A Rose By Another Other Name . . .

. . . might not cost so much!

I put my mom in charge of flowers because, well, I don't care about the flowers. They're expensive, they die, and I don't know about any of you guys, but I pretty much never remember flowers at weddings anyway. I remember food! To be honest, Matt and I would be just fine with almost no flowers, but if you know my mother, that was definitely not an option.

You can imagine what I treat I've been to deal with. Here's an example of the conversations I've been having:

Mom: I need some help so I know where to start. What's a flower you don't like?
Me: Dead ones.
Mom: Okaaaay. What about color?
Me: I like color. Color is good.
Mom: This is progress. Any colors we should rule out?
Me: Um, I guess I don't want ugly colors.
Mom: Thanks, Bean. You've been very helpful. [rolls eyes]

So armed with this really useful information, my poor mother goes out to talk to florists. She did the initial work picking a florist, thank goodness, then had me go meet Mr. Florist.

Now this guy, Mr. Florist, is really something, and totally not what I was picturing. Like if we're expecting a flamboyant man who would clap his hands talking about blossoms and get choked up looking at bouquets, we had it all wrong. Mr. Florist is more like the guy who might work at a hardware store and give you the selling points on various power tools. This guy cuts the bullshit and gets down to business. He has a very dry sense of humor (at least I think it was humor). Another bride might not dig him, but I actually did.

These were the kinds of things we talked about:

Mr. Florist: Are there any flowers you know you like?
Me: I like sunflowers, but if they're expensive, strike that from the record.
Mr. Florist: What do you picture for your bouquet?
Me: Um, flowers?
Mr. Florist: Yes, thank you. [My mom shoots him a look like, "I warned you about her!"] OK, do you want your bouquet to be whites and ivories, or colorful like the sisters' bouquets?
Me: Colors! I like colors! [Getting nervous...] Is that normal for the bride to carry colors?
Mr. Florist: Look, it's your day. You can do whatever the hell you want. If anyone tries to tell you what to do, you just nod politely then promptly disregard their dumb ideas. Trust me, it's for the best.

I liked him! He was a little bit of a smartass, and I think he'll do a great job.

Corrections Regarding My Number of Readers

In my previous post, I said I knew I had at least two readers, Melanie and Meredith.

It has been pointed out to me that I was wrong. I have at least three readers! Su is reader #3.

Thank you :)

Settling the Dress Debate

I know there are at least two of you who check my blog, so my apologies to Melanie and Meredith for my slacking!

I'm excited to announce that we have chosen the dresses for our sisters to wear! I was trying to find something they could rewear, wouldn't be more than $200, and was a little forgiving around the midsection. Why my hang up on the midsection? Because (God willing) I will become an AUNT in July!!!!!!!! So, with my wedding just three months after my sister's due date, Karen's gotta get into a dress and, you know, have it fit. Yikes!

Karen and I found a dress we (thought we) liked, so I took Matt to check it out. I put on the dress for him, and he noticed something weird with the sash. Matt's probably going to get mad at me for writing this, but seriously, he's the one who noticed that the dress was weird. (Ladies, if you need help purchasing a dress and need someone with superhero vision to check if one string is out of alignment, I can rent Matt to you.)

So back to the damn dress drawing board.

Well, do you remember that dress I was kind of obsessed with, the one I saw in the window in the bridal boutique in Stamford back in June (and yes, I took pictures of it in the window), the one I wanted to wear for my reception dress? I showed the dress to my mom and she LOVED it. Proving my lack of attention to detail in these dresses, I overlooked the most obvious (not to mention lovely) thing: this dress, aside from being SO pretty, laces up the back. No zippers, meaning you can tie it tighter or loser, depending on your ability to avoid french fries. So, duh, the dress I loved all along is the perfect dress for our sisters. Woohoo! Check another thing off the list!

P.S. The dress was discontinued so we are getting a very similar dress instead.

P.P.S. I bought the original sample dress for half price. Hell, probably no one had tried it as many times as me, so it was practically my dress anyway.