Girls in White Dresses...

...but no pink satin sashes.  I don't do pink.

Very soon, this precious little one:

Will be wearing this precious dress:

And this adorable, fun, "big kid":

Will be wearing this special dress:

(minus the removable tattoo on her arm)

And for a better picture of little miss, you MUST check out her new favorite dress-up activity:

How fantastically cute!!!

Love my nieces! Can't wait to see them all dolled up for the wedding!

Steppin' Out Saturday 5.28.11

Awesome Hair Edition!

I raved about my hair stylist before, but yesterday he blew it out of the park.

He used some new magic wand to curl mah hairs, and the results are beyond beautiful.

I envy curly hair.  For a day, David made my dreams come true!
(sidenote: today my hair is still curly after sleeping on it, but now more relaxed and continued awesomeness)

 So fun & fresh.  Great for a late spring/early summer rooftop party (which we went to that evening!)

Everyone complemented my hairs.  

I should have brought more than 1 of David's business cards.

I'm thinking our "day after" (more like week after) wedding shots will need to feature these curly locks!

I love how my highlights really pop.

Fabulous.

Wedding Countdown: 21 days!

Growing up/old

As the 24th of this month passed, I gained heightened awareness that my birthday is in the not-so-far-off future. Let's be real, here. It's only 4 months away. That's a third of the year away. No, I'm not going to start celebrating now and demand that we all celebrate the entire month of September, August, and sure why not July and June too, in honor of my birth.  The whole 'let's celebrate the whole week long' thing was so high school, I admit it.  I'm fine with only celebrating the day-of this event.
Because, while this birthday is monumental, it's also one I don't embrace.

I'll turn the big three-oh.
30.
(cue the dramatics)

With the wedding occupying much (ok, almost all) of my thoughts I nearly forgot to get excited/worried/begin freaking out.


Part of me feels anciently old (redundant, yes).
And if I'm being completely honest (and why the hell not) I see so many women who wed younger and started their families already.  I wonder if my timelines is off.  I worry about conceiving children.  I heard a women's eggs start dying around age thirty.  I'm paranoid about being old.  I want to be able to chase my kids around and be active, not old and lazy.

Part of me feels youthfully young.
I have so much time ahead.  I am getting married now after being able to travel with my fiance, live a fun life of going-out and staying up late, and continue this trend for as long as we like.  There are no limitations, aside from my own, and there's no reason to change.
 
The other part of me feels too worried about my upcoming nuptials to let anything else bother me.

So that's that.
Turning 30, worried about getting old, worried about growing up.
But honestly? I'm a little happy to be tying the knot before 30.
Check it off the list.

 {image source}

More Venue Stalking!

While the internet allows my fair share of venue stalking, a few weeks ago we experienced some first hand, quality venue stalking. No, we didn't crash anyone else's wedding... per-say.  However, our catering point of contact allowed us to swing by before a wedding at our venue!  Whats even better - it was a Jewish wedding so their chuppah was set up and ready to go!

 So pretty, right?  I honestly have no idea what our chuppah will look like, aside from four posts with fabric.

There will be flowers somewhere.  and people.

and Mike and I.  so that's good.

I love the light in this space!

The ballroom was set up with eleven 5.5' tables.  We will probably have around  eleven or twelve 6' tables.

This bride wanted  a french vintage theme.  The tablecloths were gold with silver patterns.  There were white, gold, and ivory accents everywhere.  So lovely!

 This space will be tight with twelve tables and chairs.  And to think, we were originally hoping for 17 tables!

Of course, we will have bar. This shows the Board Room, and Mike talking with his hands.

In just 3.5 weeks we will set up for our wedding there!!

Request for Guest Bloggers!

As we countdown to our wedding and time slowly slips away from me, it dawned on me -- I need posts during our wedding craziness and honeymoon!

So, dear readers and bloggy friends, if you are available to moonlight here at Crowning Victoria from June 17-30, please email me:

CrowndVic (at) gmail.com

I would love to host your wedding/honeymoon/love/fashion/food related posts!

Hit me up!
Happy Weekend!!!

{that's mah photo.  don't steal it. mmmkay?}

Welcome Bags!

I find welcome bags a nice touch upon hotel arrival.  You get to your event city, check in at the hotel, and a fun little bag of goodies awaits you! 

I'm on the search for a white whale. 
I want deep purple (no lilac or lavender crap), medium sized (8x4x10), glossy coated, with stand up handles, bags.  And I need about plus-or-minus thirty count at around a dollar a pop.
Nothing specific or anything...

My illusive search led me to many dead ends.
Until I found that photo above! Genius!  I thought my search was over, until pressing "order" & learning all but one of those bags were out of stock. When I called the company I then found out they were back-ordered two weeks, with an additional 2 week's shipping time.  If you're smart like me, you realize that's exactly 4 weeks and pushing it way to close to the wedding. 
So back to square one.

Then it happened when I least expected it.
I found a bag.  A new bag. A beautiful bag.
The perfect bag.
And you can't see it yet.
But the level of perfection is out of this world.



Beyond that, I'm focused on their contents.
Obviously we need a welcome letter with itinerary, a city map, a metro (subway) map, and some goodies.  Mike and I plan on hitting up Costco soon to purchase water bottles, prepackaged cookies, and individual baggies of chips.

Sooo... suggestions?  What would be fun to see in welcome bags?
What have you received or what did you put in hotel welcome bags?


{image one}
{image two}

One Month Update

Holy Calendar, Batman.
One month?!?!  Hold the presses, stop the clocks, and let's just press the pause button for awhile, mmmkay?  I've been told this last month will fly.  I'd prefer to crawl at a snail's pace.

I/We accomplished a lot this past month:
-Bachelorette parties in DC & AC fully celebrated my single status and prepared me for marriage (I think)!
-I perfected my appearance with high-lights, a spray tan (yes really), and my hair & makeup trial!
-We celebrated our 7 year anniversary (holy guacamole).
-I conquered my dreams (literally).
-We managed to get almost all our RSVP's mailed in, but not without good effort.
-Our photographer, planner, venue point of contact, and caterer point of contact all met at the venue to discuss stuffs and things.
-Meanwhile Mike and I ordered the kipot, our ketuba (it's so purdy), & had our final meeting with the Rabbi.
-We took a sneak-peak of our venue set up for someone else's wedding.  It got me all a-flutter.

To do in 30 days or less:

-buy wedding ring (yes still, Ebay here I come!)

-buy garter

-dress for synagogue

-cake topper?

-decide on cake style

-buy under dress lingerie

-order benchers (after-meals grace)

-write vows

-order welcome bags -buy contents of welcome bags -get maps of metro/dc for welcome bags And if it doesn't get done? No one will know the difference...

To wrap things up, I share with you my favorite song of the moment, Lady Gaga's latest single The Edge of Glory.  While, sure, this song is about getting together with some guy, to me it speaks of "hanging [by] a moment" and being on the edge of something truly awesometastic.  Plusalso? It has a crazy awesome sax solo that reminds me of the Full-House theme song.  Keepin' it real...

ONE MONTH! AHHH!!

{image source}

Bachelorette Party, AC!

Round 2 of bachelorette party fun ensued this past weekend in Atlantic City. (Don't forget to check out the DC shenanigans, too!)

Pictured above: one of my highschool besties, Veronica, along with my bridesmaids Meagan and Kathryn, all piled in the car.

Bridesmaid Diana drove while I navigated (excuse my quadruple chin.  Self photos are hard!)

Finally, we ended up here!

and stayed here!

We did some of this (and took Trump's stinkin' money),

and some of this.

And lastly some of this.

I had a the TIME of my life.  So many new memories & one-liners were created.  To keep things clean, I'll leave it at this:

WOO-HOO!!!!!!!!

Thanks to my lovely ladies for a fabulous time!

Reunion next year?!

(ask me how you can save 10%)

Call me Snooki

Along the lines of my last post, I launched into a new beauty endeavor: spray tanning.  I strongly dislike the idea of tanning beds. They remind me of cancer and ring worms.  I know people who bake and love it, and I'm all high-five-good-for-you.  But for me?  I'd rather spray it on me with chemicals. (Since, Hello, I obviously don't have time to lay out in the DC sun).

Sidenote: I'm becoming insanely high-maintenance and love it.

My personal trainer (see above: high maintenance) told me about spray tanning as a solution to my pale problem, as she gets airbrushed before body building competitions.  As she shared more about it I listened eagerly to everything but the buck-nekkid part.  I'm not one to strip down in front of strangers, even in public locker rooms.

As fate would have it, a Groupon for the tanning salon near my house popped up the next day.
And I bought it.

When I called up to make my appointment, the lovely receptionist said, like, that I needed to prepare, like, for the treatment, and that like, I should come in after, like, I had shaved, waxed, exfoliated, showered, with no lotion application, like 8 hours prior.

Obviously I needed time to prepare.

Now here's when I share my stupid mistake with you: pumice stones are not for body exfoliation.
Let that sink in.
Moving on.


I made my appointment for Friday after work, brought with me dark cotton clothes for post spray-down, and swallowed my naked pride.

Upon showing up & reading over paperwork I noticed the area that said the spray-tanner needed to wear a dark old bikini or dark cotton underwear during the experience.  But no, no that couldn't be. My panic set in as I thought you're supposed to be naked.  I didn't bring any of the above suggested materials.  Whats more the underwear I did wear that day were not only my favorite grey pair, but I was not about to sacrifice them to the spray tan.  And my favorite bra? nuh-uh.

Awkwardly I asked the receptionist if other tanners went naked.  And did she mind if they did that?
Was I about to be the ballsy one who pushed boundaries and striped down to where no other tanner went before?

Thank G-d she, like, said, like they only prefer that the, like, men wear something.
Whew.  All of a sudden I was happy to be going naked.

To fast forward through the mildly awkward airbrushing naked experience, the woman was very professional and I didn't even mind when she asked me about my tatoo (on my bum).  We made small talk and all was fine.
I was oddly proud.
and orange.

The lady, like, swore, that my skin would absorb the color and most of the orange would wash off during my next shower.  But! No showering or sweating or anything moisturizing for 8 to 16 hours.
That night I looked like Snooki.

I was also scared for my hair and makeup trial the next day.  I thought for sure I had done something utterly stupid.  Thankfully most of the orange and dark weirdness did wash off in the morning.

But I did learn that you must liberally apply the anti-stick cream to places you don't want orange creases.  Like my ankles, and my wrists, and ankles.


Overall the experience was non-intrusive, pleasant, and clean.  The results are good, but definitely nothing natural by any means.  However there were no reactions that made me think I looked scary.  Either that or they're being nice. Mike did say that he "supports me but doesn't think [I] need to do it again."  That's his way of saying he could do with out it.

Before the wedding when I plan to do this one more time, I know to buy exfoliation cream & lather up on my ankles and wrists.

Do you or have you spray tanned?

Highlights!

About a week ago I let one of my favorite people do whatever they wanted to my hair.  See I fully trust my hair stylist, like no-holds-bar fully trust.  David at Salon Rouge suggested I consider highlights for my wedding, to jazz things up and make my 'do pop in photos.  And I did what any trusting, yet slightly-scared-of-change client would do: waited a week before I needed it done & called up to find he was booked solid.  But never fear! David is so awesome he came in an hour early to squeeze me in.  Love. him.

So blah blah blah once my hair looked like this (on a Friday, after a long week and after an even longer day at work):

(Let's not notice how homely I look)

(We can notice how farking long my hair got.  uh-maz-ing)

And after David worked his magic? Well let's just say I have a new up-keep expense to add to my list of beauty expenditures.

:

Bam.

And just for good measure, let's throw in one from my hair and makeup trial

Look at those highlights pop! (right? maybe?)

(and when did I get to be so narcissistic?!)

Bachelorette Party, DC!

Due to scheduling, the complications of life & trying to get calendars aligned, I am one lucky bride-to-be who will go out on the town twice to celebrate my single-status!

My bridesmaids will be treating me to a night in Atlantic City next weekend!!  This past weekend I partied it up with my local friends in DC.

And this is the mildly edited version of the events of the night.  Because they are so edited this post will most likely portray the events of that night as the most boring bachelorette party ever.  But it wasn't. It was fabulous & scandalous, as bachelorette parties should be.  Mom, Dad - I'm sorry, you probably would be better off not reading this.  You raised me to enjoy life, and so I did!

The night began innocently with Sarah realizing she left her ID back home in Virginia.  We schemed plans of how to sneak her in, the diversions and flirtations we'd create to distract bouncers, and the lies to tell to gain access.  We came to find out you don't really need an ID to get into bars or get drinks if you're creative.
And we were just that!

As we sat and sat, we experienced the dreaded horrible service at a great restaurant.  But because we had extra time to ourselves (see above: horrible service) we used it to our advantage and created "the list."  Sarah, Stacy, Todd & I drafted my to-do list of things to accomplish before the night was through.  Oh and yes, I did mention a guy's name.  Todd, one of our groomsmen, served as my bodyguard, escort, and token gay guy for the night.

My to-do list grew as the night went on, as logically it's more fun to make me do obnoxious things.  I think it consisted of:

1. get a guy to buy you a drink
2. get a condom from a guy
3. feed a guy chocolate
4. kiss a bald guy's head 
5. kiss a married man's wedding ring
6. kiss a lesbian on the cheek, or vice versa (let me tell you, THIS one was hard.  Have you ever walked up to a woman and asked her about her life choices?!  Most women didn't appreciate that. at all.)
7. get a guy to take off his shirt
8. drunk dial someone
9. drunk dial someone and sing a Katy Perry song

At a wonderful rooftop bar, we met up with Michelle, Rachel (or Rochelle as her alternate personality entails), Jenna, Sue, & Ashley.  Miraculously we managed to answer some questions right, swear up and down we didn't work for the alcoholic beverage commission, promised not to sue, recited her birth date/astrological sign/age and Sarah got in!! Also you can't party without your "Maid of Honor" -- Sarah definitely earned that honorary status last night! (My sis couldn't make it, but I love her tons and she's going to take care of me at the wedding!)
I accomplish most of the above list at this first bar.  However you can't cross things off the list if you don't randomly ask people to take off their shirt or if they want to eat a chocolate.  You would honestly be surprised the number of men who don't carry condoms with them.  I'm just saying...
You'd also be surprised at the number of guys who don't want to buy some random drunk bride-to-be another drink.  Geeze!

Every time I crossed off a list item, I took a picture with the culprit:

 He gave me a condom. I honestly felt badly for taking it.

Hi, um, will you eat this chocolate?

This guy also gave me his business card. WHO does that?!  Why give a girl who is about to get married your number? Does that really sound like something that will pan out?!  right.

Even better than his expression, is his friend's expression behind me.

This guy actually asked me to kiss his head since I kissed the other guy's head. 

Men are silly.

This guy is totally not fazed by the fact that I asked to kiss his wedding ring.

Totally cool with it.

She was so excited to buy me a drink. I love when people get in the spirit!

After realizing that my random requests of people were repeating themselves, we knew it was time to change up the scene.  What better place to go then a gay club?!  Unfortunately changing the scene caused us to loose people in the shuffle.  Already at that point I had no idea who was where and why, etc.  I feel really badly about loosing people!!

So I looked for them.
Sorta.
There was a dog in this car, so I asked the driver to pet it.

On the way we found two lesbians! And they were holding hands, so I didn't have to awkwardly ask some ladies of her status!  Cross that one off the list!

Luckily this insurance broker gave me his card.  So glad I have that now. 
Why do people want to give brides their number?

Once we arrived at the gay club, we used our powers of persuasion, batted our eyelashes and Sarah got in again!  We used the Maid of Honor line again, along with the "oh no, where is it, what do you mean you don't have it?" line! score.

 This gay club was amazingly fun.  And you don't have to worry about guys trying to give you their numbers.  But wow, can those men DANCE!

We arrived in time for the end of the drag show, where I took a shot with Persuasion, or whatever her? his? name was.  She liked the shot. I liked being on the stage.  It was a win-win situation.

That tuck cannot be comfortable.

I called up my hair stylist to see if he might join us, and he was already on the way! Fabulous!!

 I have NO idea what face I'm making.

Shortly after this Todd was given a bottle of water by a bouncer and very politely asked if he needed a ride home.  His response? "Why do I need to walk straight if I'm in a gay club?"  So Todd got kicked out.   (which is utterly hilarious.)

The night ended on a good note, as I refused to wear shoes anymore.

And I think I woke up still intoxicated.

Thank you to all the ladies (and gentlemen) who helped make the night memorable (or actually so much fun there are holes in my memory!)

Hair & Makeup Trial

What could be better than someone playing with your hair, doing your makeup and making you look gorgeous?!

I had the honor of meeting with Brie Cafferty for such an experience.  She will be doing my hair and makeup for the big day.  After a few email exchanges (well more like me emailing her tons, stuffing her inbox with pictures of celebrity hair, and then scaring her with my spray tan news) she had an idea of what I wanted.

In my hair inspiration post I debated between hair up and hair down.  Hot, sweaty, nasty June in DC basically decided that one for me.  Brie only needed to hear (and subsequently click on 50 links I sent her) my idea and she took off, creating exactly what I envisioned for the big day. 

As for makeup, she gauged my take on natural vs. plastered, asked if I was scared of makeup (totally not), and went from there.  We decided on a dark wine/violet lip color, too. swoon!
I felt so pretty, and it was perfect for that night's bachelorette festivities!

(without flash)

 (with flash)

Aside from looking & feeling so beautiful, the best part of having my hair and makeup done before my bachelorette party was taking it for a test run! 

 Even with the 20-some-odd bobbypins holding everything in place, some stray hairs escaped.  So a few details will be changed, but overall it was great!  Just add one white dress and veil!

Peeeee ESsssss: if you didn't already, be sure to check out yesterday's Steppin' Out Saturday post for pictures of me all dressed, glammed, and ready for a night on the town with mah girls!