hollyanderic.com

Nope, we didn't register it. We've sort of decided not to do our own wedding website, although that was based on theoretical cost and effort and it might not actually be that expensive or effort-full, so we'll see. We haven't set up a free website, either, yet, but that's beside the point right now.

If you would, please open up a new tab (or window, if you're not using Firefox or even the newest version of IE), and click on over to hollyanderic.com. And then click on "wedding."

There's another set of us?!!?!? And Eric actually knows the other Eric -- they're from the same part of Pennsylvania and went to high school together, apparently. I do not know the other Holly. But they got married in Princeton (Massachusetts) and I'm from Princeton (New Jersey), which is near Worcester (Massachusetts), which is where my dad did his reserve training the whole time we lived in Princeton, NJ, and where my good friend (and bridesmaid, although she doesn't know it yet) Karen lives with her husband and their new daughter, Lily (the prettiest newborn baby I've ever seen in my life).

Talk about crazy coincidences! And grr to them for stealing our domain name.

What do you think about ericandholly.com? We both think it sounds better the other way around, but it looks like that's not an option. Thehollyanderic.com? (It's available and suggested!) hollyeric.com, or maybe holly-eric.com?

These are not necessarily serious inquiries for your opinion. We may do nothing at all.

Target Bridal?!!!!

Sorry for two posts in a row, but when I pulled that picture of my Target shoes off the Target website, I found this:

Target Bridal

Wedding dresses by Isaac Mizrahi (for less than $200!!), bridesmaid dresses, tuxes by Merona for $190 (jacket, pants, and tux shirt), veils and headpieces, and "regular" Target items like shoes and accessories pulled from the other parts of their website.

WOW! My favorite store just got more awesome.

I bought shoes... already?!?!?!

I wrote the post below last week, but never published it. I thought I would wait and maybe check out some more shoes first.

Then I went to Target on Saturday. And bought these:


Only $19.99 -- how could I resist? They're totally cute, tall enough (we did a test dance in the Target shoe section), and definitely able to be worn again. Or even before the wedding...


I might keep looking. Or I might not.






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Original, unpublished post:

I went to Off-Broadway Shoes last week and found these candidates:

Kenneth Cole Reaction -- "Rags to Riches," silver, 3" heel












Steve Madden -- "Martha," purple (but I can only find a picture of it in black), 4" heel












And finally, a GREAT pair of purple pumps by Michael Shannon, style name "Anna," which seems to be a discount brand that only Off-Broadway Shoes carries, which means they do not exist on the internet at all apparently, but they were ADORABLE. If you see an Off-Broadway Shoes commercial, they're the first pair they show -- peep toe with striped purple fabric... hard to explain, but very cute. And I think because they are so difficult to find, I might just have to buy them. Sigh.

Check out what Target has!
Isaac Mizrahi for Target -- Laurel, silver, 3.5" heel. I can't usually wear slingbacks, though -- they always slip off. They do share their name with my sister, though.












Mossimo -- Heulwen, silver, 3" heel












Mossimo -- Hailey, silver, 4" heel -- a very strong candidate, and only $19.99! Also a slingback, though.













The Nordstrom's website offers a few candidates as well:
Nina -- Gordie, true silver or deep plum, 3.5" heel












Calvin Klein -- Riza, silver satin, 3.5" heel













Nina and Chinese Laundry have many other options as well.

I'm not hard to please -- a tall, strappy sandal with a d'Orsay heel or ankle strap in silver or purple is all I need. Thankfully, price constraints are going to make these decisions much easier.

A Bride Sues Her Florist Over Pastel Hydrangeas

Wow, brides ARE crazy.

A NYC bride has sued her florist for breach of contract for a "series of faux pas at her wedding on Aug. 11." "In the most 'egregious,' ... the florist substituted pastel pink and green hydrangeas for the dark rust and green hydrangeas she had specified for 22 centerpieces."

Wow.

I guess when you pay over $27,000 for your flowers you'd better get what you want. I'm going to ignore for the moment the idea of paying $27,000 for flowers -- even in NYC.

I guess I should use this opportunity to announce that I intend to do some of my own wedding flowers. Not all of them. Just some. There are plenty of places to order wholesale flowers from, and I definitely have the ability to do centerpieces and some bouquets. I could do boutonnières also, but I'm not totally crazy, don't worry. There are some logistical issues to consider: when you order flowers wholesale, they're closed and you need to give them a few days in a cool place to open -- florists use walk-in refrigerators, which I don't have. One solution is a ceremony/reception site that will let me use their catering refrigerators, but it depends on the site. Anyway, these are issues for many months from now, but I am excited at the prospect of getting to play with flowers again.

Shoes

You definitely need to have your wedding shoes before you get your dress altered. But me? I think I need my shoes before I even buy my dress.

At 5'1", I'm on the short side of things. I like wearing all types of shoes, flat and heeled alike. Eric, on the other hand, is 6'2", which means if we're going to be doing something like dancing, I need all the help I can get. I have a great pair of 3" black strappy sandals that I wear for most fancy occasions, and I've taken a couple looks at Zappos and Piperlime to see what similar things I can find in white (that would be not much, at least, not in my preferred price range).

But after going dress shopping with my mom and sister last month, I realized how important it really is going to be for me to find shoes before I settle on a dress. A lot of dresses come in a few lengths that you can choose from, and I'm pretty sure I'm going to end up with a dress that doesn't have a lot of room for length alterations -- that is, dresses without waistlines where waists can be pulled up, and with detail at the hem, so skirts can't be cut at the bottom. So I need the tallest shoes I can find and then the shortest-available dress I can find.

The dress that -- at this point, anyway -- I'm pretty sure I'm going to buy (I wrote the post about dress shopping, but I'm not going to post it yet, because it's pretty ridiculous that I found it on the first day of shopping, only a few weeks after getting engaged) comes in lengths of 55", 58", and 61". My own hollow-to-hem length barefoot is 51" -- so I either need 4" heels or a shorter dress.

I haven't been impressed with the shoes I've seen in white so far, and if I really need to find the shoes first, I need to find them (relatively) soon. But you know what? When am I ever going to wear white shoes again? Probably never.

But look! Not all brides wear white shoes!


















Her feet look pretty damn cute in red. And this bride is on the prowl for red shoes as well. So silver is definitely a possibility (the dress I'm eyeing has silver embroidery). As is now purple, as well. Yay!

So as soon as all this surgery craziness is done with, I can start shopping for purple shoes :) And a venue, but you know... accessories first.