Canton (Club) Shower

Posted on August 19, 2013 by lysse48

Canton Shower Part of the Bridal Party: Sarah, Me, Kendra, and Amelia

After my first Cleveland shower, I was not nervous at all about my Canton shower. Thanks to my mom and my Aunt Carolyn I knew every single little detail about the Canton shower so I knew exactly what to expect. My bridal shower given to me by my family members was at the Canton Club in downtown Canton. If you haven’t been to the Canton Club it is amazingly beautiful and the food is outstanding. My Aunt Carolyn picked a menu that included baby pineapples…enough said. Yes, baby pineapples do exist and they are tastier than adult pineapples. My favorite of my wedding shower planning was discovering the edible favor. My mother found these beautiful Moreno glass compacts to give away as the favor for the shower but she still wanted something edible to give the guests. Due to my keen sense of finding delicious sweets everywhere I go, I found sea salt chocolate covered caramels by Anastasiades Chocolates at Fisher Foods while on my way to get lunch at the salad bar. You read that correctly that I found chocolates on my way to the salad bar. As you may have previously read, I love anything that is salty caramel. These chocolates were perfect and amazingly delicious. Considering the favor was my only contribution to the Canton shower and the rest was due to the hard work my Mom and my hostesses, Aunt Carolyn, Aunt Pat, Aunt Nina, Aunt Mona, my Nouna Christine, Aunt Dina, Stella, Kay, and Sophia. Even though mothers are not supposed to plan showers my mom made the invitations, programs, and name cards. She is the coolest.

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My dress for my shower was actually a rejected bridesmaid dress from all of the places bebe. Considering I haven’t shopped at bebe since middle school I surprised that they have dresses that are appropriate for outside the club. My shoes and bag were Aldo. It was the first time I tried “beachy waves” on my hair. It turned out okay considering I have used a curling iron only a handful of times in my life. I truly had the best time at my shower. I loved being surrounded by family and friends from near and far. I also enjoyed that Phil got to open up some presents with me and got to share in the fun of opening of presents. Thank you everyone for the best wedding shower a girl like me could ask for. Now the question is where am I going to put all these gifts and when am I going to have a party to use them all.

My beautiful Mom and I

Phil loves Lenox butterfly bowls

Help, I need a Wedding Stylist

Posted on August 17, 2013 by lysse48

My Art Deco Bling

I have a business idea if anyone wants to be my business partner in this venture. My idea is a wedding stylist business. I am too lazy to do the research, but I don’t know if there is any such thing as a wedding stylist or even if this profession would be profitable and/or desirable. So here is my idea, brides would hire me as their wedding stylist, I would ask a couple of questions on what kind of accessories that she would like to have for her wedding dress and her bridesmaids dresses and how much she would like to spend. So they I go like a real celebrity stylist and find options for bracelets, veils, earrings, headpieces, etc. I would be like the Rachel Zoe for the everyday bride. Here is why I think my business idea would work. There are tons and tons and tons of accessories out there and at all different price ranges. Sometimes you don’t know what will look good with your dress or your bridesmaids dress and you really don’t know where to look for the same pieces. It also takes time to look for the right accessories. For example, when I was trying to find my shoes for the wedding I had an idea of wearing these kate spade bow shoes but they didn’t go with my dress, the second pair I picked was a pair of Giuseppe Zanotti’s sandals they went with my dress but I knew that I could find something better, and then I finally picked out another pair of kate spade shoes and they were a perfect fit in all ways possible. If I had a wedding stylists I would have all the 3 shoes in front of me at the same time and then I could try it on with my dress and bam I could make the decision in one day.

My kate spade Sage wedding shoes…jealous?

My accessories are from Saks (kate spade shoes), Shopbop (Kenneth Jay Lane earrings), and J. Crew bracelets. Yes I had to go to 3 different stores both brick and mortar stores and online to find all my accessories and I got them at all different times. It was not easy but it was fun because who doesn’t love shoe and jewelry shopping. The not fun part was having a budget. But doesn’t budgets always kill shopping dreams? As every girl dreams about wearing Jimmy Choos and Christian Louboutins on their wedding day. In reality I couldn’t justify spending over $800 for shoes. Some day maybe when I’m ballin’ I’ll be rocking Louboutins like a Bravo Housewife.

Shopping for accessories for my bridesmaids was sort of an adventure. Since The Great Gatsby the movie came out a lot of the accessories for winter and spring were 1920s inspired. One of the most notable collections was by Tiffanys. I am not a millionaire therefore I could not afford to buy diamond encrusted flapper headbands for my bridesmaids although they do deserve it. I was lucky enough to find a matching art deco inspired bracelet and earrings at The Limited and I ordered them online. I got them in the mail and one of them was not in perfect condition so I returned it. But they didn’t have any more to replace the earrings that I returned. So I had to start from scratch. I checked the Canton Limited to find a replacement but they didn’t have any earrings left either. After searching for a week or two for other options, I finally found the exact earrings at the Beachwood Limited and the crisis was adverted. Shopping for my bridesmaids’ accessories also caused me to fuel my semi-shopping addiction. Why is it always when you are shopping for other people you also feel the need to buy something for yourself. Picking out shoes for my bridesmaids was also an adventure. I wanted t-strap heels for them because it was the most 1920s heeled shoes. There are two types of t-strap shoes (1) ugly and (2) stripper shoes. I found more options for my bridesmaids shoes than I did for my own shoes. I was lucky enough to find the exact shoe I wanted at 6pm.com. They are sparkly, t-strap, not ugly, and a stripper wouldn’t be caught in dead in them. Based on the accessories I chose for myself and my bridesmaids I hope you will hire me as your personal wedding stylist.

Shoes, Shoes, Shoes

Dear Brides Everywhere Don’t Let Your Bridesmaids Pick out their own dresses, it’s too hard

Posted on April 7, 2013 by lysse48

My Bridesmaid Dresses from “Louisa” from J. Crew my 1st and approx. 250th choice.

I have only been a bridesmaid twice in my life and both Kendra and Sarah made my life as a bridesmaid easy. They both did the choosing and I did the buying, just the way it should be. Brides if you need one of your bridesmaids to try on dresses for you, it is totally acceptable. But only ask 1 person to go try on dresses. All of your bridesmaids don’t have to be there. I did this for Sarah’s wedding and she did this for mine. If you are the “chosen” bridesmaid just model them and give both positive and negative feedback and most importantly don’t be a bitch. The best way to give your opinion on if you like a dress is to give a grade “A+ to F”. It is the easiest way for the bride to get true idea of what dresses you like best instead of calling each dress “cute” or “pretty.” If you are a bride, it is still your wedding you should pick out a dress you like and would want to wear and if your bridesmaids like you they will like the dress you pick. For the past couple of years it has been a trend to have mismatched bridesmaids dresses you give your bridesmaids a color and and they go out and pick out a dress they like. To me that is flat out being a lazy bride. “But, Alysse if I just give your bridesmaids choices they will be happier and they will love their dress so much more that they will wear it again!” This is false, bridesmaid dress shopping is stressful there are a lot of stores and styles and different dresses to choose from, you don’t want to pass that stress onto your friends and family. If you want the mismatched look, pick 3 or 4 dresses yourself and have your bridesmaids choose from those 3 or 4 dresses or you can pick a color and fabric by a certain designer they pick from the different styles.

This 1/18th of the dresses I found when I was looking for a bridesmaids dress.

Let me tell you about my journey of finding a bridesmaids dress to enlighten you on the situation. All bridesmaids dresses look the same. You got your strapless dress, you got your spaghetti strap dress, you got your edgy one shoulder, you got your Duggar cap sleeve dress, a cool back dress, you got your halter dress, and finally you got your regular strap dress. The dresses come in three fabrics chiffon(two kinds), satin, or jersey. Add some sparkly brooch or a rose and you got a bridesmaid dress. I wasn’t floored by any of the bridesmaids dresses I saw at bridal shops or online bridal shops. So I thought I would just search other dress shops and websites that didn’t sell exclusively bridal stuff. You would be surprised how many everyday brands have bridesmaid dress lines including J. Crew, Ann Taylor, The Limited, Nordstorm, Guess, BCBG, and a few more. There are also a few websites that sell bridesmaids dresses like ASOS, Monsoon, BHLDN, and ModCloth. I spent about 3 months searching these websites and checking them a minimum of 3 times a week looking for dresses. I wanted a dress that was 1920s inspired but didn’t look like a costume. Due to the movie The Great Gatsby coming out this May there was a lot of 1920s/ Art Deco style dresses out in the stores for the holiday season. But a lot of these dresses were too flashy or too slutty. I knew that I liked J. Crew bridesmaids dresses and that was my backup plan if I couldn’t find an unconventional dress. I figured out why so many brides buy dresses from bridal shops because every time I found a dress that I liked it either was too expensive, didn’t have all the sizes of my bridesmaids, or sold out too quickly. It was not only hard to find a dress that was in stock and had the right number of sizes it was just as hard to find the right color. There are tons of different shades of blue especially my minty/seafoam/grayed jade blue I had picked for my wedding color. Even if I wanted to shop at a bridal shop for the dresses there wasn’t a designer that sold a dress in my colors. I found a dress at BCBG that I really liked but it was $325 and since I would never spend that much on a bridesmaids dress I wasn’t going to have my ‘maids spend that much either. So I waited to see if it went on sale and unfortunately that dress was so popular that it sold out before it hit the sale rack. After ordering a few other dresses online and then returning them because they were just a hot mess; I went with my 1st/backup choice the J. Crew dresses because they are so pretty aka an A+ and the dusty shale color was the perfect color I was looking for. The “Louisa” was also flattering and had the 1920s inspiration I wanted with the V pleated on the bodice. So ladies you see how time consuming and options there are for bridesmaids dresses, don’t let your ‘maids bare that burden.

Sarah in the BCBG dress…she will probably kill me for posting this…so if I go missing you’ll know where to look first 🙂

Say Yes to the Dress: Part 3- Found It!

Posted on February 28, 2013 by lysse48

This is how I wanted to feel in my wedding dress

After my 1st trip wedding dress shopping I needed a new game plan. So, I did some research on some bridal shops in northeast Ohio that didn’t have the same wedding dress designers as Catan’s. I scheduled a bridal appointment at Henri’s Could Nine, in Minerva. I had gotten some of my homecoming and prom dresses from Henri’s back in high school so I thought it wouldn’t hurt taking a look there. This trip I took my mom and my Yiayia, aka grandmother, Clara. My Yiayia is sometimes a good luck charm when it comes to shopping, I found some of my best swimsuits and other various clothing items while shopping with her. I found two dresses I liked while trying on dresses at Henri’s. One was called “Gatsby” which goes with my wedding theme and another lacy chic number. But, I didn’t feel like either of them were just the perfect dress. They just didn’t wow me. So we decided to go the bridal shop closet to my parent’s house, Abott’s Bridal in Canton. I had the best salesperson Sarah help me out. She was the nicest and most helpful salesperson I encountered while shopping for wedding dresses. If you go to Abott’s ask for her. I tried on about 20 dresses there and found this beautiful Sophia Tolli dress that I felt really pretty in. But I left the store empty handed.

Me in one of 5,000 rejected wedding dresses

Me in the Sophia Tolli

A week or two later I asked my cousin and MOH Sarah to come shopping with me at some of the east side of Cleveland bridal shops and to browse bridesmaids’ dresses. First we went to Matina’s in Beachwood. That was a huge strike out. I tried on 1 dress that I didn’t even like. Next stop was Demetrios in Legacy Village. Sarah and I picked out a lot of dresses to try on at Demetrios. I think Sarah was picking out dresses for me to try on so she can just dress me up just like she did when we were little. I told her that I didn’t want a really poofy cupcake dress but she still made me try one just to see what I look liked. But Sarah was super helpful by telling me the positives and negatives to each dress I tried on and gave me a new perspective. I liked some of the dresses at Demetrios but I didn’t love any of them. I was frustrated and tried and was thinking that I wasn’t going to find a dress or I was going to pick the Sophia Tolli. But Sarah and I decided to go check out bridesmaid dresses at Nordstrom. I picked out 1 dress to try on and it was THE ONE. I felt gorgeous in it so after a lap around the mall thinking about the dress I went back and bought it. I had a wedding dress 🙂

Say Yes to the Dress: Part 2

Posted on February 8, 2013 by lysse48

One of the approx. 5,000 rejected dresses

“Oh, don’t worry about finding a wedding dress it will be soooo easy.” or one of my favorites “My wedding dress was the first dress I tried on.” or this classic line of “You will know it is your dress when you see it.” They are all lies I tell you. All lies. First, finding a wedding dress is not easy. The first dress I tried on barely fit over my thighs, so that was not my wedding dress. Lastly, you aren’t always going to get that “you know it when you see it” feeling when seeing/trying on your wedding dress.

My wedding dress search started at Catan’s Bridal in Strongsville. It is the largest bridal shop I’ve ever been so I thought why not start there…it has to have something I like, right? For this appointment I took my mom and my future mother-in-law. After looking through all of the “couture” bridal dresses of the store, I picked about 15 dresses to try on. I guess that number of dresses is higher than most people try on in one sitting. After showing pictures of my favorite Jenny Packham dresses hoping to get a response I got nothing. The lady that worked with me didn’t really pull any dresses and seemed like she was completely stumped in what kind of dresses I should try on. After trying on all of the dresses I like two of them. The first dress was $8,000, so that was out and the second dress I felt pretty in but it wasn’t a wow dress. After trying on the dresses I found in the store I asked about seeing a dress I found in the Pronovias catalog. The sales lady tried to convince me that I didn’t want that dress because it was too cheap. Smooth move lady…that was a real effective sales technique. I walked away from Catan’s feeling okay about my wedding dress search but not confident.

But when I came home and looked at the pictures of me in the wedding dresses, I balled my eyes out. I felt like I looked like I weighed 500 lbs in all of the dresses. I felt like everyone was lying to me that I looked nice in the dresses just to make me feel better. I know now that wasn’t the case, but it sure felt like that at the time. What they don’t tell you when you take pictures at the bridal shops is sometimes moms do not know how to take good pictures with camera phones. They take pictures when you are not posed, the pictures are blurry, and they take them at the least flattering angles. You gotta love moms but I should have looked at the pictures they took at the store to check to see if I looked good, so I wouldn’t have a freak out. Also another thing they don’t tell you is that the lighting in all bridal shops suck. The spotlights in the stores make odd shadows everywhere on your face and body and they make you look completely washed out. Here is an example of some of the great pictures you get in a bridal shop.

A picture of one of the rejected dresses.
Notice the blurriness, my paleness, my eyes look like black holes. But at least I’m posing in this one.

Today’s Bride Bridal Fair Madness

Posted on February 1, 2013 by lysse48

So many booths…so overwhelmed

Ever see those billboards about those bridal fairs? Or maybe you heard their radio ads? Well the biggest one of those shows is the Today’s Bride’s bridal fair. They have a fair in Akron and one in Cleveland. Angelica at Tangier’s recommended I go to the Akron bridal fair because it was much less overwhelming than the Cleveland one. So my mom, my future mother-in-law, and I headed to the John S. Knight Convention Center to get wedding ideas and maybe talk to some wedding vendors. The bridal show was fun but it was still overwhelming. There are brides of all kinds there including some unfortunate grooms fighting over a spot to check out some pink cummerbunds. It was great to get table decor ideas, cake designs, and get information for all sorts of wedding services. My favorite part of the bridal show was tasting the cakes for the sake of picking the best cake for our guests and not because I wanted to break my wedding diet 😉 My least favorite part of the bridal fair is the TONS of e-mails you get from all of the vendors at the fair before, during, and after the event. I’m still getting them today. It’s super annoying. No I do not was to preserve my wedding bouquet or hire you to photograph my wedding just because you put Ryan Gosling in your e-mail. Overall it was good time and it was great to get some bonding time in with my mom and Mrs. G. But I thought I was going to get more stuff done on my to do list but it just made my list longer. Now it’s time to go through all of the swag.

My mom, Me, and Mrs. G on the “red carpet” of the Bridal Show

Saying Yes to a Dress: Part 1- Damn you Pinterest!

Posted on January 31, 2013 by lysse48

Jenny Packham- Willow…the dream dress

I love pinterest. I was using pinterest before most people were using pinterest that is how much I love it. But, sometimes it can disappoint. For example, you find this really cool recipe for red velvet cookie dough dip and you click on it and it’s spam or you find this fun DIY project using paper towel rolls and chalkboard paint is just a link to a random tumblr page. Another thing that pinterest can do to you is fall in love with really expensive and impossible clothes to find. This happened to me when trying to research what kind of wedding dress I wanted. I fell in love with Jenny Packham dresses. She is a British designer who has made dresses for everyone from Princess Kate Middleton, Angelina Jolie, Cameron Diaz, Rhianna and Beyonce to Keira Knightley, Reese Witherspoon, Jennifer Aniston to Amy Adams. Not only I loved her dress Willow (the one pictured above), I loved all of them. After doing some research I disappointingly found out there are zero bridal shops in Ohio that sell her dresses and the closest place that sell her dresses is 4 and 1/2 hours away in Michigan. I was super bummed. Though it did eased my disappointment to find out that this dress was around $7,000. There was no way I’m paying 7k for a wedding dress that I was going to wear once. But I do believe that someday I will own my very own Jenny Packham dress. Maybe Phil will buy me one of these dresses someday…wink wink, cough cough.

This is a nice option…;)

Hey Phil! This dress is on sale!?! I think I could rock this one

Phil & Alysse's Wedding Blog :p+a:

Category Archives: Bride Sttuff