Another shoe post: For The Bridesmaids

Lately the bridesmaids have been asking me what kind of shoes they should wear for the wedding. I thought about just picking one style and making everyone wear it, but let's face it...everyone's feet are different and their height and cost preferences also differ.

The Basic Nude Pump:

$78.95 in patent leather by Nine West (also comes in natural leather).

The general idea is that I want a tan/beige/nude peeptoe or pump heeled shoe. No flats (except for the one who is pregnant since that would just be mean) but chunky heel, stiletto, wedge, and in-between are all OK. So here are some examples of what I want the BrMs to wear.

The Wedge, in Leather:

$89 by Franco Sarto.

The Almost-Wedge, in Suede:

These are a little pricey ($235) but oh so pretty by For All Mankind.

The Peeptoe:

$44.97 Nine West from Piperlime (only available in the higher sizes)

The Mary Jane Pump for added security:

$29.40 Bamboo Luscious

Another Peeptoe Pump with open sides:

$66.98 from Guess

And a Flat:

(Note: I do not love flats. For me personally I have a hard time fitting them correctly and most of them are too flat. Also, I just don't think they're as cute as heels, and they pretty much make everyone's legs look stumpy. Though if you're a taller girl, I totally understand the draw to flats.)

$49.99 from ModCloth

I love shoes so much, I could go on but I will save you boredom. So as you can see there are a variety of "nudes" that are acceptable from brownish to pinkish to whitish. And I honestly don't care as long as the shoe follows the general form.

I have linked the sites to each shoe in the picture caption. Other good sites to look at are: 

Endless

Piperlime

Zappos

Modcloth

Nordstrom

Macy's

And if you're not sure of something, please ask before you buy.  Happy shopping!

Celebrities - Giving a good name to weddings, a bad name to marriage

The recent divorce filing of Katy Perry and Russel Brand spurred me to write this post...

I'm sure all of you have followed at least one celebrity relationship in your lives. C'mon...don't lie...you know you love the camp and the drama and the "holy crap how could someone DO THAT?!" moments. Even if you don't love it, you can't look away. It's kind of like a car crash. A car crash of money, fame, power, hotness and stupidity, spontaneity and greed.

While some of these marriages seem to go off...FAIRLY normally - TomKat w/o the Scientology for instance - a lot of them (and definitely the most publicized ones) bring the whole idea of marriage to shame.

Oh sure, they have great ceremonies with a...what...4 karat diamond? Vera Wang custom dress? 1000 person guest list? Hats?! But then they either:

a). fade from public memory when they last  - quick...name 5 marriages (without cheating har har har) that have lasted 10 years or more...

Or b). become, again, national news when they split.

Oh Katy, you're cute. He's not. And he's also a reformed sex addict.
Now who thought THAT was a good idea? SMH

I mean seriously...Katy Perry only lasted a year and Kim Kardashian had, what? 3 months? Even Demi and Ashton eventually split and I TOTALLY thought that was a match made in heaven.

You'd think that as a mature woman, Demi would have known. But her two previous marriages speak otherwise.
And Ashton, while props for her being your first and only (so far), you sure had lots of fun on the side. Perv. 

These celebrities make a total mockery of the institution of marriage with these whirlwind courtships and even more tumultuous and rocky marriages.  I don't know the statistics, but it seems that you can't swing a TomKat without hitting someone who's been married at least twice.  It doesn't really seem to me that normal people are like that.  Yeah sure, some people get divorced and remarried, but I don't think I know anyone who's been married more than twice and those people on the higher end are much fewer (especially those who've been married twice in the first 40 years of their life).

I'm sure everyone knows Pam, who became almost more famous for her marriages (at least among some parts of the population) than her modeling or "acting" career.

Pamela Anderson

(Apparently the skeezy pics of Pam tonguing it up with ol' Tommy Lee break the Internet..am I surprised?) 

I guess if I had unlimited money (and fake boobs, perhaps?), then it wouldn't be such a huge commitment to plan a wedding. (Her wedding to Tommy Lee was, like, 3 years or so). I could get it done in 3 months flat and get on with my life. And then when things got tough...aw hell, might as well get out and go find another man and get more money for it.

This one with Kid Rock was even better - ONE year. 

But wait! It seems that divorce was too much effort for poor Rick Soloman.

It was annulled after 4 mos. 

Anyway, there are some that are working (for now) though they haven't hit the magical 10 year mark yet either. I kind of hope they do, if for nothing else than their kids. Suri is sure adorable!

TomKat

Not much to complain about here - 7 years and going strong(?)
Though Tom does have 3 marriages under his belt,
 Katie has only the one.

Ok, so this next couple isn't married but for all intents and purposes, it's a marriage. They said that they won't get married until everyone can legally get married, which is noble of them. And it's not like a marriage will really help either of them w/ tax breaks and stuff anyway. I'm sure they're rich enough. And since all of Jolie's kids are either adopted or fathered by Pitt, then even not being married he still can legally be their dad through 2nd parent adoption and biology.

I will give them this: they are being very pragmatic about the whole marriage thing b/c IF they ever did split up, their "divorce" would'nt be offending the institution of marriage. But I'm sure it would still be big news.

 Brangelina

These two are marriage veterans with 1 previous each (the Pitt-Aniston breakup was a personal tragedy for me)
They've been steady a whole 8 years and now have a gaggle of kids. This looks promising at least.

the Royals 

I could be wrong, Baldy, but I have a good feeling about this one,
You stodgy British Bastard.

And...welcome to the creme de la creme of outrageous wedding farces:

Kim Kardashian and What's-his-Name

Not much else needs to be said....

My Wedding According to "The Knot"

According to "The Knot" I have 143 things left to do and 12 of them are "overdue." Let's take a look, shall we, and see how much of a slacker I've been...

(Sorry this is so hard to read...)

The Knot makes it sound like such a big deal to be behind and stuff but some of their notices are kind of vague and I'm really unsure of when to check them off. for instance:

- #1 I have the caterer pretty much booked and we plan to send our deposit in this week, pending return email from caterer.

- #2 & #7 I've looked at some DJ services but they're expensive so I'm trying to find a friend to do this since all I need is someone to play an iPod and make announcements. (I'll prob check off 2).

- #3 & #5 I haven't actually decided if I want a florist yet, but I'm leaning toward doing it myself. (Again, I'll prob check off 3). 

- #4 Well, I know there are no requirements since our preacher-man is a friend of ours, but we haven't actually talked to him about what we'd like. But it's super informal so I'm sure it's not a big deal

- #6 We're working on it, we decided on a location and at least have the timeshare ready to be booked. Then we need 2 other hotels and airfare. And we don't have money yet to book airfare though I agree that we should start looking.

- #8 Why yes, I have thought about it, thanks. Though I haven't researched it, but I'm sure I could get that done in a day.

- #9 Registry is in the process of being filled out, but is it ever really done? We're registered at Crate and Barrel, Bed, Bath & Beyond and Peppercorn. Yay!

- #10 Yes, I do need to do this. Most of my BrMs have their dresses, but I need to talk to a few and also Math's girls.

- #11 We've only sorta started looking at this. We're conflicted because it's looking like the rehearsal dinner is going to be about 1/2 the size of the wedding...eeek!

- #12 Invitation wording already?! I JUST got the Save the Dates out less than a month ago! What are they smoking?

It's a good perspective and is helpful to have a list of things to do, but I think their estimates are little bit  too generous (or non-generous depending on how you look at it). Also, there are things that I want to do that aren't on there yet, so I should probably add them.

Gah...way to kill my "productive good feeling", The Knot...