I love saying that….faux fur.  Anyway, since my wedding is in November, its going to be freaking cold here in NYC.  And I am having some pictures taken outside (unless it rains).  So I have been searching high and low for a faux fur stole to wear.  Personally, I would prefer a fur coat, but then it won’t look “bridal.”

Unfortunately, I am too poor to buy real fur () so shopping at places like Sak’s or Bloomingdale’s is out of the question.  My next venue of choice?  The Internet, of course!

The one thing that I found was that faux fur stoles or capelets are sold quite frequently on Ebay.  Now, I don’t have anything against Ebay, but I am very wary of buying clothes, especially bridal clothes from Ebay.  But they do have some nice ones for a great bargain.

(all images from Ebay)

    
Just type in Faux Fur Stole into the search line and you’ll get a ton of choices.

But like I said, I have a thing about buying clothes from Ebay.  So I found this other site yesterday, and I actually talked to one of the people who work there. 

(images from Silk and Sable)
Faux Mink Capelet
$58.00
Available in 5 sizes and 5 colors.

This company is located in California and offers a full 100% refund if you don’t like it.  The gentleman that I spoke with did not know if I should order a size XS or S, but asked me to call back today to speak with another lady who would be able to tell me.  I love retailers who don’t force you to buy things right away.  He really seemed sincere and did not want to give me a wrong answer.

I will be purchasing this later today.  Yay!  Another thing checked off my to-do list!

Also later today, I am picking up my wedding dress and getting my first fitting!  Stay tuned for posts!

My credit card is getting a work out!  I decided to take care of a whole bunch of little things for the wedding today.  By this, I mean, I went online and bought a few things. 

Tie-On Bells

(image from The Knot)
3/4″ tall in silver – for the menus
$4.45 for box of 24 sets.

Ring Pillow

(image from The Knot)
The Knot Simply Satin Ring Pillow
Comes in ivory or white, 8″ square, the ribbon can be customized.  Also comes with faux rings in gold and platinum, and a ring bearer duties card.
$34.95

Signature Frame

(image from Lisa’s Elegant Things)
Black 16×20 frame with a 5×7 cutout of the photo, with personlized silver plaque.
$99.99

DIY Projects (all images from Kate’s Paperie)

Faux Raffia Ribbon – for tying the mini wedding bells
60 foot roll in Pearl Ivory
$8.00

Kate’s Grosgrain 0.25″ Ribbon – for petal cones
11 yard spool in Orange #8
$3.95

Rossler Text Weight Sheet – for petal cones
8.5″ x 11″ in Ivory
$0.40 each

As promised, here is what we put on the back of the menus!  Sorry about blurring out the baby faces – that is something we are only sharing with the people at the wedding.  Its embarrasing enough as it is. 

Also, on the bottom, where it says “Just Married,” I am going to punch tiny holes and tie a miniature wedding bell through it with a ribbon.  What do you think?

A few blogs ago, I mentioned that I wanted to lose another 10 pounds or so.  To be completely honest, for the past two weeks, because of my crazy work schedule, school and wedding planning, I have not been able to get my ass up to the gym.  The gym is IN my building, and I can’t make it there.  How pathetic of me.

Anyway, with my schedule only getting busier, I know that I will not be as good about going to the gym as I would like.  So what’s my solution?  I’m going back to my trainer!  Because of Julian (my trainer), I am now able to fit into pants that I haven’t worn in a year!

I actually emailed Julian my blog so that he could see my progress.  I haven’t seen him in over 5 weeks.  He was really impressed and he was so excited for me!  Now, its crunch time, so he opened up his schedule so that I could have 11 more sessions.  This time, I will be working out solo with him, at my home gym, three times a week (plus one day of 45 minutes cardio alone).  I know I will be extremely busy, but I also know that he will keep me on track. 

I will be posting my total inches lost when this is all over so keep your eyes open!

As the wedding gets closer and closer, I find myself obsessing over little things that really do not matter.  Example – I am now trying to find the “perfect” guest book for younger and older guests. 

At first, I wanted one of these:

    
(image from Adesso Albums)

It retails for $59.95 for just the book.  You have to buy your own Polaroid Camera and film.  I absolutely love this idea, but there are a few downsides.  First, its going to take some effort to make sure that most of your guests take their picture, sign on the appropriate page, etc.  Second, it takes too long for everyone to do this.  Finally, the album only comes with 30 pages.  It is supposed to be enough to accomodate 75 guests, but they recommend that people take group pictures.  Or, you can buy multiple books and put them into a slip case.

After thinking it over, I decided that I don’t really want the hassel of a Polaroid guest book.  However, I’ve always like the framed signature mat as well.

(image from Lisa’s Elegant Things)

Their website suggests the following sizes for your guest count.

11×14 frame:  Up to 25 signatures/50 guests
16×20 frame: Up to 75 signatures/150 guests
20×24 frame:  Up to 150 signatures/300 guests

A 16×20 frame with a 8×10 photo in the center will accomodate up to 100 guests, which is approximately the size of my wedding!  So I think I will bet getting this instead.  Now all I have to do is buy some nice black markers!

As I hinted in my previous blog, Mr. Butterfly and I have been researching hotels for several weeks now.  We first wanted to have our hotel close to our OOT guests’ hotels, just in case something happened.  But it turns out that we only booked 3 rooms total because everyone is staying with relatives, friends, and cheaper hotels.  So this freed us up to choose a hotel anywhere in Manhattan.  Well, anywhere within reasonable distance from the venue.

Anyway, I know I haven’t ranked my vendors in awhile, so I thought I would rank some of the hotels that we checked out.

Affinia Dumont

Pros:  The people who took our reservations were perfectly nice and polite.  It is a very clean hotel with all of the amenities of a luxury hotel.  Priced very reasonably compared to other hotels around the city. 

Cons:  This hotel is not creme-de-la-creme by any means (its not the Ritz). 

Overall Rating:  B+

W New York – Times Square

Pros:  The customer service people are SO nice.  If you are an American Express Platinum member, you can take advantage of their guaranteed noon check in and guaranteed 4pm check out times.  This comes in handy since on your wedding day, you will want to check in early to get ready and leave late the next day. 

Cons:  The suites are a bit smaller than your average one bedroom apartment (~520 square feet).  Located in Times Square, which may or may not be a good thing depending on your plans for the day.

Overall Rating:  A

Trump International Hotel & Tower

Pros:  Overlooks Central Park.  Has great amenities such as overnight laundry, 24 room service by Jean-Georges, babysitting services, etc.  Definitely luxurious.  AmEx holders get $100 spa credit and free breakfast.

Cons:  Will not guarantee any early check in no matter what VIP program.  You could try to check in early at noon, but end up waiting until 4pm for a room.  Not great at all if you are trying to schedule your wedding day because nothing is gauranteed.  Reservation manager was polite but completely inflexible (i.e. they could not care less that its your wedding day). 

Overall Rating:  B/B- (I’m probably being a bit harsh, but I can’t stand vendors who refuse to negotiate).

We ended up booking the W hotel.  Why?  Because even though it is in the middle of Times Square, I would rather pick a vendor who is accomodating.  I honestly feel that the reason I’ve had such a smooth planning process is because I absolutely refused to deal with vendors who did not have great customer service.  There have been several times when vendors were hard to get in touch with, forgetful and just plain mean.  No matter how great their service may have been, I did not feel that they cared about my wedding and in the end, all I want is for them to care and be considerate.  If not, I say chuck them and get someone new!! (I’m so mean~)

I think with all of the things going on with the wedding, Mr. Butterfly and I have gotten dumber.  We apparently take days to come up with such a simple solution to all of our problems!

Example 1
For his parents friends who are not coming to the wedding, but needs an invitation anyway, we decided to give out just the invitation mounted on a backing layer.  I had only 4 backing layers left, so we mounted them and put them aside for later.  Then I realized we needed to send out 4 more invitations for our B-List guests.  I went to Kate’s Paperie, but alas, they did not have any more backing layers left.  I decided to just mount the invitation layer onto the actual pocketfold without a backing layer.  I also bought extra backing layers in a different color, which did not match the pocketfolds for more extra “courtesy” invitations.

Mr. Butterfly and I were discussing how this new invitation would look and whether or not it was the best solution.  It took us two days, but we finally realized that we could use the original courtesy invitations to send out to our B-List guests, and then use the different color backing layers for the courtesy invites.  Duh~.  I can’t believe it took us two days to figure out something so simple.

Example 2
We have been looking at hotels for the night before and the night of the wedding.  I really wanted Mr. Butterfly and all the men to change in a different room than mine, so we agreed to get 2 separate rooms.  A suite for Friday and Saturday night for me, and a regular room for Saturday for the men.  After looking at over 6 different mediocre hotels, we finally realized that Mr. Butterfly could take advantage of his AmEx Platinum card membership.  With the membership, we get a late checkout, a guaranteed noon checkin, and a free upgrade if available.

After several weeks of trying to sort this out, we now have a regular room for me on Friday night, a suite for me to switch to on Saturday, while the boys stay in the regular room to change.   Again, duh~.  I can’t believe it took us this long.

Seriously, I think wedding planning is turning my brain into mush.  If this keeps up, I won’t be able to repeat my vows back to the officiant on my wedding day!!

When I got engaged, one of the first things I panicked about was my weight.  I’ve always been very skinny, but in the last few years (i.e. after college), I gained a looooot of weight.  I’m talking 25+ pounds. 

As you readers may know, I signed up with a trainer from the Buff Brides program.  Julian (my trainer) worked my butt all the way until the last session.  It was not easy.  I was sore, I complained, I flat-out refused to do certain exercises, and I even walked out on him out of frustration.  But through it all, he guided me and I can proudly say now that I feel really good about the way I look now.  I lost body fat, I toned up a lot, I gained muscle and energy, and I lost many, many inches.

Of course, I don’t look like I did in college (oh, the good old glory days!!) but I look much better than I did before.

Here is a picture of me from this May (about 6 weeks after I started my training sessions):

This is me this past weekend.

Hopefully, with my continued working out (about twice a week) with eating right (which I have been for the past 6 months), and acupuncture I will be able to lose even more weight.  My new goal?  10 more pounds before the wedding date!

I don’t remember if I’ve mentioned this before, but I hurt my left foot a while back.  Even though its a lot better now, my friend (who is an acupuncturist) said I should give it a try.  Last night, I went to my very first acupuncture session.  It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.  I was a bit nervous about all these needles sticking out of me, but honestly, after the initial prick, you can’t feel them at all!

So my friend and I were talking as she was poking me with needles, and I just happened to ask if you can lose weight via acupuncture.  She said that she has had clients who are currently using this method and that it is successful!  Of course, you still have to eat healthy and exercise (as with any other weight-loss program), but acupuncture will give you more energy, speed up your metabolism and tone up your abdominal muscles.

I have now signed up for 4 more treatments of acupuncture for my foot, knee and weight loss.  Also, a few needles will be used for stress.  She also gave me a ground up seed for my sleeping problem.  I woke up this morning feeling completely refreshed in a long time! 

I will definitely be posting in the future about the results, so stay tuned!

I just scheduled my facial for October 14.  Yay! 

For my birthday this year, my girls got me a $300 gift certificate to Bliss Spa.  I’ve been saving it until now because I really wanted to get a high quality facial right before the wedding.  They recommend that you get your facials done at least two weeks before the wedding date, but I’m getting mine done way before then – just in case I have a bad reaction.

Bliss has a great customer service sector.  The employees not only take appointments for all NYC locations, but also recommends certain treatments based on your skin type and what you want to accomplish.  My person recommended that I get the Steep Facial.

steep clean™

The ultimate in deep-cleansing, Steep Clean combines microdermabrasion with an oxygen wrap, 30-45 minutes of deep pore purging, massage, an arnica based calming mask, and a targeted Task Mask to keep breakouts at bay. Recommended twice yearly, or more often for ‘problem’ skin types. The faint of pore need not apply. 105 min

$280

I’m uber excited now.  I love facials!!  But in case the steep clean is not recommended for my skin type, I will be getting the Fully-Loaded Facial.

fully loaded facial™

Goes from The neck up… and Then totally over The top! This luxury facial includes deep cleansing, a fruit acid wash, an oxygen wrap, extractions, activating massage with essential oil balm, and age-fighting collagen ampoule, skin-type specific seaweed mask, head, neck, shoulder, arm, and foot massage, a hydrating Hair Dew treatment, and to finish, an O2 blast. 100 min

$195

Oh, October 14th.  Why are you so far away~~?