Life as I Know It

Friday, May 07, 2010

monograms for wowies: batch 2

Got some free time a couple of days ago, decided to catch up with the monogram backlogs. 3rd batch to come in a week or two. Enjoy! :)

Richard and Christina
Teal and Chocolate Brown
May 20, 2011

France and Vince
Light Turquoise Blue And Light avocado green
(Precious Moments Theme)
December 23, 2010

Haze and Peter
Plum, Silver and Gold
November 30, 2010

Kirby and Kristine
Aqua Blue and Silver
January 14, 2011

Joseph and Stephanie
Red and Black
Vintage Theme
December 18, 2010

Val and Bon
Red and Purple
December 3, 2010

I've been buggin' Borgy that we visit Holland, MI since last year. I know that they have an annual Tulip Time Festival every May and it's really best to visit around those time so that we can participate at the festival. We made the impromptu trip after plans for that day didn't fell through. We left our place at around 8:30am CDT and made the almost 3-hr trip. We arrived at Holland 12:30 EST (1 hr advance), found a McD's where we had our lunch. It's real funny that we only get to eat at McD's when we do road trips.

Holland town proper was real charming like any Main St. in the states. Their Centennial Park was the venue for the festival where most exhibitors are. They set up tents and it's really like a bazzar. Most exhibitor offers decorations, paintings, frames, blow-ups pictures and artists like glass blowers. It's very very neat having all of them in one place! Added bonus? There are tulips everywhere. Every shape and color available. After the Mother-Daughter dance, we decided to explore the town, visit some eclectic shops and make our way to the WindMill Island.

Windmill Island was a good 1-2 miles away from the main festival and we walked all the way there. There's nothing like exploring a town by doing it on feet. The Island was basically setup as apark that looked like it was transferred all the way from the Netherlands. There's a HUGE windmill, a dutch village, a trade fair and a field full of tulips.

The photos below doesn't do justice to the actual beauty of these flowers.

dress shopping at Eva's Bridal Orland Park

Last May 1st, we (Jo, Acy and I) have another appointment for dress shopping. Eva's Bridal was the smallest shop that I've visited so far and it's not as kept as the others that we visited. Having been to other bridal shops before, I knew what to except. After registration, the consultant, Naomi asked me to come with her and asked me about the dresses that I liked, my price point and all the other usual questions. I was actually pretty excited about this trip since they do carry Maggie Sottero, Pronovias and Aire Barcelona dresses. I did my assignment and printed out some picture of the dresses that I would want to try on. Naomi led me to a room where they have the Pronovias and their other lines like La Sposa, San Patrick etc. I think I pulled 2 dresses from that place and then she pulled some Maggie Sotero dresses from the copy that I've given her.

Good thing that my friend Joni (thanks dear!) came along with me this time, she helped me dress up. The consultant that was assigned to me kept on going out of the room and doing other things. I was actually a bit annoyed about it, she's not much help. I'm also disappointed with their selection, the dresses that I wanted to try are not available. I was looking for something that looks like the Demetrios dress that I tried on before and the La Sposa line have some dresses that looked like it but their shop doesn't have samples.

There are some good things though, they carry sample dresses that are price reduced and they fall under my budget. Also the weekend when we went, they have an ongoing sale, 30% off the whole store. They actually offered to order the Demetrios dress that I want and they gave it to me at a pretty decent sale price. The 2 other brides-to-be that I came with (Jo and Acy) have found their dresses respectively at Eva's! I'm really happy for them.

As for me, I still have a lot (of dress and shops) to cover in terms of finding the right one. I haven't even been to a David's Bridal store, which I plan to visit sometime soon and I also plan to check other smaller boutiques that are carrying Maggie Sottero and Demetrios dresses around Chicagoland. Come July, Filene's Basement Running of the Bride's event will be held in Chicago and I plan to visit and participate!

Monday, May 03, 2010

monograms for w@wies and friends

Been busy for a couple of weeks creating monograms for other wowies. I figured since I still have time (in terms of wedding preps), I might as well help others with what I can. To date, I've created monograms for 9 couples, and 8 more are on the to-be-created list!

Anne and Jon
Aqua Blue and Orange
May 21, 2010