It’s lovely. It needs no alterations. It fits like a glove with no need to purchase special undergarments.

It’s $507.18.

God, I want it.

Here’s to hoping I can get the money together or find another, better dress.

Oh no. ohnoohnoohnoohnoohnoohnoohno

My aunt very kindly made it for me and shipped it out to me two weeks ago. TWO WEEKS AGO!

It’s not here, and we aren’t totally sure where it is.

This is not good.

I’m actually not freaking out that much currently. On Saturday I am going to hope over to David’s Bridal and see what I can find and figure out if I can pay for it.

And hopefully my handmade, lovely dress will show up.

*erm, Huntsville would be more fitting

I have purchased the black lace.

And didn’t wake up in a panic this morning.

Ah… bliss.

Uh huh. You read that right. Saturday morning, I woke up from a deep, deep sleep realizing that my dress won’t match my shoes. I was so ticked.

I then went on to realize that if I have this beautiful chocolate brown lace, it won’t match the black that I’ve asked my bridal brigade and grooms men (and groom) to wear. And, on top of that, if the shoes don’t match, what kind of shoes will I find to wear?!

AhHHHHHHhhhHHhHHhHHH!!!

Okay, not even kidding, I have had some serious stuff go wrong in this wedding planning, none of which I have written in this blog, so keep that in mind.

But, I am freaking out over lace? Over lace?! Are you kidding me?

Well, yes, I am. I don’t know why, but this is what my brain has decided to be stuck on. The fact that I am wearing brown lace, which doesn’t go with black or my shoes… (Again, I have no idea…)

So, we’re going back to the store today, I believe, to purchase black lace and take back the brown.

I feel so special. No, really, I do.

When I first e-mailed my aunt about my wedding dress she was very reluctant.

In fact, the conversation went something like this:

“Hey Aunt Jan! I was wondering if it would be possible for you to make my wedding dress.”

“I can’t believe you would have that much confidence in me… I will have to look at the pattern… I’m honored you would ask, but, I made Kari’s attendants dresses and don’t know about this…” (Keep in mind that Jan lives in Indiana and I am in Texas, soon to be Nebraska)

I then convinced her she could do this, especially after I showed her this.  She felt a lot more comfortable when she realized we could do a muslin mock up (and should) before putting together the dress.

It also took a lot of  me saying “this is just a dress. don’t think about it as a ‘wedding dress’. It’s just a dress.” See, I have this very laissez-faire approach to our wedding. In the end, all that I care about it Chet and I being married. And we will be. It doesn’t matter what we’re wearing, who’s beside us, what is served at the dinner, if my hair is done by a professional, if we have centerpieces, if we 1000 cranes; it doesn’t matter. We will be married, and that is all that I care about. The end.

But, it’s been awesome working on this dress.

In total, we’ve* done 4 mock up tops. And now, she has perfected the top, and got the size(s)** right and fitting. Today, she added the skirt to it.. and it’s amazing!! Oh, I am so excited about this, and know that it was the absolute right thing to do.

So, this evening, we picked up her daughter for a girls night and made our way to the fabric store. I picked out the material we’re going to use, the lace we’ll use to decorate, and everything else.

Total? $130.00

Yeah, that’s right. That is my wedding dress, which cost me $130.00. How amazing is that? And the best part is that we’ve designed it so that I can wear it again; it doesn’t scream “I AM A WEDDING DRESS!!!!”.

Now,  you want pictures, right?

Well, too bad. I’m going to keep the dress a secret from Chet. I’ve wrestled with this idea, of whether to do it or not, but I think I’m going too. I think it’ll be fun to surprise him with it’s beautiful-ness on our wedding day. So there.

However,if you would like to see pictures (and promise not to tell Chet) I will send them to you. E-mail me at nmlozano {at} gmail {dot} com. But, since I know you’re dying for a pciture, here’s one:

My future in-laws. Chet’s in the tie, Sissi is next to me, Reid is behind me and Chet’s brothers are on the end

My family.  My aunt (who’s making the dress) is behind my mom in the tan dress. Charlotte, my dear, dear friend is next to Jan in the back.

All from my graduation!!

*Please know that when I say “we” I mean, she. I haven’t done a dang thing except keep her company.
**Those effing sizes are bs. According to them, I range in size from 16 to 28. Fo’ real.

I am now an official alumna of Sam Houston State University. I’m going to miss it.

So, of course with graduating, we had parties all week long that we went too. And from each of these events, I took something away that I want for our shin-dig.

At all of these places, we realized how much we wanted to just relax. At these parties, it was achieved (and brilliantly, might I add!).  At the Stardust Room it was cheap drinks and good friends to laugh with. At Doug’s graduation party, it was a picnic with his family and Chet’s family. Lots of wonderful DIY stuff that made it special. At mine, it was casual and lovely.

My parents (and Aunt and Charlotte) rented a lakehouse and decorated it in a beautiful way. When we walked in, there were candles and family waiting to surprise me.

And all of these atmospheres are what we want to accomplish… somehow.

Don’t know how, but we will.

For now, I am in Indiana with Jan, and we are working on my dress over the next two weeks. Yup, she is creating my wedding dress. I am just avoiding being stuck by pins and making her laugh so much she’s losing her voice. It’ll be a great vacation.

Let’s start with dresses.

On Saturday, two members of my bridal brigade went with me to look at dresses! We went to this cute little bridal shop (with some odd employees) and tried stuff on.

See these? This was like a $300 prom dress. Jessi (Origami Goddess, the one making the 1000 cranes) had to try it on, and might I say, she looked fabulous! I think I shall make these my bridesmaid dresses.

Okay, for real though. A dress. For me. For the wedding. I suppose I should probably get on that. We found one that I really like:

That’s not me, by the way. That would be my dear friend Lindsey (aka, hometown support-ress). Doesn’t she look beautiful?! I can’t fit into their god awful sizes. For example, this was supposed to be a size 14. She had to suck in and squeeze to fit.

Anyway, it’s pretty! It’s actually a bridesmaid dress, which  helps make the cost pretty much amazing. I love how it looks; I like the lacy-ness of it, and the detail. I like that the bottom of it (which you can’t really see here) has little crystals attached.

However, before I make my final decision, there are two other dresses that I want to see:

The Vivian Leigh from Siri

I did try this one on. And it’s super cute. And I could definitely wear it again, which is a plus. And look at that back! I love it! And the cut shoulders… ah love. However, it’s a little bit more than I had planned on spending.

The Paige by Jenny Yoo

I haven’t seen this one in person yet. I’m actually not sure how I found it, but I do like it. I just want to see it. Again,I could wear it after the wedding (which is awesome!!)

And then, I started looking online…at etsy.com I really like that website, fyi.

The first one just looks super comfortable. It’s ALOT more than I want to spend, but it just looks amazing. I love the flowy-ness of it. And pairing it with an adorable jacket… I love it. Chet doesn’t.

The second one is über cute too. It’s shorter then I would want, but in the same price range as all the others. Since it’s etsy, the people are willing to work with you. I also like the fact that it’s made by someone here (as in America), and they’re hand sewn by the person I order it from.

Ah, decisions.

So then, I spoke with Angie about looking for a dress. And I told her how Chet and I are wanting to keep things locally done by people we love and care for. For example, a cake by my boss, a friend doing the em-cee-ing, friends doing the music for the wedding, (probably) a dear friend officiating. With that said, we talked about how our tailor won’t make wedding dresses, because they are just so blasted difficult to do. But, when I told her what I was wanting she said “well! ask so and so to do it! she’s a great seamstress, and something simple like that, I’m sure she’d do it!”.

Ah, be still my heart.

I love the idea of keeping things local — whether that may be in Huntsville or Austin.

However, for me, there is really only one dress.

I’m in love with the 50′s. I may not be the housewife type, but I love the style, the music, the life. Ah, it just makes me feel all warm and fuzzy. Anyway, I am also addicted to stumbleupon and found a new feature that it has: ‘stumbleupon weddings’!!! So, on Tuesday, after making this discovery, I stumbled onto wedding blogs, ideas, ‘dressmakers’, dresses, cakes, article… everything wedding related that could possible be found on the Internet. I did this for twelve hours (12!) mind you. That was a very long time. When I went to bed, I was dreaming about taffeta, in vivid pastel like colors, diy-ing stuff, and of course about jordan almonds. It was almost nightmarish. So, I stayed away from wedding stuff yesterday, [which coincidentally was a day off of work!]

Okay, so all of this leads me to one gorgeous website I found call Stephanie James Couture. And guess what?! She totally designs 50′s type dresses and accessories! Uh, yeah, sign me up!  I have to say, I flipped when I found her website and subsequently bombarded my dear lover with lots of links and pictures. Ah, it was glorious.

The first dress I came across and loved was the Betty. And then there was the Audry. And then there were suits, and pill box hats with netting, and peacock feathers… oh my! Ah, feel the fuzzies! The tea length would be amazing for our *possible* wedding site, and the look is so classic. Chet and I really like the first one (called Mrs. Kennedy) for various reasons. One being that I could actually wear my wedding dress again… at church, or picnic with kids, or, whatever!

And then add cute pillbox hats with adorable shoes, and I am in. There are two little insy issues, though: 1. I have a wedding dress 2. SJ Couture dresses range from 1200-4000 a piece… which is about the budget for my wedding. Hehe. Just little problems.

The wedding dress that I currently have [pictures to come later] is beautiful. It really is. But my taste has changed since that dress was purchased for about $150 back in the day. So here are my thoughts: if I want to wear it anyway, it’s gonna need some major tailoring, changing up, and all around alterations. Why not alter it in my 50′s style?! It’ll cost probably around $500 to change up, but I’m good with that. It’s definitely cheaper than $1200.