12k Wedding Blog» Behind the Scenes

Found a Wedding Dress Preservation Box – Should I Buy it?

Mrs. 12k — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 23:32:09 +0000

I think I found a wedding preservation box!

I found it on an Archival and Preservation site and it’s called a Textile Storage Kit. It’s normally used for stuff like crocheted blankets or other museum-type pieces. But I think it might be perfect for my dress.

The entire kit is about $65 including shipping – no returns or exchanges.

What do you all think? Should I get it?

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Technorati Tags: storage kit, wedding dress preservation, wedding preservation

Preserving My Wedding Dress

Mrs. 12k — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 21:26:46 +0000

So, don’t judge me, but I just picked up my dress from the cleaners yesterday.

Sure I got married two years ago and I put my dress in the cleaners almost a year ago. But whatever. Life happens.

Anyway, being the miser that I am, I didn’t want to pay the extra money to the cleaners to have them put my dress in a preservation box. They simply cleaned it and hung it back up for me in a white bag.

Aside: I’m pretty disappointed that they couldn’t get all the dirt and marks out of the hem area. The rest of the dress looks good, but I was had my hopes up for that part I guess. Oh well.

Anyway.

So my dress is hanging up and I need to find a way to actually preserve it. One day I may sell it, but I’m not really planning on it any time soon. So I need to figure something out for now.

Here’s what I gather from doing a little research.

The dress should lay flat to avoid undue stress and sagging on the seams from hanging
The box should be lined with acid free paper and be acid free itself
The box should be taped to keep out any bugs while the dress is in storage

A lot of the DIY preservation kits I’ve seen online are in my opinion too expensive. My other issue with them is that the creators of the boxes tried to be too fancy and ended up putting gold Victorian features all over it and making it look super gaudy.

It’s like wedding dresses have come up since the 80’s but the preservation boxes haven’t.

So as usual, I’m trying to figure out how to make my own preservation box.

So far, I’m thinking I’ll get a big white box and some acid-free tissue paper from Jo-Ann’s or Michael’s. Some of the pre-made boxes have windows into the box, bu I don’t need to be able to see into the box to make sure the dress is still there. I’m sure it’s not going anywhere. Since the box won’t be going on display in a museum and will likely end up on top of my portable closet in the basement, I think this should be sufficient.

What do you guys think? Have you seen any decent DIY preservation kits or should I just do it my way?

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Technorati Tags: acid free paper, acid free tissue paper, Bridal Gown, Bride, DIY, Preservation, preservation boxes, storage, Wedding Dress

A Wedding Day Gift For Each Other

Mrs. 12k — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 14:00:48 +0000

Before we got married, I’d watch these wedding shows and the groom would have a gift delivered to the bride the morning of the wedding. Sometimes it was just a hand-written card. But sometimes it was a hand-written card and an extravagant, over the top piece of jewelry.

Now. Maybe it’s because we were on a 12k budget. But probably not. I couldn’t bring myself to even consider exchanging gifts with my groom on our wedding day. To us, the only gifts needed on that day, was the wedding we just paid for and the life we were about to embark on together.

So you tell me. Am I wrong on this one? Is it customary for the bride and groom to exchange wedding day gifts? If so, why?

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Technorati Tags: Bride, Gift, Groom, Present

Non-Traditional Color Choices for Your Wedding Dresses

Mrs. 12k — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 14:00:22 +0000

You all probably know by now that I wore an Ivory dress and red shoes to my wedding.

While I always believe there’s a place for tradition, I think there’s also room for you to stretch yourself in some places and do what you want as the Bride. Ultimately it’s you and your husband’s wedding and you all should do what makes you happiest.

That said, I encourage you all to make color choices that are just what you want, not what everyone this is right and proper. It’s one of those things that doesn’t cost you any extra dollars, but can really make a huge difference.

Maybe you want to wear a black dress.

Or a red dress.

Or maybe you’ve already been married, but you want to wear white.

Or maybe, you want your bridesmaids to wear white right along with you.

These may not be traditional choices, but if they’re what you want, by all means don’t hold back.

Do what makes you happiest. Everyone else will fall in line.

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Technorati Tags: black bridal gown, black wedding dress, red bridal gown, red wedding dress, Tradition, white bridesmaid dress

4, 3, 2…. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days! (oops – this was drafted 1/19/2011)

DetroitGyrl — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 18:44:17 +0000

****something happened with wordpress on 1/19 when I originally drafted this and it was never published.. so here it is.****

I totally intended to post something on January 11th – Marking the 5 month mark and the beginning of – “Our Wedding Year!” But life totally got in the way.. While I was ahead with everything on my list from Designing and ordering the STDs (back in September), Making a preliminary guest list (back in August), Creating the Website (back in October) – those three things are basically stagnant now. I had wholly planned on sending out the STDs on December 11th – the 6 months mark. Then I pushed it back to January 11th – to give our parents a little while longer to get their friends addresses to us.. and now – it’s January 19th and I haven’t addressed a single envelope.
I keep saying – “this weekend” – but our weekends are JAM packed with things to do… speaking of – we attended a friend’s wedding this past Saturday. AWESOME! It was at the Inn at St. John.. It’s a beautiful space. On Sunday we attended a Sip N Scan at Macy’s to begin our registry – something I wanted done before I sent out the STDS.. (CHECK!) and Monday we found the groomsmen’s suits for a STEAL and the future Hubby Purchased his. He also bought my jewelry.. Originally – I wanted to wear crystals.. but this simple pearl set caught my eye and my heart. I’m so excited to wear it.. next to my shoes and veil – it’s my favorite wedding day addition.

The genuine fresh water pearl set includes: Studs, a single strand pearl bracelet and a single strand pearl necklace. I tried it on when I got home… I got misty.. Everything is coming together.. Now – if I could just get my life together and mail off these STDs.

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Technorati Tags: countdown, Inn at St. John, Wedding Jewelry

Shoe #3

DetroitGyrl — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 20:57:12 +0000

I don’t know if I mentioned this.. but finding a shoe has been VERY serious business for me. I set a goal to have my shoes picked out and on my feet by September 30th. I found the perfect shoe on September 3rd.. WELL ahead of schedule.. Good thing too – because it turned out that they weren’t so perfect. This designer has some funky narrowing of the toe going on so my my 4th and 5th toe slid right off. Here is a pic of shoe 1.

The second shoe was MUCH better… more in line with the style I like – peep-toe pump. I guess I had just gotten too fancy with the first shoe. Here is a picture of shoe 2. I fell in love with this one the minute I slipped it on. Yes – that is a 4.25inch heel.

While I absolutely LOVED shoe 2… I kept checking back on the zappo’s site for new Badgley Mischka inventory.. That’s when I found shoe 3! I’m keeping shoe #3 a secret until the wedding.. but just know that it’s the most fabulous shoe of them all!

Stay tuned! only 201 more days until you get to see what shoe 3 looks like.

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Technorati Tags: badgley mischka, heel, Shoes

8 Months!

DetroitGyrl — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 15:56:04 +0000

We are only 243 days away from our BIG day!

It’s very exciting that only 10 months ago – we were JUST getting started.

I have so many things checked off my list. I have my dress, veil, shoes, photog, dj, STDs, Venue and bridal party squared away.

There is still so much to do.. but I’m uberly excited to see things being checked off my list.

I’m moving slow and steady like a tortoise.. I don’t want to be stressed.. so each month I have things that HAVE TO GET done. This month I’m working on the website, addresses and envelopes for our STDs. November and December are decor months – I want to benefit from all of the sales.

I’m OFF!!!!

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I Don’t Usually Do This But…

DetroitGyrl — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 17:52:08 +0000

The future hubby and I got all snazzy to hit the town for a hip hop concert in downtown Detroit on Saturday. I was lucky enough to win two tickets to see Jay Electronica and Slum Village from Public Media Group at St. Andrew’s Hall (or so I thought). I was the first person to respond that I wanted two free tickets. COOL!! Can’t turn down a ANYTHING free – especially during WEDDING BUDGET season. So.. I’m given the option of picking up the tickets or having my name on the list at the door. I love to have paper tickets in hand – but picking them up from Royal Oak when I live way out 94 – doesn’t seem like an option – so I opt to have my name +1 added to the list.

We get there just after 8pm, see our friends in line, have a couple laughs – The future Hubby and I haven’t been on a date in a while and haven’t been to a hip hop concert inside of the city since…. since… We looked forward to the night out. He hadn’t heard of Jay Electronica – so I hoped this would restore his faith in hip hop.

Anyway.. long story short.. get up to the window and hand the woman my license only to be told that my name is not on the list and that it was probably removed because the list was so long.. HUNH? How does that make sense?

So – I get home and e-mail Jeremy D (the guy that told me I won in the first place) about the bogusness (yes – I said bogusness) of the situation and he gives some tidbits that don’t help me: 1. the promoter swears my name is on the list 2. I need to return to the window and get my tix (yeah – that’s cute – I’m 40 minutes away now)…

Then he tells me that basically it was my fault – because I didn’t e-mail him right away from the ticket window. I’m sorry – I don’t make it a habit to carry my laptop around with me to hip hop concerts. Epic FAIL on his part for trying to blame ME in this situation. So – I suggested that from now on he leave paper tickets for winners at the door – since he knows this type of thing is an issue (another tidbit he shared with me – thanks Jeremy) :-/

Whatever… in the end – The future Hubby and I took a nice stroll through Greektown, stopped for some coldstone and thought about how nice it would be to get some wedding shots on the steps of Old St. Mary’s Church.

In other news… I went paper shopping in Royal Oak yesterday with one of my Bridesmaids who happens to be the BOMB graphic designer.. We wanted to check out Envelopments paper for my invitations and programs, etc.

I LOVE Envelopments paper – but what I DON’T love is Write Impressions. They have TONS of great paper goods and fun little gift ideas.. but customer service they do NOT! They were down right rude and inconsiderate. Which is crazy – because there weren’t that many people in the store and it was a good 20 minutes before we even asked for help. Something as small as a quote seemed to be too much for the salesgirl to handle. She didn’t even say – “I’ll be right back” when she got up to give her co-worker money for lunch.. despite the fact that I was mid sentence with a question. And she argued with me for a good minute about envelopes even when I told her to go ahead and put them on the quote – despite my lack of desire to purchase them. And then… she randomly got up to check the weather on the internet.. so we just took the half finished quote and waved goodbye while she chatted on the phone with a friend about the weather.

Needless to say – we’ll be be trying to find the Envelopments paper somewhere else.

Seriously – what is it with people?

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Technorati Tags: Envelopments, Jay Electronica, Old St. Mary's, Public Media Group, Write Impressions

Less than 13 months!

DetroitGyrl — Tue, 11 May 2010 20:37:37 +0000

It’s almost June – which means our wedding will be 1 year away. We’re very excited.. but we still don’t have a venue yet. We have a few ideas – but nothing set in stone yet. We got a chance to see our top two venues on April 23rd. We still haven’t made a decision – both have their perks, both have their downfalls…

We’ll certainly nail one down by June 30th – so I’ll keep you all posted..

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Allow Me to RE-INTRODUCE MYSELF….

DetroitGyrl — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 14:47:23 +0000

Ok – so this topic has come up a few times since we’ve announced our engagement… What will my new name be? Whoa – new name? Oh yeah.. I’ll be the same person but called by a new name. Hmm.. How do I feel about that?

Now – as long as I can remember… I’ve met many, many women who have come to the point in their lives where they take their hubby’s name. But for some reason – as the time for me to make that switch comes closer and closer – I am starting to feel like re-introducing myself to society is a little 9th hour. I mean – I know “that’s how it’s done.” But why??

I’ve been me for almost 29 years.. almost 30 years by the time of the wedding.. and I’m VERY comfortable with who I am. I’ve learned my habits, changed a few and learned to love myself and be the best me I can be.. and now I’m supposed to change all of that?

On the flip side.. I’m becoming a wife to a WONDERFUL man.. a man I’ve known would be my husband for 17 years. I’ve ALWAYS wanted to be “Mrs. DetroitBoy.” I imagine what it would be like to walk into a room and be called- “Mrs. DetroitBoy” – for the first time. I’d turn around and coyly reply – “Yes?” (::eyelash flutter::)

That’s just what women do.. they change their last name in America and become known as someone new… and re-invented.

But I’m the same old DetroitGyrl.. but with a hubby now..I’m the dancer, the artist, the chef, the daughter, the writer (oh yeah – and I’m published in my field – changing my name would most certainly confuse things). And I’m not sure I’m ready to just BE SOMEONE else.

The future hubby and I have had conversations about hyphenation and changing my last name to a middle name.. and even me just taking his name. I just can’t decide – so many pros and cons. And at the end of the day – I don’t mind being referred to as Mrs. DetroitBoy – I’m just not sure I want to legally CHANGE my identity..

Thoughts?

~DetroitGyrl

(ps – and no – I’m not trying to destroy the institute of marriage or emasculate my DetroitBoy by keeping my name.. I’m just trying to make the best decision for US, me, my career, my SANITY, etc.)

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Technorati Tags: Idea, Tradition