Dress Floozy Anonymous

Saturday, July 24, 2010

E-Pics Porn

Miss Magic's Memo: I wrote this July 2010 after taking Mini Magic to Paris! She had just graduated high school and it was her first time on a place. She puked in the aisle on the flight over and we got upgraded to first class! It was awesome. Maybe you could try that on the flight to your honeymoon destination....

Oops, sorry to leave y'all hanging! I was recently out of town...on vacation...with Mini Magic...to Paris, France. Since I am a carnival bee, I thought I'd share some French carnival pics!

Before I left, I meant to post some more of the awesome engagement pics to tide you over until I got back. But I didn't because I was too busy trying to figure out what to wear to look like my most Parisian self. It's pretty easy actually...just wear black, stripes, a scarf, and/or some gladiator sandals (for real!) and you're in! I don't own gladiator sandals (I am 30, after all - I try to [at least sometimes] dress and act my age) but I could rock the rest quite well. It also helps if you looked pissed off and snooty. See?

Anyways, back to the e-pics porn!

I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out, especially since it was in over one hundred degrees when we took them (excellent planning, Miss Magic!)...although sometimes I look at my smile/laugh lines and wonder if those are normal or if I am getting wrinkly. I do love my newly straight teeth (adult braces: more fun than you could imagine [that's sarcasm] but the teeth did turn out awesome!). Thoughts? Do you over-analyze your appearance?

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

The Bachelorette Party: That's How We Roll!

After Miss Penguin's shower, everyone went their separate ways for a few hours before meeting up again for the big night out. My separate way led me to Taco Bell. I hadn't had much of a chance to eat at the shower (I can't ever eat when I'm hosting a party...something about anxiety and nerves getting in the way) and I was starving!

One burrito supreme and a (crunchy!) taco supreme later, I was feeling full and ready to take a short rest in bed. I knew if I took a nap I'd wake up and be grumpy, so I just read a bit and then scurried around to get ready for the Bachelorette Party portion of the evening. The plan was for the ladies to head over to my house at 8:30 for some snacks and pre-drinking. Then we were gonna head to the bustling metropolis of Raleigh to do some bar-hopping!

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Raleigh is totally hotter than Las Vegas!

Miss Penguin is pretty laid back. However, she did not want any penis-paraphernalia at her bachelorette, and put me in charge of spreading the word on this. She said she doesn't find penis decor funny, just embarrassing, and I 100% agree. I know some people like it, and if that's what the bride wants, then I'm all for it. I'll drink out of a penis straw or eat some penis cupcakes for any bride who desires it. But I don't want that for me, and neither did Miss Penguin. I found it interesting that some of the guests were really stuck on bringing penis-related items, even after I told them several times that she expressly stated that she did NOT want this. I had to get kind of firm, and say "It's the BRIDE'S party, and what she wants is what she gets." I would never in a million years say this about myself, but it was a bit easier to be bossy and stick up for someone else!

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http://bachelottepartyshop.com/images/Penis-Straws-10-Penis-Shaped-Straws.jpeg

So instead of genital decor, we kept it simple. We recycled the flowers from the shower, added some streamers and balloons, and made some cute cupcakes!

I don't have a good pic unfortunately, but these wrappers were homemade using a template I found here.

We pumped up the jamz courtesy of a playlist Sister PB made. I just had one stipulation for a special song to be included...

Then it was time to get in our ride and head to the Big City! How were we getting there?

A sweet SUV limo, that's how! As you can see, Miss Penguin is decked out in a Bride tank and boa, like any good bachelorette would be. Also, you might be wondering who that guy is on the end...um, we may have picked him and his buddy up at the second bar we went to and made them come with us in the limo to the next club. Because that's how we roll!

Ladies in the limo!

First we went to a sophisticated martini bar called Oliver Twist...

Then we went to Rum Runners for singalong and dancing fun. And our group really loves a good singalong!

We immediately got onstage and sang "I Will Survive" and, unfortunately, "Party in the USA." Yes, I know that I have now referenced Miley Cyrus two times total in my blog posts. I'll try to refrain from that in the future.

Also at Rum Runners, Miss Penguin was called onstage to be hopefully only mildly embarrassed.

She looks kind of pissed, huh?

Finally, we went to some swank, fancy-shmancy bar named Solas. Someone might not have very good memories of what this place was like. Someone might have just kept drunkenly saying "This place is like Miami!!! Why is there a bar like Miami in Raleigh???"

Yep, that's yours truly in the green. Miss Polar Bear was totally over-served by those bartenders through absolutely no fault of her own, of course.

In my defense, it was a bachelorette party and someone had to be a drunk fool. I was happy to take one for the team!

Overall, everyone seemed to have a blast, and Miss Penguin especially did. It's so much fun to be a part of her wedding, and for us to be able to plan our weddings together!

Do you have a wedding buddy to share all the fun events with? And have you ever been, um, over-served during any wedding activities of your own or someone else?

Monday, July 5, 2010

Oh snap - our e-pics are up!

Check out Samoancuban Photography for a teaser of our e-pics! I look mostly not sweaty, which I think is a miracle!

http://samoancuban.com/blog/

Thanks Ana and Gabriel!

Which one is your favorite?

Sunday, July 4, 2010

British Shower: The DecorUM

Get it, decorUM? Because British folks are so proper? O-kayyyyyy....

Quick side story about England and decorum: Living in North Carolina, I am really not used to mass transportation, and prefer the personal space of my car. Mass transit makes me nervous and I usually do something stupid while I'm on a bus, train, plane, metro, etc. One time I was in London on a bus with BM Bunny and another friend of ours. The bus stopped, and I let go of the pole I was holding onto briefly. Then the bus abruptly started and I went flying down the aisle, and the only way to stop myself was to grab onto something, and what I grabbed onto happened to be an older woman's boob. #lack of decorum

Anyways, I know you are dying to know how we decorated for this Britsh Shower. Luckily, I have a coworker who lived in England for a while. She donated most of the decor, and it was awesome. She had books, records, stuffed animals, and British cars...see?

We also used some of my milk glass vases, Cadbury minis, and British magazines I got in Ireland. The Beatles poster above - I got that for free, as well as a Queen of England sticker decal, from one of Vistaprint's awesomely free (just pay shipping) promotions!

The flowers were supposed to be red and blue but were actually purple, in case you were wondering. Don't ask.

There were some other posters and pictures and flowers scattered about as well. All in all, I think Miss Penguin really enjoyed the shower, and I think most of the guests enjoyed it as well. Sometimes I think showers can be too stuffy or formal or boring, but hopefully this one was not - my perception might be slightly biased since I was so excited about the planning and execution. But I think everyone had fun!

Have you been to a shower where it was not very fun, or even awkward? I want to hear all about it!

British Shower: The DecorUM

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Cadbury Double Decker candy bar wrapped in a cute label courtesy of BM K.

The faux-to booth:

Also created by BM K. Princes Charles, William, and Harry are all there as well as Paul McCartney and Elton John, and of course the Queen!
(That's me and Mini Magic!)

The recipe box:

A box for the recipes was tough to find, so I got a tiny lunch box and decorated it. Her kitchen colors are red and black so I used those instead of a British theme. And there was a similar sticker on the inside that said "with love from your family and friends" - the sticker also helped to anchor the ribbon down.

Queen Accessories:

A throne, a sash, a crown, and a scepter. Scepter made by Mini Magic - she helped SO much, I decided to take her to Paris as a way of showing my gratitude!*

Other details:

Name tags that showed the person's relationship to the bride, and let each person complete the sentence "my favorite thing about england is...."

Straw Flair! Tutorial here.

Stupid Gooco-ed napkins.

This was such a disaster that I cannot elaborate on it anymore at this time, but promise I will in the future. Once I figure out how the damn thing works. And get some ink blocker - apparently that's like, important or something.

Finally, the games! We played two games. One was a quiz for guests to fill out about how well they know the bride. It was pretty vicious and people were negotiating for partial credit! In the end, Bridesmaid K won!

The next game was to spice up the gift opening some. For Pumpkin to open a gift, she first had to answer a question correctly. The questions corresponded to different categories such as London, Miss Pumpkin in England, The Groom in England, and Pop British culture. I think people enjoyed it, and it was just another little way to bring in the British theme (which as you hopefully can see, we had fully committed to!)

What are some of the details you loved about a shower you attended - or your own shower?

*Just kidding, I was already planning on taking her to Paris. We leave July 12th!

Saturday, July 3, 2010

British Shower: Eatin' and Drankin'

Yes, I said "drankin'." It was a, um, southern England party.

I thought I'd let you in on some of the thinkin' behind throwing a British shower. You know, in case you have a Britophile freak for a friend and need to throw a shower in this style. As I said before, the theme was chosen because the bride, Pumpkin, loves England! The idea for a British tea was passed around, but that was a bit too stuffy for our group of gals so we stuck with the British theme but made it more fun.

The food and drinks were a bit of a challenge, because, as you may have heard, British food is not all that delish (sorry British bees...maybe we just aren't cultured enough to appreciate it!). Plus, BM Pumpkin is a vegetarian, so having "bangers and mash" was out.

source

In the end, we decided to do half semi-authentic British food, and half regular party food with made up British names. We kept it vegetarian because we are so freakin' thoughtful (although having chicken wings did cross my mind, I'm not gonna lie. We could have called them, um, "Big Ben's Chick-en." Haha, I'm so (not) clever).

For the drinks we had Liverpool Punch and Pimms Cup, which is the Official Drink of Wimbeldon.

Left: Pimm's Cup prepared by Bridesmaid Bunny. She used Pimms liquor, sprite, strawberries, cucumbers, and lemons. Right: Liverpool Punch (sherbert punch) made by Matron of Honor M.

Next, we had cheese and crackers...but not just any crackers! Recently, I was just in Ireland, and my hotel was in walking distance from a Tesco. I was chatting with BM Pumpkin and asked, under the pretense of being hungry, what I should get from Tesco. She immediately responded with "Jacob's Cream Crackers and Cadbury Double Decker candy bars." I know, she's crazy. I lied to her and told her I could never get to the Tesco, but in my luggage I brought back two packages of Jacob's Cream Crackers (below) and 25 Double Decker candy bars (you'll see those later).