Thin Thursday...oh yeah that!

You may remember that I had the idea for Thin Thursday a few months ago and then it kind of died out. Well, it didn't really die out so much as life got in the way. Unfortunately during the months of May, June and July health and exercise fell very low on my list of priorities. That was not a good thing to let happen and I am certainly paying for it now. My energy is at an all time low, I've put on a few pounds, my digestive system is a mess (somewhere Jamie Lee Curtis is telling me to eat Activia) and I feel really disappointed in myself.

But I can't beat myself up for it, all I can do is learn from it and move forward. And helping me to move forward? Why it's Bob and Jillian from The Biggest Loser!

J and I are big fans of The Biggest Loser. Unfortunately in the past we usually would watch the show while eating Chinese take out....kinda defeats the purpose, I know. But, despite the fried rice and singapore noodles, we have still managed to learn a few things from the show and hopefully those tips combined with a 2 other tools will help me get started.
My first tool...Bob's book.

Ok, before you laugh, yes, I know, most weight loss books are a bunch of crap. And I know this one looks super cheesy. But for some reason I got pulled onto the "Bob Train" and I just can't get off! So I thought what the heck...I'll give it a shot. The book isn't very long, but it does offer some good tips for diet and exercise, plus the first few chapters offer some insight into the emotions behind weight gain and weight loss. After reading through it I did have a few revalations about why I eat what I eat when I eat and why I have such a difficult time getting motivated to exercise.

My second tool comes from good ol' ball-bustin' Jillian.

This video has been all over the wedding blog world for the last year..and there are lots of women who have and some pretty amazing results with it. I've tried it a few times...and everytime I find myself sweaty, sore and exhausted by the end...so obviously its doing something. Now I just have to start doing it on a consistent basis; my goal is 3-4 times a week.
So it's with Bob and Jillian that I plan to start my body transformation...but that's not where it ends. Next week I'll fill you in on some of the other things I've got up my sleeve to make sure that I will be fabulously healthy, fit and toned on my wedding day.

Uh-oh

When I first started planning the wedding I came across a term over and over again; "two dress bride." I quickly learned that a two dress bride is just that, a bride that fell in love with a dress and then fell more in love with another dress and come wedding day she had two dresses. Maybe she wore the first dress...but usually not.
I always rolled my eyes at those girls wondering, "why would you buy a dress if you weren't sure that it was 'the one?' " I mean I tried on 30 dresses before I bought mine, but I bought what I was sure was my one and only dress....

until today.

Today I came across this beauty while perusing some wedding blogs...

Isn't she lovely?
And just look at that deatail...



The back? Oy-vey the back...

She's from the Christos Spring 2010 collection...and I am in trouble.

I know...it is so wrong for me to show off another dress when I haven't even debuted the dress that I bought yet...I'm not even giving my first dress a fair shot. But I can't help it.
I haven't even looked at price yet; I haven't even thought about what I might tell J or my mom, and I haven't even tried to find a store that carries it. All I can do right now is look at the pretty pictures, keep telling my mom that I love my dress (because I do) and try not to think about it.

All the wedding's a stage...

Our choice of ceremony site has gone through several transitions through the course of wedding planning. Originally I wanted a barn wedding...complete with rustic hay bales and lemonade in mason jars.

Sadly, after much scouting I realized that a barn wedding just wasn't in our future unless we wanted to have a destination wedding to Middle-of-Nowhere, Wisconsin.

Then one night our former roommate, and now bridesmaid, Chelsea suggested a park near our house with spectacular views of the city.

We were both really excited about this choice and started to move ahead with plans for how to make it work. But then we hit some snags. The Milwaukee Water Department owns the park and because this was their first attempt at owning and operating a park they didn't really have their act together when it came to rules and regulations and rental information. Currently there isn't any electricity to the park; I was told there "might be hookups" by the time our wedding came around, but we may want to rent a back up generator "just in case." Hmmm...ok. The park is atop a large hill which could make it difficult for some guests to get up to the site. And finally there was the issue of weather. J and I took a walk up to our site a few days after some rain and the ground was still soggy and muddy; not good for heels and pretty white dresses. And since I haven't perfected my weather control skills I didn't know if the park was a weather risk I was ready to take.

It was at that point that we thought that maybe we should explore other options. J's church came up as an option, but I felt it was too far away and they had some crazy rules (no photos during the ceremony???!!! Are you kidding me??). My parents suggested some churches closer to our house, but I just didn't feel like a church wedding was for us.

We kept looking, getting more and more frustrated and then it happened....
One night this past winter J and I decided to go see The Wrestler and the Oriental Theater, which is close to our house. As I was sitting there waiting for the movie to start I got to thinking about what a great location the theater would be for a wedding.

You see, The Oriental Theater isn't your run of the mill movie theater, it's this amazingly restored vaudville theater with some of the most beautiful decor I've ever seen. The theater seats over a 1000 (not that we need that much seating), has a gorgeous balcony (hello pictures), and a huge grand staircase (the perfect setting for a first look). So as I watched Mickey Rourke wrestle across the screen, I fell in love. We had to have our wedding there...it would be beyond perfect; a Milwaukee landmark for our Milwaukee themed wedding!

J was skeptical though, he didn't think that the theater would be wedding friendly...but I had to try. The following day I contacted the manager of theater and began to try to work out the logistics. He said that they hadn't done weddings there in the past, but he was willing to give it a shot! And the price?? After what we would have spent in rentals and back up plans for the park we ended up paying about $75 less to rent the theater for an afternoon! We were sold and ready to sign, but my parents were another story.

When I first told them about the theater idea my mom's response was "What's so wrong with a church wedding?" We went back and forth for days about the merits of a church wedding, the difficult logistics of a theater wedding and concerns about what some family members would think. I told her that once she actually saw the theater everything would make sense. So one Saturday she and my dad came into town to have a look. My dad is an old movie/theater buff, who had been to The Oriental in it's heyday, and the minute he walked in you could see his eyes light up with excitement. He was sold...and it didn't take my mom long to fall in love with the idea either. After 20 minutes of walking around, discussing ceremony options and the perfect spots for pictures, my mom conceded that this really was the perfect spot for our wedding and very "us."

With the parents on board we signed the contract and started planning. There are a lot of logistical snags that we have to work out, but we've got enough time and people that it shouldn't be a problem.
So without further ado...I give you The Oriental...

Well this isn't good..

Since the start of all the wedding planning we were sure of two vendors we had to have, our photographer (more on her later) and our florist. Lynn is a close friend and cousin of my FMIL and she just happens to be a wonderful florist as well. I had worked with Lynn previously on some centerpieces for my MOH's shoe themed bridal shower last year.

She took shoes that I found at Goodwill and incorporated them into the centerpieces...

...and I think they turned out great!

Love the little shoe ornaments!

I was so happy with what she did and what I'd seen of her other work that I knew she had to do the flowers for the wedding.

This past weekend I had lunch with FMIL and she told me that with the economy the way it is, Lynn's shop was suffering and there's a chance that they might close! The shop is a real family business, with everyone including her mom working in the shop part or full time; I can't imagine losing something like that and my heart goes out to them. I just hope that they can find a way to ride this out and keep the business going.

Obviously I am most concerned about how they will make it through this, but I did have to think about what this means for the wedding planning and bugdet. Lynn had generiously offered us a sizable discount on the flowers (I think in part because FMIL promised her facials for the rest of her life; FMIL happens to be an anesthitician!). The discount had allowed us to move some of the money we had budgeted for flowers into other projects and details.

Because there is still so much up in the air for Lynn right now, I don't want to hit a sore spot and ask her about an event 10 months away when the next few months aren't even certain. What I am hoping is that she might still be willing to do the flowers if I supply the vases and the flowers. But I have no idea what sort of space she'll have or what her time constranits will be and I don't want to impose so I'm also going to start looking into other options. Unfortunately I've become rather attached to some of the details that we've been able to add with our shifted finances, so I'm thinking the DIY route may be the way to go. Or maybe I can do the centerpieces but have a florist do the boquets. Perhaps its time to look in the floral arranging classes at UWM???