sweating for the wedding

Wedding Details

Posted on February 15, 2017February 15, 2017 by LetlerFit

I am a huge believers in details. I believe that even the smallest of details make a world of a difference.

Unfortunately, if you’re a bride, chances are your day is flying by so fast, you’re being told to get to a million different places, you’re stuck in a room all day trying to avoid your groom (especially if the wedding is in your mothers house), and when it’s finally time to come out it’s either for the first look or the ceremony and then the night takes you by a storm so details are not really seen until afterwards in the pictures. I am so grateful our photographer Alan Phillip captured every little bit of missed details. We were so nervous because we had forgotten to let him know we really wanted detail shots, but like everything else he did the day, he went above and beyond and got every shot we wanted on his own. I’ll be telling you all more about him in the next few blogs.

Anyways, on to the details themselves. Every flower arrangement was designed by my aunt and put together by a team of family members. All of my moms antiques and decorative plates (from her collection, the families collect, and her friends collection) were all intricately placed and used throughout the house as you can see by the photos below. Even the candles were placed on her fine candle holders. The pine trees all had their lights, and even our table chart was elaborately decorated with lights and snowflakes, that later converted to the autograph picture frame for our guests to sign.

As you can see even the smallest of details, made the entire look come together. Even though, if you’re a bride you may only be able to look at the details in photos, you’re guests that are coming for you should still be able to enjoy a beautiful visual no matter where they look.

Alan Phillip Photography

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Choosing the Perfect Wedding Dress

Posted on February 13, 2017February 13, 2017 by LetlerFit

By now if you’ve been following my wedding journey blogs you’ll know everything moved rather quickly for us. In all honesty I knew I had to start looking for my dress, but I thought that was something easy, until I started talking to a few friends who told me that dresses took up to 8 months or more to arrive and then allegations are done in 3 steps. So I panicked! Immediately I went on google made about 12 appointments at different boutiques just in case I had no luck at other boutiques. In this blog I also touch up on finding my veil and wedding shoes!

Going into my first appointment at Brides of Florida, I was nervous and anxious. Everyone I had spoken to told me that when you found your dress you knew, but I really didn’t believe them. I just knew I went in with a list of what I wanted and a list of what I did not want:

I wanted:

Low cut, Open Back
Lace
Ivory
Tight Fitting all the way down
Straps
Sweetheart neckline
Short Veil
Budget Friendly Dress

I didn’t want:

Sleeves or strapless dress
mermaid gown
buttons
closed back
long veil
A dress that would not break the bank (honestly, you where the dress once, in my opinion it’s dumb to invest so much money on something you won’t ever wear again. Plus, al of moms I know that saved their dress for their daughter, not one of them wore their moms dress)
A cinderella type ball gown
a Belt

My appointment started and I was immediately taken into a room with so many different dresses and asked about what I wanted and my budget, etc.

We started with 8 different dresses, I put the maybes aside and then we moved on to the next 8 that the stylist had picked out at her own will.

I went with my mom, and my Fiance’s mom, and I am so glad I kept it simple and chose people who wouldn’t give too many opinions. I saw way too many brides go with their entourage and leave upset because of conflicting opinions on the dress the bride loved. If there’s one tip I can give you, go alone or with someone who won’t ruin your moment with negative opinions.

Anyways, once I got to the next 8, I continued the same cycle of putting in the maybe’s aside and tossing out the no’s. I got to dress #14, stepped outside onto the platform, and immediately knew it was the one. It was the only one that took my breathe away and even caused a couple of tears to drop.

The funny thing is, the dress had more of my “did not wants” than my actual “wants,” which is why I would not recommend ordering your wedding dress online. Go back and look at the bold, it’s everything my dress was.

The next piece of advice I have to offer, is even if you are planning to lose weight for your wedding the way I did (I wanted to lose 20 lbs and I did), order your dress a size up! When I ordered my dress at the heavier weight, even ordering the dress a size up, by the time it arrived i was 10 lbs lighter and the dress BARELY fit! Imagine had I not been able to lose the other 10 lbs?! It’s easier to make a dress smaller than bigger!

Lastly, start your journey early! my dress was supposed to arrive in months and it arrived in 7 months. Alterations were supposed to last one month, I had to have the third session because one side of the dress was left bigger than the other (no big deal, they fix it), and it’s not something you want to leave until last minute. Now, when you reach the alterations realize that making your dress skin tight is unrealistic unless you plan on standing pin straight all night, but also be stern in what you want, because I noticed the seamstresses wanted to do the least amount of work and they would persuade me to not do the much needed alteration. Stand firm, and be adamant and everything will come out perfectly.

Moving on to the veil, I ended up choosing a swarovski cathedral veil that I rented simply because buying a veil can be another arm and a leg, and let’s be real, you use the veil once. I tried on veils that matched the dress, shorts veils, etc. But to be honest the ones that matched the dress, in my opinion it was too much lace. I loved the swarovski cathedral veil because it was the right amount of accent and it matched the belt that I had fallen in love with. If you’re going to rent, you just need to be EXTRA careful to not damage it, or you’re basically screwed.

Your Wedding Shoes: something no one really sees, but make it to the pictures. I set out looking for Christian Louboutins (those that know me, know I won’t go crazy over clothes, jewelry, or purses just because it doesn’t call to me. Shoes however, where I save on everything else, I’ll invest into a good pair of shoes.) but when I went to the store looking for a silver Louboutin, none of them were ever in my size. I’m a 10, even though it doesn’t look like it, so sometimes it’s difficult for me to find designer shoes. As you can see by the shoes in the picture, I fell in love with a Jimmy Choo. It was probably better that way, if you own a pair of lobs, you know you where them to sit down dinners, but Jimmy Choo has never failed me in comfort, and they prevailed the day of the wedding. I did end up changing into flip flops but it was after being on my feet for almost 7 hours between pictures, ceremony, post ceremony pictures, etc. I put on the flip flops for the dancing. It doesn’t matter your budget for your shoes, I chose to go crazy on the shoes vs the dress because I know the shoes I’ll wear an infinite amount of times, but you need to start early. I’ve heard too many horror stories from procrastinators not being able to find a shoe that they loved. Your wedding day is YOUR day, you need to love every bit of your total look.

Alan Phillip Photography

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February is Dedicated to Love

Posted on February 6, 2017February 6, 2017 by LetlerFit

Since February is often correlated to being the month of love since February 14th is Valentines day, I figured I change up the blog this month and dedicate to blogging about different aspects from my Wedding Day on December 16, 2016.

More specifically, the first blog of the month will be dedicated to the overall planning process.

January 17, 2016 we got engaged, and from that day end 2016 turned into a whirlwind of events. Usually people tend to enjoy being engaged for while before picking a date, they get to be annoyed with everyone asking when’s the wedding even though they just got engaged a second ago, but for us, we didn’t even get to have that question asked to us because my mom had us pick a date within the first 36 hours so that she could start getting organized.

We didn’t hire a wedding planner, assistant, etc. My wedding planners were my grandma, my Mom, her Sister, and Sister-in-law aka my 2 aunts. Thank GOD for those 4 because they took 99.9% of the load off my shoulders. In the first 6 months of 2016 I was juggling 10 college courses (7 in the spring, 3 Summer A), running both of my businesses, buying our first home, and undergoing surgery in my hand to remove my dupuytren’s contracture mass that had developed on my right hand. The second half of 2016 I was finishing summer B with my final 3 courses for my BS of exercise science, remodeling (ourselves with the biggest help from my dad who is incredibly handy) our new home, doing my final semester of internship, still running both businesses, graduating, working on my 20 pound wedding weight loss goal which I hit despite all of the injuries, and a 3.5 month recovery from a muscle spasm on my back that happened to me after scraping off expired window film from one of our many windows that needed to have the window film scraped off.

Because of the aforementioned family members all I had to do in the process was chose my dress, my accessories, the colors, the food, the desserts, and a few other minor decisions along the way. The venue was easy for me, as I chose my mom’s home and backyard. In the end, giving my wedding to my family to plan was the best decision I ever made. Everything came out beyond what I had ever imagined. I am so grateful for them and all of the hard work they put in to making the night perfect.