Andrea.Maria's biography
After months of contemplation and really just procrastinating and getting irritated with the ad's on this page... I've FINALLY decided to start a bio and hopefully entertain some people with my sarcastic quips and cynical take on the world...
Being sick with the flu after 3 horrible weeks of tax reporting season... is not the best thing in the world. Especially since I have less than 6 months to go before The Big Day.
My list of things to do right now is.... Endless - to say the least.
I lucked-out 2 weeks ago with my sister's dress (what with her being my maid-of-honour and all that jazz). The initial dress that she and my mom like was horrendous to say the least. The colour was wrong and the cut was just plain awful! AND it was transparent even with lining! I firmly believe that if I listen to my gut about things, it will be perfect. The intital dress was canned in favour of having a one-off designer copied from a picture and the 2 most trusted people in my life trotted off to some obscure dressmaker/designer wannabe. A quote was in the distant future and I decided to be proactive one very dull lunch-hour. I logged onto Bride & Co (www.brideandco.co.za) and on the landing page for Bridesmaids was the PERFECT dress for my maid of honour. Brand-spanking new arrival and on-sale for the preview! Ofcourse I jumped on the blower and called the closest branch only to find out that they had the right size but not the right colour. Determined, I called their other branch in Canal Walk and lucked-out yet again. They may not have had the size (not that I cared) BUT they had the colour. I booked it and 3 days later walked through their doors, scored a free pair of mother-of-pearl earrings and almost cried when they brought the dress out. This whole committing your life to someone really has me emotional! Anyway... I had managed to get my mom to call their closest branch on the same day as I called Canal Walk and they had the colour AND the right size. So she made an appointment "just in case". Since the dress was perfect, I called my mom, literally ordered her to get herself to the store and buy the dress. My luck kept up. I took a stroll through the rest of the store and found a perfectly matching bolero jacket for the evening reception. The perfect outfit in less than an hour for my maid-of-honour!
My sister and mom bought the dress and the bolero and found the perfect shoe that matched... you guessed it... perfectly a few days later. No adjustments necessary. They got the quote from the dressmaker a day or two later and it was 3 times what my sister's entire outfit + her hair + her make-up + her jewellery will cost in total! And chances are that the colour would not have been right. Us Brides and our colour schemes... Amazing how important the colour scheme is!
My tip for the day:
Trust your gut. Shop around. Don't just settle for anything. That designer dress may be designer but you can find something that is more than what you hoped and dreamed of if you're just patient and let your heart guide you.
If you know what your theme is and you know what your colour scheme is and you know what sort of impression you want to make - stick to it. Don't let anyeone tell you that you're being difficult or impossible. It's your wedding.
People are coming to celebrate your love. Yes - we want to impress them with a production of note (because that's what weddings have become) BUT it's your wedding and you can do whatever your heart desires!
Good luck with the maid-of-honour dress!
Andrea, over-and-out
I've read a lot of stuff about wedding shoes. I've also been told a lot of stuff about wedding shoes. Regardless of what people say... Us girls usually have a love-hate affair with shoes in general so when it comes to choosing wedding shoes... It's almost as though the world is coming to an end. Where to start!?! Most people will tell you that if you have a long wedding gown, the shoes don't really matter; and if you have a shorter dress, pick something that will compliment your outfit (as if we didn't know that already).
The best piece of advice that I've gotten about wedding shoes came from the lovely couple designing and making my dress. Being a first-time (and hopefully only-time) bride, I had zero idea how to walk or carry the pouffy material around my legs (what can I say - I work in advertising so I don't got to work in a ballgown every day!) Moraig was patient enough to give me a lesson in how to hold the skirt of my dress (lift it at the knees, and when you do lift it; curtsey, don't bend!) Voila - I could walk in the pouffy dress! I walk like a marauding ogre... but I can fake it...
Then came the advice about shoes. Moraig said to me that when I'm walking, my guests will get to glimpse my lovely wedding shoes... LIGHTBULB! Ofcourse your shoes have to look adorable! Your guests are going to see them when you walk past them! And when you're dancing! Imagine wearing your old, trusted, dusty faithfuls... and there they are - on your wedding pictures! It's enough to make you run screaming for the hills. In fact, it makes me want to cry just thinking about how awful that would be!
Ofcourse there's my opinion on wedding shoes - and shoes in general. I love my heels. But sometimes it's just not practical. And trekking through the winelands, meandering through the vineyards and having to walk for a really long time in heels... not my idea of fun. So I'm going for comfort. Luckily for me, there's an amazing range of wedding shoes handmade here in Cape Town!The heel is just enough to give you the posture you want and that little bit of extra height (especially for pint-sized me). The nice thing about these shoes is that you can wear them with a lovely black and white suit or to a cocktail function post-wedding bliss. They come in a lovely white satin and most have diamante detail which just gives you enough bling on your shoes without making you look like a wedding stripper looking for her pole...! (no offense to strippers - I dig those moves and I can't wait for my next pole-dancing lesson!)
If Cinderella can have pretty glass slippers, surely we can have pretty blinging shoes. And make sure that it's comfy! It's the in-step that counts the most, the more support you have on the arch of your foot, the more evenly spread the pressure is and the less it'll hurt 2 hours in.
So all-in-all, lovely brides... Regardless of the length of dress that you're wearing, choose pretty shoes to adorn your pretty feet without making them ache when you're halfway into your beautiful photo-shoot.
Andrea - over-and-out!
P.S. can you just picture what it would look like if the bride has to limp into the reception??? And if you're hawk-eyed, you'd be able to spot a Bride-in-Footache a mile away. I see girls-in-footache a mile away! And when the spotlight's on you... Well, no need to say much more.
Just an FYI... for anyone interested... the amazing wedding shoes that I spoke about last week is made by Hanel at Anella Wedding Shoes in Somerset West, Cape Town, South Africa. The website is:
Ciao!
Andrea
To all the lovely people who have wished me well on my engagement and have welcomed me to PW... Thank you very, very much for your kind words!
I am thoroughly enjoying PW. It's one of my many, many resources on this journey that I'm travelling - the long walk to free... er... Wedding-hood. (Post wedding-hood comes marriage)
Another resource that I absolutely love and do rave about (and visit religiously - at least once per day, if not more) is run by a wonderful SA-team:
Very inspirational with all things wedding-related and other crafty, pretty things. Tons of ideas for DIY and they feature weddings from around the world so it gives varied ideas for us brides. There are also links to various service providers and they have giveaways on a regular basis! Get clicking ladies (and gents!)
........To The Pretty Blog!
Love and roses,
Andrea
In exactly 4 months from today, 06 July 2011, I will be getting ready to walk down the aisle.
In another hour and 28minutes, I'll be seeing my husband post-civil ceremony for the first time!
Just thinking about it gets me emotional and all I want to do is cry.
I think I'm mourning the loss of my single life where things were easy and I could come and go as I please, do what I want, and pretty much flounce around with few cares in the world.
I'm mourning the loss of the fun times at work, awesome colleagues and some really great times and friends.
I'm mourning the loss of living in a scenic country where I speak 2 of the 11 national languages (not a lot but it's something)
I'm mourning the loss of seeing my mom's number pop-up on my caller-ID at lunchtime - I'll have to call her from now on, which isn't a problem, but it's nice to see her number just appear.
I'm mourning the loss of everything local: news in different languages, Debra Patter, the E-News Team, Speak-Out, stories of local heroes, the antics of our politicians, Riaan Cruywagen, Noot vir Noot, Hello Doctor, Pasella, Tannie Evita Bezuidenhout, awesome local ads, local bands, yelling at taxi drivers, walks on the beach at sunset, koeksisters, boerewors, vienna smoortjie, chops on the braai, a typical family Sunday lunch, looking out of my office window and seeing the mountain against the blue sky, snoek and jam, Giovanni's, The Biscuit Mill, Muvhango, RUGBY (Go Stormers), ads with Ryk Neethling in them, Afrikaaner poppies, farmers in their "kakhi shirt and jean pant", sokkie, Nik Rabinowitz, Riaad Moosa, heck - even Marc Lottering!
I'm mourning the loss of being able to go home and giggle and gossip with my gran at night, share a sub with her, much on chips while watching a skiet-skop-en-donner movie, twisting her arm to get a Wacky Wednesday and then giggling naughtily when we share it. I'm mourning sharing a glass of red wine with her and telling her how my closest friends taught me to drink whiskey!
I'm mourning the loss of laughing at my cat, teasing her, prodding her when she's asleep just so I can hear her "Meow" in sleepy protest, and have her fall asleep like the baby she is in my lap late on a Saturday evening.
I'm mourning excellent sushi from Pick 'n Pay; Yama Sushi and Hongs. I'm mourning the best pizza in the world from Bardellis and Borusso's. I'm mourning game meat and biltong; Woolies Food; the convenience of Spar.
I'm mourning hearing things like "Jou ma se..." and "Voetsek!"
I'm mourning the end of a chapter in my life.
Once the tears pass - I'm looking forward to a new chapter in my life - one that I'm sharing with the person I chose to love and who loves me right back!
Congrats to one of my best friends - Clayton - on his debut in an SA Indie Film. It's gone Indie-International! YAY!
Clayton's character is "Terence"...
Go Clayton! We love you! And... You. Rock. The. House!
Right - 6 weeks to go and counting.
I'm freaked out ever so slightly... That's the understatement of the century!
I'm officially in panic-mode. Too much to do and far too little time in which to do it and it's not like I'm a lady of leisure with nothing better to do with myself. Holding down a full-time job and trying to organise a wedding... Damn!!!
And just when I think things are going to get easier, a reminder to follow-up on something pops up in my e-mail or I get an e-mail reminding me that a report is due! When will it all just end? I know, I know... at midnight on 07 November.
And I know that it's the journey but this journey is now becoming slightly marred with potholes and speedbumps that threaten to derail the Wedding Express.
I think it's time to crack open a bottle of red wine, pump up the volume on some happy tunes and show this wedding who's the boss!
