Tea Staining a Veil

I know, I know! I wanted to wear a birdcage veil or nothing... But when the ladies at the bridal store put a cathedral length veil on just to see, I had a moment. A suck-up-your-tears-or-lose-it moment. So I decided to cut the daisy chain off my mom's veil and tea stain it from stark white to ivory, to match my alabaster dress.  So if it matches my dress, I will wear my mom's veil at the church then change into a birdcage veil for the reception; best of both worlds.

(side note: my future mother in law so nicely offered to buy my the bridal store veil, but I wanted to give my mom's a try first, because I am actually incredibly sentimental)

So here is how I did it:

• I filled the bathtub with hot-hot-hot! water and about 10 teabags. (helpful hint: I took the papery end off the tea bags so it didn't pill up the tub water)
• I filled the tub about 3 inches with water, and let the tea bags steep for a few minutes to get the water nice and dark.
• I used a wooded spoon to stir my piping hot tub tea.
• After the tea bags seemed to be done steeping I added the veil in the tub using the spoon to make sure all parts were submerged.
• I let the veil soak about 20 minutes**, and voila! mom's white veil became ivory.
• If it still isn't dark enough just do it again!
• Clean the tub right away, you want to stain the veil and not the tub!

**make sure to check the color of the veil every 5 minutes or so. Scrunch up a bunch to really see if the color has changes as it is hard to tell with a single layer of  tulle

Here is a pick of the veil being stained in the tub

I hope my mom's veil is long enough for my dress, but I will keep you all posted.

Wedding flowers - babys breath roses and orchids, oh my!

Well here is a MUCH needed update about the wedding which is 201 days away! It is getting so close!

The theme is victorian peacock. Sounds crazy, I know, but bear with me. So while searching pinterest high and low to find pics of my dream wedding, i found myself drawn o baby's breath heavy floral. It looks like lace, and lends a vintage air, but having worked for a florist since high school i needed other flowers too. So I picked baby's breath, roses, and orchids.

For  the centerpieces we are renting tall hurricane vases and we are putting an orchis in the vase and then a centerpiece of 'party time' baby's breath (which is a bigger version of baby's breath) with white spray roses in it. This way our guests can take the baby's breath and spray rose centerpiece off the top of the vase and take it home. :-)

So if these two had a baby:  and there were peacock feathers sticking out a little

in honor of this Easter season...

Bridesmaids dresses = done

Well, the bridesmaids weekend has come and gone. It was a lot of fun! All of my 5 girls found their dresses, and we did it in 45 minutes. (I am pretty sure that must be some kind of record) Lisa (my 6th and MOH) had picked her dress already.

The girls were all in one big room changing, so I have to tell you, it was an awesome hot mess. There were discarded dresses everywhere! It was really humorous helping all the girls pull down their dresses, and holding up the backs to keep "the girls" in. Everyone found a dress they love and everyone looked awesome.

We all went back to my house after to start crafting projects that need to get done for the wedding. That was also a blast. I have to admit, I was a tad worried. Usually with a group of 5 girls that barely know each other there is some kind of drama or catty remark, but everyone really got along! A few girls were meeting for the first time (or close to it) as per my usual way. I have always had good friends in life, but usually they are from different circles of friends, etc and don't know each other.  Again, everything went really well and I was so glad that everyone had time to get comfortable with each other. Now I just have to plan a meeting with all 6 girls to finish the slave labor.... I mean crafts... I definitely mean crafts. lol.

Here are the links of the dresses. (I cant post the pics bc they are protected, and I wont post a pic of my actual girls in them until the real dresses come in) Keep in mind the dresses are all going to be in the color 'euro holly' which is a beautiful hunter green :-D Lisa miiight get a black sash to make her stand out as Maid of Honor, but I will decide that when the actual dresses come in.

Lisa's (MOH)      http://www.billlevkoff.com/style/bridesmaid-dress/178
Samantha's        http://www.billlevkoff.com/style/bridesmaid-dress/339
Nikki's              http://www.billlevkoff.com/style/bridesmaid-dress/786
Colleen's           http://www.billlevkoff.com/style/bridesmaid-dress/787
Emily's              http://www.billlevkoff.com/style/bridesmaid-dress/526
Sarah's              http://www.billlevkoff.com/style/bridesmaid-dress/377

Bridesmaids' Weekend

Well, the wedding is almost 1 yr away! AHH! how time flies! This weekend all of my bridesmaid (minus Lisa, my MOH) are going to pick out their dresses. I have decided on: color Euro Holly, (a hunter green) long, European satin, Bill Levkoff dresses. The girls each get to pick which style they want to wear.

I love this idea because everyone gets to feel beautiful, but with everyone wearing a long dress in the same color and fabric it will look cohesive.  A few of my girls were ... hesitant ... about the fact I chose satin, but it is a nice thick satin that actually sucks you in as apposed to the slinky stain that shows every little imperfection.

Here is a website link if you want to spy ;-) http://www.billlevkoff.com/bridesmaid-dresses/fabric-european-satin/silhouette-floor-length/

So I am super giddy. After the dress appointment the girls are coming back to my house to work on some of the crafts/DIY elements for the wedding. So I am making everyone a nice lunch and then forcing manual labor. haha. It will  be a great way to show all my girls everything that I have been gathering for the past 8 months. Yes, we have been engaged for 8 months already. (again, time is flying)

Even though Lisa has to work, she and I went in January to look at bridesmaids dresses and she picked hers out already, (MOH gets first pick)  and 99% of the time she is with me when I buy things for the wedding, so  she isn't missing much. Also, I had to miss going with her other bridesmaids to get measured for her dress, so we are teasing each other that we are even now. lol.

I will post picks later :-)

12-14-12 Tragedy

I live in Newtown, Connecticut (Sandy Hook is a sub division) And today, the day of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre I was subbing at the Middle School. We were put into lockdown at about 10 a.m. and stayed in lockdown until about 12. My class was perfect. They stayed calm and quiet during the excruciatingly long time. I had thankfully brought my phone today so I was able to look on Newtown's patch site to be somewhat clued in to why we were in lockdown.

I can say that I am truly thankful to be able to go home today to my loved ones. The tragedy that has occurred absolutely breaks my heart. I am so proud of how amazingly well the faculty dealt with the lockdown and i am praying for all of the faculty, students, and families of anyone at Sandy Hook Elementary. 

I wish that mental health care were more ready available so that horrid events like this would never happen again. Obviously the shooter was not of sound mind and this saddens me. These dramatic measures he took could have been 100% preventable had this boy gotten the care he needed. The word tragedy is not big enough to describe what has happened today. For so many reasons. . .

Post Election Thoughts

My facebook status today: Waking up this morning I was hopeful. I was hopeful that this country (regardless of last night's outcome) would come together and try to remember that America is ONE UNIFIED COUNTRY not a place built on, 'well i didn't vote so so-and-so.' Whomever you voted for is your business. It is your right to vote for the candidate you thought was best/better for the incredible job of president. But really, complaining and whining wont solve a thing, or improve this country. Can't we all just take one minute and be thankful that we all have the rights and privileges that we do instead of complaining about what we don't have or didn't get?