From a Little Crazy to Insane -or- The Dress (Part 2)

Where we last left off I was the kinda crazy girl finding cheap wedding dresses online then buying them before becoming engaged... well, as of a few weeks ago, I moved over into the insane category. Why?

The detail: I was engaged and feeling a little sad that I never had the dress shopping experience. I felt like I needed to at least try something else on.

The insane: I bought the first dress I tried on... bumping my dress total up to two.

Allow me to elaborate on what happened. I actually wasn't out to try on or buy any dresses, but I was at one of the most dangerous stores in the universe:

This place always gets me with its amazing discounts! I was casually shopping for Nate (of all people). He needed a new pair of shoes and I knew that I could find a great deal at The Rack. Unfortunately, this section was all too close to the men's shoe section: 

It was the salmon colored suit-dress that sucked me in (kidding). I just wanted to look to see what they had... and then try on one of the dresses for kicks... but it happened to be exactly my size (no alterations!) and the perfect length and only $140ish. So I bought it (knowing that I could return it within 30 days).

Ugh. I've even taken the two dresses over to a friend's house to help me choose but she was stuck as well.

I'll post pictures of myself in the two dresses next week. Maybe you can help me decide... or maybe it's time to seek counseling.

Yes, I'm a Little Crazy -or- The Dress (Part 1)

I've been avoiding writing this post for a while because I knew it would reveal a bit of my inner crazy to the internet... but what is a wedding blog without sharing wedding details? So, I'll just go ahead and spit it out:

The detail: I bought a dress.

The crazy: I bought it before I was engaged. No joke.

I generally consider myself to be a level-headed person. I plan ahead for major purchases and try to get the best deals I can. So that might have been why when I saw what I thought was the perfect dress at an amazing price I went for it.

I'm going to go ahead and blame the countdown clock on RueLaLa.com. In case you haven't heard, Rue La La is one of those discount sites that holds daily boutiques on designer clothing, shoes, etc (here's an invite if you'd like to join). They were holding a limited time "Afternoon Fix" sale on Nicole Miller (one of my favorite wedding designers) and I fell for cross back gown. It had the perfect back, the price was great, and I only had an hour to decide!! And you know the rest...

Thrifty Tips for Online Dress Shopping (while unengaged):

1. Determine the likelyhood of your boyfriend proposing. For me, this was a 95% thing. I didn't know when it would happen, but I felt like I could put the dress to use (and he did two weeks later).

2. Make sure you have a backup plan. Can the dress be returned? If not, is it reasonable to expect it to resell at a similar price? Check ebay.com, preownedweddingdresses.com, and craigslist.org to see what that designer's dresses are going for. Generally, I wouldn't expect to sell it for more than 50% of the retail price unless it's an extremely popular style.

3. Ask yourself if you're actually getting a great deal! A $8,000 dress at $3,500 isn't a great deal if your dress budget is $1,000. Is this even a dress that you would have liked in a retail store?

4. Check online for better prices. When I Googled my dress, I couldn't find any other sites selling it, but I did find a message board posting with it listed in another Rue LaLa sale at a higher price. I realized then that the dresses that didn't sell that day would eventually get marked down further. To me, it wasn't worth the risk.

So, I was in love with the dress and patiently waiting for it to arrive so that I could hide it away from Nate. The big question was: would I love it as much in person? Stay Tuned!

Have you done any pre-engagement shopping to save money? Did it pay off?

I hope this counts!

"Start taking better care of yourself. Get in wedding day shape by eating right, joining a gym, and/or even hiring a personal trainer."

No, I didn't put all those months of blood, sweat, and tears into training for the Half Ironman so that I could check off a box of a certain site's humungo checklist. Still, I'm a bit concerned. What exactly is "wedding day shape" anyway? Why should I "start taking better care" of myself now... I suppose I could have been letting loose those other 26 years of my life?

PS Their list is probably right about the 100 other planning steps that I've been avoiding.

PPS More about my Ironman experience here.

More Ring Shopping

I should probably pick out catering, photography, music, start collecting addresses, etc before I get myself all excited about buying a wedding band.

Probably.

Here are my latest loves (and yes, I even went all the way down to Eliza Page to try them on):

Thrifty tip: make sure to take pictures with price tags; comparison shopping will be much easier this way!

I love the idea of this one, but I'm not sold on the way the diamonds bump out.

This is definitely in my top 2 picks. It's hard to tell in this shot, but the diamonds are in diagonals.

I love a simple, dainty band.

I loooved this one. The engraving factor might be a dealbreaker here.

This might have been a bit too engagementy.

As you can probably tell from this and my last ring post, I have a thing for somewhat unique rings in the less popular yellow gold. And because my engagement ring was an heirloom, I'm trying a bit harder to find a special band that matches my personal style. I also don't plan on going too thrifty with this purchase, I mean I don't want to waste that money Nate had set aside for the engagement ring that I told him not to buy ;).  

I vow to listen to good advice

My family, friends, and blog friends have all agreed on one piece of wedding planning advice: the photographer is worth the money spent. I can't count the number of times I've heard, "I wish I would have spent more on photos." So... I'm going to spend a good chunk of change on photos. I would love to be one of the brides that finds an amazing deal for a up-and-comer off of Craigslist or hires a family friend with a photography hobby, but I'm just going to trust everyone who promised I'll see it as money well spent.

As I begin to search for photographers, I'm keeping an eye out for those with exceptional photojournalistic skills. Each time I find images that reflect the types of memories that I'd like to capture in my own wedding, I file that photographer's website away for further review (regardless of price).

Here are the types of pictures that make me swoon the most:

all images taken from WPJA contest winning entries

I'm crossing my fingers that I can negotiate a significant discount on a photography package because of my off-season/ Sunday date. I'll let you know how that turns out!

What did you look for first in a photographer: price/ personality/ availability/ style?

Venue: Check!

It was important to us to find a venue that was not only beautiful, but centrally located, affordable* and "totally Austin." To be honest, this venue blew the competition away:

Picture sources: 1  2  3  4  5

...and because you know I'm all about sharing the $$$ details...

Venue rental (Sunday in the off season): $1,900

Table and chair fees: $250

Recycling fee: $15

Total venue costs for 10-hour rental: $2,165 

(plus refundable deposit of $300)

Total savings by choosing a Sunday in the off-season: $2,100

*If you asked me if I thought $2,000+ was an "affordable" option for a venue (and I'll still need to buy food, decorations, rent linens, etc)  before I went out and did my research I would have called you crazy! Based off of budget blog reading I've been doing lately, I thought somewhere around $500 would be more in the affordable range, but once I began comparing the venues in my area that met my high aesthetic expectations needs, that "affordable" number grew a bit. I am happy to say that I'll be able to save quite a bit in food costs (by choosing one of the more affordable caterers on their list) and alcohol (by buying my own) by going with this venue.

Feel free to comment anonymously: What are "normal" venue rental prices like in your area? Where they higher or lower than you expected?

venue search part 2: narrowing down the choices

Where we last left off, I had my Access database of 1,001 venues ready... and it was about time to finally realize that:
a. I'm not going to get married at every venue in Austin.
b. I'm not going to visit every venue on the list.

So, I created a report that outlined our top options based on looks, venue renal price, catering policy, and location. We wanted something affordable, but with character. With several out-of-towners coming in for the wedding, we hoped to pick a venue that was easy to travel to while showcasing the best of Austin. This left us with four venues to visit in person:

1. The Allan House
This was the most appealing option to me based off of the website. They had competitive rental prices, but no restrictions on catering and you're allowed to bring your own alcohol.

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Pros: beautiful old house; nice trees and landscaping; save money on food and alcohol; chairs included in price; discount for brunch rental; great central location

Cons: outdoors are only real option for sit down reception (and we're looking at summer); haven't heard very many good reviews; parking may be an issue

source

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2. Mercury Hall
This was one of my other top choices based off of the web description. I love the area of town it's located in and the ample amount of indoor (air-conditioned!) space available.

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Pros: location; look (I told Nate that I would live in it if it were a house); beautiful and large outdoor area; perfectly sized parking lot; plenty of indoor space

Cons: catering list; extra fees tacked onto venue rental price

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3. Vintage Villas
I'll be honest, I didn't really want to visit this venue in the first place. It's about 20 minutes west of town and I wasn't so sure about making all of the guests travel to it (when many of them would be from other cities in the first place). Nate convinced me that the prices made it worth the shot.

Pros: the rental and food prices were competitive; they offered an all-inclusive hotel style package that could end up saving money; nice views; lots of indoor space; they have on-site hotel rooms for guests

Cons: it would be hard to find as an out-of-towner; it's sooooo not my style; you have to use their caterer

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4. The Palm Door
This modern downtown venue offered a ton of flexibility in its decor (you're actually allowed to nail things into the walls here!) so I thought it might be the perfect choice for a customized look.

Pros: blank slate; wood floors; downtown location; tons of indoor air-conditioned space as well as an outdoor deck overlooking a creek

Cons: there's a fee if you use another caterer; you have to rent out everything (tables, chairs, linens, etc); there's a giant bar across the back of the main room (and we're not big bar people)

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We've actually picked one of the above four for our venue! I'm going to wait until we put down the deposit (tomorrow) to share which one it is. Can you guess which one we went with?

keeping my eye on the prize

 Nate is the prize of course...

but that doesn't mean I can't get excited about getting some new jewelry!

As you remember, I received (by my request) my great-great-grandmother's engagement ring. While I feel honored to wear a 100+ year-old ring, I can't lie and say that I'm not excited about having the chance to pick out my own wedding ring.

I'd love to find something special enough for my great-great-granddaughter to want to wear as well. And with that, some rings that have jumped out at me during my search:

Sources: 1 2 3 4

Sources: 5 6 7 8

Did you put a lot of energy searching for your wedding band or was it more of an afterthought?