I was back to looking at that website where cheap makes you look thin. I came across another stunner.

I know you can theme your wedding any way you please these days so I thought I'd highlight how easy it is to throw a kitschy wedding.

First, the dress has another brilliant description "Wedding is the symbol of the women’s vision of romance, but a symbol of the warm color pink stands for the health care to the women themselves. If you own a pink wedding gown you will be soft and gentle."

Um, are they making a reference to breast cancer?

To complete your wedding, you can serve a variety of hello kitty wine, register for hello kitty house hold appliances and you can top your wedding cake.  And I found all this in 10 minutes on google.

I guess it goes to show, when it comes to weddings you can have whatever you want. I like Snoopy, maybe I should reconsider my theme. Something Snoopy has a nice ring to it. In case I go that route, I did find this article on How to Snoopify your Wedding.

I once again present you with some truly uninspiring dresses.

Once you look through 15 pages of a bridal magazine, you've pretty much seen it all. There seems  like there are only so many allowable wedding poses for models. You know, woodlands, draped on antique furniture or staring off while pondering love. But, in my search for alternative wedding gear I found this! Now, if pro-football is your theme, Matthew Christopher has a dress for you. If fireman or fighter pilot is more your style, that's covered too!

But, I don't get it! I don't get it at all. I mean, I watch E!. I know pro athletes are all the rage but do you really need that in an ad? I'm so confused. Also, I don't like football. Not at all. In fact, watching football with football fans is about as fun for me as hanging out with completely drunk people when I'm sober. Needless to say, Matthew Christopher, your silly football player ad has no power over me.

Since white dresses are frustrating me so much I decided to switch to looking at bridesmaid dresses. And big surprise, there is no shortage for bad decisions here either. The funny thing is that even if the dresses themselves aren't bad, so many lend themselves to such absurdity. The dress above isn't bad at all!

Same goes for these dresses. The dresses are pretty. But, geeze, every pastel color seriously looks like Easter gone wild! Less is more, especially when it comes to pastels!

Ah, another multicolor wedding but this one is definitely more Skittles inspired! Now, I'm in love with the idea of being quirky and having fun with your wedding, that's pretty much my mantra, but yikes!

Is her theme rainbow?

Because, honestly, this is what I start to think of when I see all those dresses!

I just can't picture how ALL those dresses fit into one wedding! Unless of course its this one I've just designed. But, at least it doesn't look like Easter Bunny vomit. I think these colors are a lot more flattering.

If you're wondering why I'm spending all this time trash talking bridal apparel, its really just me trying to find the line between unique & personal and looking like a lunatic :) Fortunately, the internet proves to be a wealth of knowledge! But, I think a lot of ideas don't end up translating as well as intended. I love teal and I love breaking tradition to create something personal but I still want my wedding to look nice. And, I don't want my bridesmaid to hate me.

Ahh, I LOVE wedding planning! This is going to be a fun year!

Wow! So, I've decided on the Ezell House for the wedding. It got the stamp of approval from the families and Shanna! That means I can seriously let myself think about decorations now. I've been trying not to fall in love with any idea until I firmed up a site. With my luck, I'd love an idea that wouldn't work. Now I know, so now I can go crazy!

I'm enjoying sorting through the endless wedding stores online. There is so much crap you can buy. I don't know how anyone picks an idea for a favor because each website has no less than 1,000 items under $3 that you can choose from.

Now, overall I think wedding stuff is overpriced. This is no surprise. Sometimes I think its worth the splurge. It is definitely fun to personalize the wedding. I think the key is to learn where to draw the line. As I've explained in previous posts, I believe the line is somewhere well before the monogrammed toilet paper!!

But, even knowing that wedding stuff is often stupid, overpriced and unnecessary, I sometimes find an item that is so overpriced I'm astounding.

Unlike many things I've profiled, this isn't ugly. Its fairly simple and I think a common style for a centerpiece. Candles are classic, colored stones bring in wedding colors. What is ridiculous is that its $84!!!!

Its candles and marbles. I'm confident you can buy that glass down for $6 at pier 1 or TJmaxx. If you look, individually that glass bowl alone goes for $30! And white candles are not that much money!

Alright, that's enough shocking rant for now. Feel free to share an of your own overpriced finds!

I don't even think I really need to write a blog about this one! How is this real? Who does this? I cannot even figure out what would possess someone to use paper squirrel heads as decorations.

I stumbled across this picture a while ago and saved it to share and then completely forgot about it. Its actually on The Knot so its not like I'm the only person whose seen this thing. I just don't get it at all. If I went ot this wedding I'd be really confused!!

On a side note (literally), vote in my poll about the best "type" of wedding food. I'm trying to gauge what people like and dislike so I'm really curious how the poll will turn out.

Also, feel free to share any weird wedding finds with me! I'm actually trying to figure out how to set my sister up as a guest blogger so she can post some of her wedding finds. If you know my sister you know our ideas are drastically different. I'm having difficulty making Weebly do this so I might have to banish her to the forum! haha.

I'm in LA for the weekend visiting my family so I'll give you all an update on my mom and I's extensive wedding discussions!!

Seriously, how on earth are there so many hideously tacky things in bridal magazines. First is every dress I've ever seen in a Mary's Bridal ad. Why on earth would you pay $798 for this dress? (I wish I could post a picture here, you'll just have to follow the link. Trust me, its worth it.) This one is in the ads all the time. I finally decided to take a look on their website.

 Lucky for me I learned that they make even uglier dresses! I love that the collection is called "unspoken romance". I can't even imagine who buys these things. Also, I don't understand why there are so many white and red bridal gowns. I don't really get where that fad is coming from but it seems pretty common.

In other good news, Mary's

I've also found the perfect champagne flutes to go with those dresses. For $75 bucks I can own those bedazzled keepsakes. Again, with the names, these are Park Avenue Flutes. I am willing to bet no one on Park Avenue would be caught dead with these things.

And, of course, there's a coordinating cake serving set. Monograms and engraving are nice but putting personalization on everything is just insanity. When are you ever going to use those things again? I dare you to find me one person who uses a bedazzled engraved cake server. Please, I beg you people to stop wasting $75 and buy an Amazon.com gift certificate. Trust me, they'll like it better.

In addition to ugly things, I'm having one of those days when I'm just generally appalled over how much brides are willing to dish out for small useless things. Modern Bride told me a trend is to "Belt it out. Brides are customizing their wedding dresses with bold belts, from obi-style designs to glittery version..." There example, a crystal encrusted $545 example.

In all seriousness, I just spent the last two evenings ripping out my favorite ideas from magazines so I'm pretty excited. I'm all concerned, some of my favorite dresses and bridesmaid dresses are from David's Bridal. I finished my Bridal Bargains book and learned along with The Knot, I'm supposed to despise David's Bridal. If I want itchy fabric and crappy service then I can go there, otherwise I'm supposed to avoid them at all costs. Apparently, David's new trend is buying out other more famous designers to create new lines for David's only. I guess this is sort of akin to Target's new cheap designer lines. Whatever, I hate Walmart and I still go there. I'll at least make a trip to David's... I want to see these flowery bridesmaid dresses in all their ads.

First things first, I have to have a place for the wedding. I must refrain from picking out candles and flowers until I know where I'm going to put them.

I think Andy and I are going for the reception and ceremony at the same location. We don't want to get married in a church and have a reception elsewhere, so we're looking for something to can encompass both parts of the wedding. We also want to have this place be fairly close to hotels so people don't have to drive too far. We're really debating where to have the wedding. We know we'll do it on the Gulf Coast but I don't know if that means in Mobile or over on the beach in like Destin, Florida. I think we've also settled on an October wedding (October next year... I need time to do this).

I've been trying to think about things I want to have in a reception site. I know I really enjoyed two things about Kelly's wedding 1. it was at the hotel we stayed in and 2. there was "drunk food". They wheeled out delicious snacks at like 11pm. Fondue = awesome. I also enjoyed my cousin Kali's wedding a lot because her reception and ceremony were at the same place. There wasn't a huge amount of down time in between the wedding ceremony and reception. In fact, there were hors d'oeuvres almost immediately upon going into the reception site.

Now that I've sketched out some things I think I want , I'm sitting down with my arsenal of books, magazines and websites to get ideas of venues and ideas of what I want at those sites. I figure I can't look for sites if I don't know what I want. Luckily for me, all my resources are happy to tell me what I should want at a reception location.

1. couches. Yep, tables and chairs aren't enough. If I want my guests to be comfortable and have a good time, I need couches. I've only been to one wedding with a "lounge" which means I guess I've only been comfortable at one wedding I've attended.

2. A photo booth. Forget disposable cameras on the table, now we're on to photo booths. I can either rent one like at the mall or set up my own with a digital camera and a photo printer. My DIY book and the knot both say so.

3. a Surprise choreographed dance. This is EVERYWHERE and I'm not doing it. I can't dance and neither can my friends and the last thing I'd do is force you to watch us try. It won't be charming, funny or endearing. It'll be awkward.

Alright, Martha, its your turn. The knot is getting me nowhere.

Martha, I don't care if you grow special super secret flowers, you actually gave me real advice. I'm sorry I doubted you. I'm still calling my mom for appetizer pairing though.

Martha says I have to determine my needs. Do I need a full service facility or am I doing this myself? Ugh. I don't know. Ideally, I LOVE the idea of setting up myself. I mean, arranging the guestbook table and stuff will be fun but now I'm having to think about reality. If I can only get into a reception site the morning of my wedding and everything has to be set up and I have to get ready, how will I do this? Seriously, I have no idea. If I craft custom votives to surround my centerpieces, who will put them there?

Oh good, Martha is even giving me a list of questions to ask when I call to setup appointments so I don't waste my time. Unfortunately, that magical reception site hasn't appeared to me. I have a few more things to consider on the list while I look but unfortunately, I don't feel like I've gotten anywhere.

Oh well, I guess I'll keep surfing.