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Sunday, November 6, 2011

Start your engines!!

At the risk of sounding like Piglet - - Oh dear.

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.

So, RJ and I are finally getting married!  We decided we wanted to keep it very small and intimate, but we still wanted to do something memorable and unique.

Them's dangerous words.

We bought tickets to Vegas, reserved a cheap chapel, and then set about thinking of a theme.  Did we want to do costumes?  If so, what should they be?

Several options crossed our minds:
- Superman and Lois Lane
- Lord of the Rings (no, not Arwen and Aragorn -- he wanted to be a hobbit or Golom)
- Western
- Medieval (though all the typical character choices have issues)

We finally settled on simply wearing Edwardian Era (Titanic-style) garb.

This style of clothing is much harder to find than you would think.  The dresses I found for sale were gorgeous, but cost an entire month's salary.  Suits, on the other hand, just didn't exist.  Problem.

So I thought maybe I should just MAKE our clothes!  That would be unique and memorable, right?!?

Let's revisit the beginning of the blog - - Oh dear.

I found some really great authentic patterns and ordered them.  When they arrived, I pulled out the instructions.  While wonderfully detailed, it was clear this would be no simple task.  My blood pressure went up a bit.

RJ asked about the cost of buying fabric.  Due to the amount and the types of fabric we needed, I told him it would cost at least $100 just for material.  His reply?  "That's not so bad."  Ha!  Guess who's got two thumbs and will get blamed for wasting all this money if this doesn't turn out?  THIS GIRL!

So......

Last night we went to JoAnn Fabrics.  Thankfully, our good friends Nicole and Danny tagged along.  Nicole knows how to sew and also has a great eye for color, so I was able to stop hyperventilating and take a few deep breaths.

Nicole and I waded through seemingly endless aisles of various fabrics, a plethora of colors and textures at our disposal.  After an hour and a half of contemplating, comparing, and debating we finally made our selections.

Here it is:

RJ's suit will be dark charcoal gray wool-like suit fabric with a herringbone pattern.  The cuffs of his sleeves, the collar of his jacket, and his buttons will be black silk.  His shirt will be just barely off-white, made from drapery linen.

My dress will have a bodice that is a sort of ecru/eggshell color (off-white with just a touch of yellow) silk dupione.  The two overskirts will be a light sage green silk dupione and a darker sage chiffon.  The sash will be chocolate brown silk.

Sounds great, yeah?  WHEW!!!!!

Thankfully, when we explained to the wonderful ladies who were cutting our massive amounts of fabric, they both agreed that they thought it would look beautiful.  They insisted we bring in pictures for "show-and-tell" when we get done.  The amazing cashier was wonderful enough to stay a few minutes late to ring us up (the fabric took about 15 minutes to cut) AND made sure we had a coupon to use since this was clearly going to be an expensive endeavor.  What would have cost us over $300 at regular price, we got at $165 due to sale prices and the coupon he gave us.  We were incredibly grateful.  However, in the back of mind I'm thinking....NO PRESSURE!!!!

So here I am, Sunday morning looking at a table full of everything I need to get started.  I'm wondering how in the HELL I am going to pull this off in only 40 days....with a full-time job....with 5 small children....cooking, cleaning, etc....

What have I gotten myself into?!?

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