it was meant to be mine. It was perfect, I loved it, Mami CCandy with giving the the “Aye Mija” head shake that told me she loved and the fit was impeccable so we bought it on the spot.

Since we had no plans of dress shopping that day I don’t have any pictures of me in the dress but I was able to pull this one up via Davids Bridal’s website the only difference is that mine will be in ivory.

Oleg Cassine style 8CWG322 Via davidsbridal.com

If the dress looks familiar that’s because it is. It’s the same dress that the oh so fabulous Miss Crepe will be sporting on her wedding day. Like Miss Crepe I’ll also be adding my own personal style by modifying the bodice to add some more coverage in the form of a tulle strape possibly something like this.

Photo Via Univision

I'm meeting with my seamstress this weekend to discuss possible options and I'm hoping she'll say the tulle straps are an easy addition, cross your fingures for me!

So what do you ladies think, good choice? Did anyone else flip flop on their decision to have a custom dress made?

Chair Addict

Hive I have a confession to make. I’m an addicted whos hopelessly hooked on chairs. It’s a horrible addiction that eats up precious square footage and on a monthly base cost me money in the form of storage fees. Currently our tiny little home is filled with over 12 chairs with 3 alone taking up space in our bedroom but oh how I love all my chairs regardless of the space they eat up. I was looking for a way to incorporate this love of mine into our wedding day when I stumbled upon this picture-

Image Via Greenweddingshoes.com
Photo By Walter Pieringer.

Mini Eames chairs as cake toper and not just any chairs but the Eames lounge chair of my dream the one that I have made Mr. CC promise me we will own once we buy a home and become real adults! Loved it, wanted it, and had to have it! That is until I showed the pic to Mr. CC and he flat out said no, in his exact words he refused to have his likeness compared to something the size of a chair. Aye, men and their random moments of vanity.

Since Mr CC vetoed my chair cake topper I’ve been on the hunt for a way to bring a little chair love to our wedding. What do you guys think of vintage chair thank you cards?

Image Via Etsy designed by Storybymia

I can wear my love around my neck and sport one of these Modern Eames Necklaces.

Image via Etsy Designed by Tiderdesign

I can follow in Mrs. Taffy’s footsteps and slap these oh so lust worthy Eames Stamps on our invites. Since the stamps were limited edition and are no longer in production this might set us back a pretty penny but i still love them.

Image Via ATI Stamps

Or should I keep it classic and add some flair to our chairs?

Image Via weddingchicks.com Photo by Sara & Rocky Photography Signs created by the bride

At the beginning of our engagement I had this grand idea of finding and reupholstering mismatched vintage dining chairs for us to sit in but as time ticks by I think I’ll have to abandon that plan in favor of one of the ideas above.

Has your groom had a random moment of vanity during your wedding planning? How are you incorporating your loves into your wedding?

Inappropriate First Dance Song?

Mr CCandy and I don’t have a “song”. If pressed we’d probably say Why Can’t We Be Friends by War but more for comedy reasons than sentimental. Couple our lack of song with our taste in music that tends to favor rock and we have a potential case of inappropriate first dance songs.

The first song we considered for our first dance was You Really Got a Hold of Me by She & Him (also considered by the lovely Mrs Ribbons). It’s truly a beautiful song and the length is perfect for a first dance but I’m not sure the lyrics “I don’t like you but I love you” and “Oh ho ho you treat me badly” are the message we want to send during our dance.

Up next is The New by Interpol. Besides being one of our all-time favorite bands I love the lyrics but the song is super long and the instrumental that starts around the 3 min mark can get a little intense.

And finally we have Summertime by My Chemical Romance. This song makes me happy. I love the us against the world vibe it has but I’m a little concerned about the speed of the music and I’m not sure I want to go so Emo for our first dance.

My heart is leaning towards the She & Him song but I’m torn between the not so wedding friendly lyrics and my love of the music. What do you think we should do? She would say eff it and go with the song we love even though the lyrics aren’t appropriate or should we keep looking?

Why Weddings?

It happens to most Brides at some point in their engagement they will be questioned by well intentioned (or not depending on their motives) friends and family regarding the importance and prudence behind having a large and or “expensive wedding”. On the occasion that Mr CCandy and I cross paths with one of these well intentioned people we usually mumble something about our traditional families and quickly change the subject but sometimes friends I really want to let them have.

I want to tell them about all the hurdles we’ve overcome to be the couple we are now and why it’s important to celebrate our commitment with our nearest and dearest. I want to ask them about this so called house they claim we can purchase in lieu of a wedding and were in the hell they think we can find a house in LA for 15k down. Tell them about how much we value the institution of marriage and believe that it’s a precious right that unfortunately is not available to everyone and thus it needs to be celebrated in the hopes that it one day will. And if all that still doesn’t satisfy their curiosity and if I’m feeling particularly emotional I may even take it one step further and tell them about Mami CCandy. Share with them her health struggles and her illness and let them know that even though her health may be stable now I want to give her one day were we don’t have to worry about lung function or trial medication were we can just bask in the glow of family love.

A wedding to us is not just about a fancy party with fancy dresses and pretty pictures, it’s about the moments and memories we’ll create. Yes it’s expensive, more expensive than any other party we’ll plan in our lives, but at the end of the day our wedding day will cost less than 1/5 of our combined annual salary and less than the cost of a used economy car. In the course of our life time we will earn and spend that sum many times over. We’ll buy cars and homes, lots of lattes and fancy dinners but no purchase and no experience will be as memorable as our wedding day.

To those people who like to tell brides that it’s just one day I’d like to respectfully disagree. Our wedding is not just about the one day in June but about the 10 years we’ve spent together as a couple. It’s about the year and a half we’ve spent planning and all the memories created in that time. Some of my favorite moments from our wedding have already come and gone. I will always remember our closest friends excitement over being asked to be in our wedding party, the time spent side by side with Mr. CCandy crafting details for our wedding, afternoons spent with our moms talking wedding and weekends spent shopping for wedding supplies with friends.

I understand that in our economy it’s a privilege to have the expendable income that affords us the luxury to have a wedding celebration regardless of the size and budget. Mr CCandy and I have chosen to spend the expendable income that we do have on our wedding and all we ask is that you respect our decision.

This is what I would tell those well intentioned questioners if I was bold enough to say it their face but since I’m not I’ll continue to just mumble about tradition to those that ask. If really pressed I may even tell them a little bit of the truth and share how excited I am to treat our guest to one hell of a party full of love, laughter and free flowing cocktails and tacos!

Hive how do you handle the criticism surrounding weddings?