No Foolin!

No straps!

Just in time for spring and summer backless styles, Conway has a version of the backless silicone adhesive bra on sale right now (Secret Style brand) for $6.99!  I was prepared to spend upwards of $30 to be able to wear the cute backless tops my cousin gave me for my birthday and found this bra on a recent trip to one of my favorite midtown bargain stores.  Simply buy the letter that corresponds to your cup size and follow the instructions to stick it on!

I admit I did spend $30, but it included three cute ruffle tops and a pair of leggings as well!

Stay tuned for a new post about my recent Bitch and Swap...

Wedding Wildflowers

If you have started your wedding planning, then you've already discovered that there is a magic word that will automatically quadruple any price quote:  "Wedding"

But if you're like me, you don't feel comfortable lying.  Or at least you're just really bad at it.  

Either way, there are ways to cut costs and you can choose all of them or just some.  No doubt, you've started to prioritize about what you don't want to skimp on.  

Now I love flowers and greens, but with our limited budget, I decided early on that I was not going to hire a florist.  At all.  With a July wedding in the Poconos, I knew that there would be enough foliage in the natural setting that we had chosen.  

First, I obsessed.  Every time we were driving around near our location, I noted flowers:   Where they grew wild, which ones fit our color palate (cranberry and butter yellow) and kept a look out for interesting textures, all growing in fields and along roadsides (never someone's garden! Hello!).  There were so many varieties, some I'd never noticed before.

Next, I gathered some and made my first practice bouquet.  It was not only beautiful and simple, but seemed to reflect the setting we'd chosen much more than store bought roses.   

Then, I gathered my Renaissance Girls.  

When shopping for other decor, I found the perfect cranberry velvet ribbon and my magical sister-in-law Marie (who also decorated the arbor, pictured here) bought artificial berries that represented the wild blueberries that Ted and I often pick together (We decided real blueberries could stain...).

The day before the wedding, I put three oversized vases with water, two pairs of garden shears,  and my friend Elizabeth (now on tour in Xanadu.  Hi, Elizabeth!) into the car and drove around the countryside to the places I'd remembered had the flowers I liked.  We spent about an hour filling the vases with ferns, tiny daisies, and 

beautiful wild flowers.  Then we put them in the cool basement where they stayed fresh overnight.  

The next day, Marie arranged most of the flowers into vases for the reception and Elizabeth and I created the bouquet that I would carry down the aisle and tied it with the ribbon.  It was a perfect compliment for my antique home-made linen wedding dress and Ted's pinstripe grey suit.  

Now,  some people want to hire a florist and avoid  this extra work, but in the end, picking and arranging flowers with my girls was an incredibly wonderful way to spend the morning before my wedding.

And let's face it.  So was knowing that I saved thousands of dollars.  

(Wedding Photography by WeClick.com)

Wedding Shopping

It's not too early.

In fact, it might be the tail end of the end of Holiday Clearances already so get out there!  

Things to look for now, 'cause you will wish you'd found them at a bargain price:

1. Strings of white tiny Christmas Lights (12 strands, depending on the size of the reception hall)  Ted's friends Greg and Chris made our hall look that much more festive the day of the wedding.  I felt like the stars had come down into our little celebration!
   
2. Various Ornaments that relate to your theme (Haven't chosen a theme yet?  It's time!).  If red, gold,  or green is one of your colors, the easier for you!
3. Plates, cups, napkins, utensils.  
4. Favors.
5. Faux Greenery, Garlands, and Wreaths.
6. Table runners and cloths.

Pictured above are the tiny glass love birds I found in bulk in an art store sale.  I used them as favors as birds are a theme in Ted's and my love of nature.  The sunflowers were made as curtain tye backs and I used them to enclose scrolled ceremony programs.  Our colors were cranberry and butter yellow.

All of the items you find at these post Holiday Sales can be used in a wedding without people knowing that they were meant for Christmas Decorations.  Use your imagination and the sky's the limit!

Operation Salon Amie

My friend Amy is the newest Renaissance Girl.  

She recently posted a message to her friends on Facebook that she had an audition that required an "updo".  Amy has had a cute short hairstyle for most of her life and not much experience with hairstyles.  In her message, she asked for advice, trying to avoid the cost of a professional stylist.  She got a lot of responses but I wrote back saying it would be fun to do her hair myself, just for fun!  I don't claim to be a professional, but I was in pageants in college (the Miss America Local and Stage Pageant.  Yikes.) and have always loved "playing beauty shop".  

So my point is, why not ask?  And why shouldn't we all support each other in this crazy business?  

Great idea, Amy!  Hope you got the job.

Divawear

It was my Barbies who served as my first dress design clients.  I still have those early creations somewhere, all packed together in a little-girl flowered suitcase:  Tiny metalic tube dresses, evening gowns that involved head removal to get them on... My first human-sized garment designed without a pattern was a Hallowe'en Costume for my first Highschool Party.  I went as a princess in a flowing green-polyester-curtain gown, complete with a matching cone hat.  My Dad even said, why don't you start designing clothes for yourself?  

My relationship with my Mom's 1934  Singer "Feather Weight" (I sew on it still) was rocky at first. I  went through a lot of the scrap fabric that was piled in ragged cardboard boxes in our basement and yards of thread before I learned to thread the machine correctly and adjust the tension and stitch length for each project:   knit, denim, or naugahyde.  I followed patterns first, practicing sewing basics and techniques.

  But eventually, at my Senior College vocal recital and on the opening night of my first Broadway show (pictured here with Natasha Richardson at the Cabaret opening) I wore gowns of my own design.    I named my "line" after my fellow college vocal students' affectionate term for wonderfully gaudy and oversized wardrobes of Star Opera Singers:  Divawear.

So it was only fitting that my wedding dress would be made out of a tablecloth and a sheet.  Okay, it wasn't any ordinary table cloth.  

And it wasn't  just because of our limited budget (9,000 dollars for everything).   After the love of my life proposed to me in a Canadian Bay, my Mother pulled a bag out of the bottom of her linen closet.  In it was an exquisite linen table cloth salvaged from the house of my Great Grandmother.  Mom suggested that I use it to make my wedding dress and my first worry was that I'd be destroying a family heirloom.   But I packed it in my suitcase back to New York and when Ted and I finally found the perfect location for our special day, I set to work.  I was acting in a new play at American Repertory Theater in Boston at the time and brought my little Feather Weight back to my cast housing with me.  As I am wont to do, I started doodling at rehearsal and came up with a sketch of my dream gown.  But since much of the tablecloth was handmade lace, I needed an under dress.  I didn't know the Boston fabric scene but DID know how to find TJ Maxx and Marshall's and so I headed for downtown.   I bought a 600 count cotton king-sized sheet set for 30 dollars that was almost the exact shade of ivory as the antique table cloth.  I knew that

I'd never be able to find modern linen that had the same  movement and flow as the tablecloth and this sheet set had an almost satin finish.  It would look beautiful through the lace.  I thought through my design and decided that the only other thing I needed were snaps, beading, and matching thread.  Between rehearsals and performances at ART, I began to sew.  The great thing about having an entire sheet set is that not only did I have plenty of material for mistakes, but I had pillowcases for storage and transport.  But making the first cut into the tablecloth proved an emotional moment and after much procrastination and careful measurements, I gritted my teeth and closed the scissors into the linen.  I was committed!

I ended up hand-sewing much of it as I find hand-sewing to be easier and more precise for delicate work.  I sewed tiny fake pearls  into translucent sequins onto the just the upper bodice.  I wanted something sexy AND traditional, ornate AND subtle all at the same time.  What is more expressive of you as a bride than something you designed yourself?  

When Mom and Dad came a week before the wedding to help with setup,  Mom put the finishing touches (a hem & ivory tassles) on what was left of the table cloth to make a shawl/sash that I wore draped over my arms (a veil felt too artificial for me) and I found ivory espadrilles (I knew I'd be walking down the aisle on a lawn) at DSW that I then decorated with scrap lace and pearls.  My darling new sister-in-law, Marie, (a future guest blogger!) designed and made me the most exquisite pearl grape-cluster earrings and matching bracelet.  And last but not least, my cousins Kim and Kris  pinned fabric flowers into my hair and my fellow renaissance girls Penny and Elizabeth taped me into my dress! (thank you, Topstick, double sided tape!  A fashion-secret must...)  But unlike my Barbie dolls, I was able to put it my gown on without removing my head!

It took months of gradual designing, but after all, I was stitching generations of my mothers and grandmothers into my wedding dress.  As I sat and sewed, I thought about what it meant that I was getting married, what it meant for all of us as women over generations.  I even quilted my Great Grandmother's monogram in a prominent place on the front of the underskirt.  Did she ever dream about a life that her great-granddaughter might lead in New York City? 

I hope you have found your own "line", in what you choose to wear out into the world each morning.  Express your own inner Diva!