Something blue...dyeing my crinoline

You know the saying...."Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue, and a six pence in her shoe!" Hadn't heard of the last one? Me either, until recently, but when I heard of it, I decided I had to have it too. So I went on ebay and ordered myself a six pence. It's on it's way for $1.79.  Don't you just love the world wide web?

So, I'm still not sure what my something old and something borrowed will be, but I do have my something blue covered. I was inspired by pics like this:

How cool is that? I love the little hidden pop of color than can only be seen if you raise up your dress a little. I just love the look of it peeking out from under, and it makes for a fabulous photo op. 

Well, I've been thinking about dying my crinoline blue for a while now, but I hadn't really got the nerve to do it. I was afraid that A. It would ruin my crinoline. B. The dye wouldn't take to the material my crinoline was made of (nylon). or C. I would end up with a blue washing machine. Well, today I picked up a box of RIT dye and bit the bullet, and I'm so glad I did. 

The before pic:

The after pics: 

It did come out a little darker than I had planned, but I'm okay with it. Like I said, it's only going to peek out of the bottom of my dress a little - if I let it. And those white streaks in the first pic aren't really there, I think those are just from the flash.

The process:

1. Set your washer to the highest and hottest water setting. Let the basin fill up. 

2. Dunk your crinoline in the hot water to get it wet and then set aside. 

3. Premix the powdered dye in a little water in a separate glass container. 

4. Add the dye mixture to the water in the washing machine. 

 

5. Add your crinoline, shut the lid, and cross your fingers.

6. Easy, no? Here's the labor intensive/boring part. You have to stop the machine every 3 minutes to untangle your crinoline so you don't end up with a tye-dye effect. Not the bridal look we're going for. 

4. After 30 minutes of this, you set the machine to rinse (cold) and let the cycle finish. 

5. You can put it in the dryer on low, but I decided to hang mine to dry because I didn't want it to shrink.

*Immediately after you take the crinoline out of the washer, run the washer again on the hottest and longest cycle with detergent and 1 cup of bleach to ensure your next load of clothes doesn't come out in a lovely blue hue.*

**Oh, and wear plastic, disposable gloves so you don't end up with blue fingers. Not cute.**

A wedding in 7 days...

I'm still as blog obsessed as ever, but these days I spend my free time (while the little one sleeps, ha) browsing wedding blogs (or wedding porn as it is so fondly referred to in wedding blog-land). 

From these blogs I've gotten a lot of great DIY ideas and the courage to stray from the norm and make our wedding truly us. I do not want a cookie cutter wedding.

It's so easy to get caught up in the "OMG I have to have this!" and "We have to do that because everyone else does it." that sometimes you lose sight of what this day is all about. Two people who are in love joining together to spend the rest of their lives together. That's it. All that's needed for a wedding is a bride, a groom, and someone to marry you. The rest is all fluff. And stress. But I do love me some fluff so we're having some of that too :) 

But anyways, the point of this post is this: It has crossed my mind, seriously, several times that we should have just eloped. Not in the true sense of the word, but should have done something super small and meaningful, with just our closest of closest family and friends, without all the stress and excess that comes with planning a big wedding. 

Well, I came across this article on, you guessed it, a wedding blog! It's such a sweet story and how perfect does it sound? A wedding planned in 7 days? A wedding that is just about two people joining together and celebrating with their closest friends and family? Sign me up. That's what it's all about. 

Engagement Photo Shoot

Frank and I had our engagement photo shoot today. 

Despite it being 35 degrees out, we had a lot of fun and I think we got a lot of great shots. 

Our photographer is really great and really seems to have a good eye. She also seems to have the same tastes as me when it comes to photos, so I'm really excited to see how they turned out. 

I think it was the most we have kissed each other and looked into each others eyes in, well ever. Ha! We definitely felt a little silly at times, but I think it was a good experience. 

It was a little refreshing to spend the afternoon focused on us as a couple rather than us as parents. Don't get me wrong, we love, love, love being parents to the coolest kid ever, but it's nice to take the time to just be a couple for a few hours. 

Speaking of the little guy...he is going to be 8 months old on Wednesday! 8 months old! How did this happen? Where has the time gone? Before we know it he's going to be crawling, and walking and then a whole year old! 

It's so fun to watch him grow, learn and change literally before our eyes. He has developed such a sunny little personality and is always smiling or giggling. 

I said to Frank the other day, "How did we get lucky enough to be his parents?". That truly is how I feel when I look at him with amazement. How did I get so lucky to be blessed with these two special guys? I don't know, but I sure am counting my blessings.