No More Nail Wails

Hive, I am here with a true success story. A testimonial if you will.

Way back in August, which is marked in my mind by the number of months away from my wedding (just under six months), I read a blog post. This blog post changed my world. I'm not exaggerating. Things changed after that moment.

Mrs. Macarons, then Miss Macarons, wrote a post about nails. She talked about having trouble growing her nails. I could relate to that post. It spoke to me.

As a nervous nail biter , a pianist, and and a scientist, my nails had always been short thanks to years of lab work , recitals, and nerve-inducing situations (med school interviews anyone?). I figured they would always be that way since fake acrylics weren't for me. But when I read her post, I knew there could be more for me.

I purchased the product from the website she mentioned the very next day. It was cheaper online that it is in CVS. I started using it as a base coat and top coat over my nail polish. Over the last few months, my approach has evolved, and I'm so pleased with the results, I simply have to share.

Personal photo: These were my nails in August. Tiny tiny nail beds with short short nails. No wedding bueno.

Personal photo: I started with Formula 2. It seemed the best geared toward getting my nails back healthy.

I must also mention another contributor to my short nails, they break. They weren't brittle, but I'm not the most easy-going on my hands. I would hit the edge of my nail on something hard and it would break. It happened too often. Even after I began using Nailtiques and the nails began to grow, this kept happening, so I needed an extra layer of protection. Enter Sally Hansen!

Personal photo: This acrylic gel went on my nails right over the Nailtiques but before I applied polish. It came off easily with nail polish remover, but added a great extra layer of strength, so no more hard surface breakage!

Personal photo: Keeping my nails healthy from the outset of growth became appealing as well, so I bought cuticle oil. I put it on my cuticles every day that I don't do my nails, so about 4-5 times a week.

Once my nails stopped breaking and were actually growing, I was so excited to share with the hive, but I waited. I wanted a more dramatic reveal. So here are the nails over the past few months.

Personal photo: September Nails

Personal photo: October nails

Personal photo: November nails

Another added bonus of the nails is that the fiance loves them. I mean he loves them. Neither of us knew he liked long nails, but he definitely does. And people keep asking me if my nails are fake, which I take as a huge compliment.

Just to drive the point home, here's a look again at my nails the day I bought Nailtiques and a picture I took right before sitting down to write this post:

Personal photo

I'm excited to see how long they will be come February. I'm glad I won't end up having to get fake nails since they're not my thing.

If your nails concern you and my testimonial has touched you, jump on the Nailtiques bandwagon. I don't know what it is with me and bandwagons, perhaps it's the idea that it's a bit like a parade, and I lurv parades.

Kettle Chicks & Mary Kay

I've been trying to plan a party for my bridesmaids for quite some time. Because there are a bajillion of us, it's been hard to get a time that works for all of us. A friend of mine sells Mary Kay and she doesn't live in the city, so that was another person to coordinate times with.

But last night the stars (and our schedules) aligned and we were able to all get to my apartment at nearly the same time and have our party. We have chicken, pizza, salad, and screwdrivers. And we had music and good conversation.

But most important was the reason we were there. We were there to sample Mary Kay products. This event was all about skin care. We will get together next month and that will be all about makeup (I think) and then we will get together one more time.

The end result is that each girl will have a color palette for her makeup especially designed for her skin tone and the color of the bridesmaid dress. If you know someone who sells Mary Kay, by all means, host the bridal makeup party. It's like playing big girl dress up. And if you live in central Illinois or further north in the state, I can give you the hook-up on a great consultant.

Personal Photo: My consultant, and friend, setting up our skin care sample sets.

The Kettle ladies vary in their knowledge of makeup, so starting with the basics was a fantastic idea. We learned about skin care and how choosing the right foundation is actually an important part of skin care.

Personal Photo: That's MOH Sis holding her sample. There seems like quite a bit of steps to get great skin, but the end result is worth it. I use about 5 products myself daily.

Personal Photo: MOH Sis, BM Law, BM Milk BM Libra, BM ATL, and BM Shhh. Momma Kettle is there hiding in the back too.



Personal Photo: You can see BM Shhh's makeup, we liked how smooth it made her skin look. Me and Momma Kettle laughing about something.



Personal Photo: Testing out my foundation. I wasn't a huge fan, I think I'll stick with my tinted moisturizer and mineral powder.

Personal Photo: BM Law all tuckered out. She's the old lady in the group. Not in age, but in behavior. I should have juxtaposed this with a picture of Momma Kettle dancing to Michael Jackson music at that same moment.

The ladies really enjoyed the products and a couple of them bought some stuff. Yay for Mary Kay converts! Next month, we'll be playing with eye shadow and lip color. I can't wait!

Did you do anything to prepare your girls for their makeup for the day of the wedding? Do you have a skin car regimen?

Just Sitting and Waiting

I've been a bad blogger, and I'm sorry, but there's been a lot of nothing going on with my wedding planning. To illustrate my point, a list:

• We know where we want to go for our honeymoon, but are still sorting out when we're going to pay and when we're going to book.
• We still haven't picked a florist.
• Our DOC doesn't actually know we picked her yet. That's my fault. I should be sending an e-mail, but instead I'm blogging.
• We haven't had our venue meeting yet to sort out the last details of our plan for the day.
• Our invitations are done, but not yet ordered.
• The clothes are all picked out and ordered (except the hostesses), but nothing has arrived yet.
• I've been so busy with work, I haven't had time to start any of my DIY projects.

So basically, a whole bunch of almost something. I'm looking forward to having lots to talk about in just a couple weeks. November 15th is Momma Kettle's and my deadline for having all the big stuff planned and all the little stuff started. Wish us luck!

In the meantime, I checked my wedding website, and I noticed something. As I'm writing this post, I'm 99 days from my wedding. I completely forgot about being this close to the big 100 day mark. I am belatedly excited, and even more motivated to get this stuff done. It will get done!

Image via Wedding by Color

When you reached 100 days, were you still in full swing or in a weird lull?

And Another DOC Meeting

I wrote about a post about how I'd lost my ability to make decisions. We still haven't chosen a DOC or a florist. But, we are making progress on the solutions Momma and Mima Kettle came up with.

We met with a third DOC on Monday. Mr. Kettle came with me and Momma and Daddy Kettle to this meeting. By this third meeting, we were old pros. We laid out what we had planned so far and gave her the information she needed.

She asked some follow-up questions and took a lot of notes. Then we talked about what her services would be. From all three meetings, I'm starting to see that it is the rule of thumb that DOCs get involved before the actual day-of.

They come in anywhere from immediately to 30 days prior to the wedding. They help for a detailed timeline for the day. They try to get to know the wedding party so there's no confusion as to who's running the show on the wedding day. They go the rehearsal and of course they're at the actual wedding.

The DOCs all offered to take care of making sure deliveries are on schedule on the wedding day, making the sure musicians are on time and set up, and taking care of day-of vendor payments. Also, they all seem to have teams they work with (especially for a wedding the size of mine).

So how will we choose between people who seem so similar?

Well, it's all about personality. Personality and price.

I liked the first DOC we met with. She seemed very no-nonsense, which would be very effective with my family and friends. The only problem is her prices. Very high. Almost 3 times what the second DOC was charging.

I really liked the second DOC. She seemed like her main goal would be to make my wedding day perfect. That's all the DOCs main goal, but she got me. She really got me, you know? Her prices were nice, but my parents were worried that she perhaps didn't have enough experience to make it happen.

The third DOC was great. She actually went to school with my parents so she was definitely our type of person. Everyone automatically got along great. And even better, she didn't treat me like how some of my parents' friends can: like a child because I wasn't born before the end of the 1970s. We don't know her prices yet, but she said she will send us a proposal by the end of this week.

I pretty much just have to choose between the second and third coordinator. If their prices are very similar, it will be interesting because I'm leaning toward the second DOC and I know my parents are leaning toward the third.

Gifting My Gals

I've heard all over the hive how lovely Etsy is. I have always agreed, but I haven't had much luck. I turned to Etsy to find a cheaper alternative to my dream veil. So far, no one has replied to my custom order requests, or the replies had price offers that were no better than what I was going to get from the bridal shop.

But when I gave up on my veil, the possibilities started opening up. Etsy is the perfect place to find great gifts for your wedding party! I've got a huge wedding party. It's really, really, really big. Yet I still want to gift these amazing people who have decided to be a part of our wedding. I just don't want to spend an amount equivalent to the cost of our flowers or honeymoon.

Etsy has a ton of options, and just by browsing around, I've found some amazing ideas for gifts. It's like they knew I was coming! I knew I didn't want to give the gifts in a plain old paper gift bag, I wanted to give their gifts in a bad they could use again, a bag that would be another gift in and of itself. Seller Personalized Gifts by J had a bunch of options that I like.

Image via Etsy Seller Personalized Gifts by J

Image via Personalized Gifts by J

Image via Personalized Gifts by J

 And this seller gives a discount for buying multiples. That makes this bride happy. I intend to buy bags for my 6 bridesmaids, the 2 maids of honor, the 2 junior bridesmaids, the 3 hostesses, the 2 flowers girls, and one for myself. that's 16 bags!

I also saw something that finally pulled me off my desire to get flasks for all the women. I know my mother may disapprove, and that's not a deal breaker, but it's a deal bender. So I found another option. Something girly, decorative, still personalized, but much more classy. Oh, and did I mention waaaaay more affordable? Hive, I introduce you to Seller Madison Craft. She has so many of these lovely hand mirrors to choose from. I looked at them all and picked out ones that would be perfect for the women in the bridal party.

Image via MadisonCraft

Image via MadisonCraft

Image via MadisonCrafts

 I figure that these gifts, along with the gold earrings Grandmother Kettle is buying for the bridesmaids is a great start. I intend to gift these chicks at the rehearsal dinner, so I'm thinking about including supplies for what will likely turn into a big pre-wedding slumber party later that night.

Also, I still have to figure out what to gift the men. I'm hoping Mr. Kettle can help with that. He's got 8 groomsmen, we each have a best man, and I have 2 additional bridesmen. Le sigh.

What gifts did you give your wedding party? How much do you love Etsy?

How To Be A Rebel Bride - Wedding Registry Edition

Hive, it's done! I've finally completed our wedding registries. It only took 6 people 5 months to do it, but it got done. I feel like I managed to register for exactly what we needed and wanted. There are all these suggestions of what we should be registering for. In fact, I printed off a three page list with suggestions, But I tossed those suggestions right out the window.

Well, I didn't throw it out the window, but I did get rid of the list. I thought about Mr. Kettle and the life we plan to have in the next 10 years or so.

We definitely needed some classic wedding registry stuff (such as wedding china), but we also needed some non-classic stuff (such as bicycles). Our registry planning got off to a slow start, a real slow start. To illustrate, I've done a cartoon. I had to edit it so you could actually read it this time.

Personal Cartoon

Personal Cartoon

Personal Cartoon

Personal Cartoon

 The first thing we registered for was our wedding china. Momma Kettle and one of her best friends came with Mr. Kettle and I to Macy's. It only took us four hours (only!), but we got it done! After that ordeal, it took us a long time to get back on board with finishing the registry.

During my birthday weekend, BM Law and BM Libra (who's birthday weekend it also was), were with me while I finished my registries at Crate and Barrel and Williams-Sonoma. I still had to finish Target (yay for bicycles), but I figured I'd do that online.

If I've learned a couple things from doing my registry, it's this:

• Don't be afraid to price compare between your registries. The KitchenAid stand mixer was available at all 4 stores, but I went for the one that looked the best at the best price.
• Keep track of your password. Target updated their online registries and I forgot my password so I had to start a new one. Hopefully, our guests will know the correct one is the one with more than one thing on it.
• If it works better for you, add to your registry both in-store and on-line. I never would've started or finished without both those options.
• Decide for yourself what works best for your registry. If you want a jump rope, add it in!

Also for your viewing pleasure, some of my favorite registry items:

Image via: Target / Huffy Ladies Fresno Cruiser Bike - Purple

Image via Macy's / kate spade new york Dinnerware, Palmetto Bay 5 Piece Place Setting

Image via Williams-Sonoma / Mauviel Copper 12-Piece Set

Image via Crate and Barrel / KitchenAid® Artisan Copper Stand Mixer

 My new favorite kitchen metal is copper. Too bad all my old stuff is stainless steel. I think that I will find a way to make my old stainless steel work with my new and fabulous copper!

Have you finished your registry? How long did it take you to do it?

Dress Shopping With My Momma

My dress is already ordered. The bridesmaid dresses are already ordered. If you read my last post though, you'd know there were still a number of women involved with this wedding who weren't yet dressed.

When I talked about Momma Kettle's wedding clothes options, I thought she might be leaning more towards getting a suit, like what Grandmother Kettle got. But, I was completely off. When I mentioned that I figured she'd look best in something similar to what she wore for my cotillion, she seemed a bit un-enthused.

Turns out, she definitely had an evening gown in mind, but not one like she wore at the cotillion. The cotillion had all these rules about what had to be covered and her dress had long sleeves. For the wedding, she had something a little less... covered in mind.

Off we went to West 95th street, in search of a bridal shop. I'm not sure whether or not we ended up at the same place Mima Kettle got her dress from or not. We just stopped at the first store we saw. We went inside and met a lovely young woman who got us started on finding the perfect mother-of-the-bride gown.

I showed her some pictures Momma Kettle and I brought from a magazine to give her an idea of what we were looking for. She found a couple dresses that fit the basics and we went to the dressing room. It was really nice to be on the other end of the dress trying on.

Personal photo: My chair set up at the viewing area outside the fitting rooms

She began trying on dresses. The first one she put on fit our requirement of a very elegant dress. All the dresses are in colors that may not necessarily be what we would've ordered them in.

Personal photo: This dress was very elegant and pretty. But it wasn't much besides that And the train, while beautiful, could possibly interfere with my mother's dancing on the wedding night. Momma Kettle is a dance machine!

Personal photo: Neither of us really loved this dress. But seeing this photo now, it looks pretty amazing. But we still ruled it out while we were still at the store.

Personal photo: After seeing the elegant dress, we wanted to see a fun dress. This dress was definitely fun!

Personal photo: There was a bolero that went with it that we loved. there was also a train/cape thingee that we couldn't figure it out.

Personal photo: At this point we were having too much fun! After not being able to figure out what the train was doing, we decided it should be a cape. Momma Kettle is so much fun.

When we were trying to sort through the dresses, we decided we'd choose one of these. Another saleslady came over to "help", but I found her extremely annoying. She wasn't being helpful. She was just trying to take over our first lady's appointment. Knowing, they work on commission, I wasn't having that.

I dragged our first lady off to find this other dress she mentioned. That gave my mother a chance to talk the ear of the other woman, who was thankfully gone when we got back with the dress. She put my mom into the dress and she walked out in it. It was great! Just see for yourself.

Personal photo: It was a bit too large, but it was super cute. It was elegant, sexy, fun, and everything we wanted for her dress that night.

Personal photo: This fabric color is called "honey". It's a beautiful neutral color that's in the golden family. It's a chiffon fabric and will be fabulous!

Personal photo: This is the dress on the mannequin. Zoomed in so you can see the pretty swooped fabric.

We ordered the dress and and were very happy to do so. Because we got it from a bridal shop, we had to put a rush order in (+$60) to get it here in time for the wedding. But it doesn't matter, because she's got her dress.

I also want to clarify about the clothes for people who aren't bridesmaids. I think it might be a cultural difference kind of thing. But most weddings I go to at my church have everyone coordinated who's even loosely related to the wedding.

Imagine a procession of of 25 family members all dressed in white clothes and black/silver shoes. That's how things are around here. By giving my family three-four different color options for clothes and letting them pick their own jewelry and shoes with only loose guidelines for color is actually seen as easy-going.

There are people who hand-pick stuff their second cousin wears to the wedding. That's why it's good to have Weddingbee.  Hive, you keep me in perspective. I've always thought planning out clothes for the entire family was a bit crazy.

I figured making sure those who would be wearing corsages and bouts are coordinated would be pretty tame by comparison. But I decided to back off and let people wear what they want. And in typical contrary fashion, as soon as I called my grandmother to tell her it was fine is she wore silver, she said she had thought about it and decided she didn't want to be the only person in silver and would be sticking with her gold accessories. After all, she doesn't even like silver.

I'm deciding to put the women's clothes on the list with the men's tuxes. I haven't asked much about the tuxes since that fiasco. I'm 100% sure the neither Mr. Kettle nor Daddy Kettle have gotten their tuxes yet. But we're still over 100 days out, so it's no big deal, right? Right?

How was dress shopping with your mom? Have you ever gone overboard on planning other peoples' roles in your wedding? Is that just me?

Clothes For Non-Bridesmaid Chicks

One of the many, many things that still need to be done for this wedding is to find clothes for important women involved with my wedding. My wedding party is huge, so there are lots o' women to clothe. Let's get to it!

Momma Kettle: We still don't know what she's wearing. I'd like her to wear something like this.

Image via Macy's / Dress by JS Boutique

Image via Macy's / Dress by BCBGMaxAzria

She may be leaning more towards a suit, but hopefully not.

Grandmother Kettle: She is being very frustrating. She found a great suit at Burlington. I helped her pick it and it's beautiful. It's a great color and she will look great on my wedding day. Just one problem, it has rhinestones on it and she has decided she must wear silver accessories. This is after months of her celebrating that gold was going to be my accent metal for the wedding.

Usually, I'm not a fan of gold unless it's white gold. I made an exception for the wedding. Grandmother Kettle wears gold everything all the time. But she's just being contrary. It sucks, but she's determined to be difficult. She has make-something-that's-not-about-me-about-me-by-any-means-necessary syndrome. Moving on.

Mima Kettle: Mr. Kettle's mother found a great dress too. I haven't seen it yet, but I hear form her and FSIL Grand that it's lovely. They were one their way to Lumber Liquidators with Poppa Kettle one day down west 95th Street in Oak Lawn. There are a ton of dress shops on that street. They stopped in one to check on a dress FSIL Grand thought she might like. Just by checking around quickly, Mima Kettle found a dress she loved. And the best part is it will look great with gold accessories!

FSIL Grand: A while back she sent me photos of dresses she might want. She hasn't found a dress yet, but I will show you what she had in mind.

Image via Dessy

Hostesses: Lastly, there are the hostesses. So far there is my cousin, Mr. Kettle's niece, and possibly another girl who I mentor at my church. We have to find a dress that will look good on all three who have very different body types. We haven't found anything perfect just yet, but I really need to get on it in case they need to be ordered and shipped. I looked at this website that I got my hostess dress from for a wedding a couple years ago. Here's some dresses I've seen that could work.

Image via eDressMe / Dress by Darling

Image via eDressMe / Dress by James and Joy

Image via eDressMe / Dress by von Vonni

Any of these in a champagne, purple, or gold color would work.

Am I crazy to want the immediate family in gold accessories as well? Is your family matching your wedding color palette?

Yummy Yummy In My Tummy

I know that title isn't nearly as sophisticated as it should be, especially considering our venue.

Image via My Chicago Wedding

The tasting was sophisticated and classy. But the food was so good, I just wanted to dance up and down and go, "mmmmmm, yummy." In fact I still do. So there you have it.

I don't know where my camera is. I thought I'd left it at work and was kicking myself for not having it for the entire five days I was off (birthday celebration, woot!), but I'm back at work and still can't find it. So all pics from here on will be taken on my super cool new Blackberry that was a birthday gift to myself. I apologize in advance.

Mr. Kettle and I picked up Grandmother Kettle and drove out to Joliet for the tasting. There, we met Momma and Daddy Kettle, Mima and Poppa Kettle, and FSIL Grand. Yeah, we took 8 people there. I tried to take pictures, but it was an afterthought.

Personal Photo: Momma Kettle, Daddy Kettle, Grandmother Kettle

Personal Photo: Mima Kettle, Poppa Kettle, FSIL Grand

The brought us out the food and caused a bit of an issue with us that we got sorted out and hopefully won't have problems with anymore. They had some clerical issues where they neglected to tell the chef we had 8 people coming, not 4. So they only had enough food for a tasting they normally do for 4 people. We were nice and shared, but we were all still starving when we left. The silver lining to that fiasco is that the entire family is on board with having a DOC now.

But on to the food, which was so tasty. We started out with and hors d'oeuvres platter. They brought two of each.

Personal Photo: 8 different options, with 4 different sauces

Then it was time for the entree selections. I'd chosen three options, and they all looked pretty good. Mima and Poppa Kettle cut all the entrees into 8 pieces so we could each try a bit of it. The steak was really good and so we knew that would be our beef option. We had to choose between the two chicken options. We really couldn't decide!

Personal Photo: New York Strip steak

Personal Photo: Chicken Piquant

Personal Photo: Chicken Saltimbucco

Ultimately, I decided whoever was actually ordering the chicken for the wedding would choose. But almost all of us were getting the steak! Grandmother Kettle said she was getting chicken. Since she was the only one, we let her choose. She picked the chicken piquant. It will be so tasty. It has a lemon caper sauce. Yum!

Up next was the three options for cake. I forgot to tell them ivory buttercream, so they brought us pure white. Because this was my birthday weekend, I had a lot of icing. Hive, you were so right about the ivory buttercream being way better tasting. I'll make sure I choose the right icing for the wedding. Our three options were red velvet, french lemon silk, and milk chocolate mousse.

Personal Photo: I almost forgot to take a pic, but luckily it's only missing one bite.

We all loved the french lemon silk. We thought the others were just okay. That was enough to make us check out another option for cakes. Yet another thing to add to my to-do list... Yay...

They have dessert buffet options, so we tried out those. Lots of chocolate options. They also have a chocolate fountain. I want that chocolate fountain!

Personal Photo: They had chocolate versions of everything!

Personal Photo: I think there was even chocolate baklava!

They gave us wine and beer with the food. We were very pleased with the food. So now I can feel good about knowing that the dinner will be tasty and our guests will be happy.