Get ready to log onto Target.com on May 6th for the newest temptation from Target… Isaac Mizrahi’s bridal line! (It’s available exclusively online)

Bridesmaids dresses are included as are groom’s cummerbunds and ties with bridal accessories including a range of footwear. Prices start at US$9.99 for accessories and $159.99 for wedding dresses.

I’m seeing if Mrs. Caterpillar’s Shoe Secret really works…

So far, so good! I’m lucky that my shoes are already insanely comfortable and are made of very soft leather, but as a victim of shoe abuse with many strappy-sorority-scars to prove it, one can’t be too cautious! Plus I’m getting too old to wear my “Malibu Couture” knee socks out on the town… so I can frolic indoors like it’s 2004 again!

So funny that Miss Kiwi should mention her desire for a Disneyland registry, as I just happened to notice a little ad on a bridal site for the one of the newest honeymoon registries… for the Walt Disney World resort no less! So while the debate over honeymoon registries rages on… the market keeps expanding with more and more entrants like Disney:

From the little bit of exploring I did on the site (trust me, I tried my best to see if we could take a detour back to Florida for a few days on our return trip), it looks like the site allows your guests to purchase  your gifts in terms of “credits.” So for instance, a  hotel increment is $50, and they recommend you to register for  20  of them. The choices are as varied as you can imagine… all the way from dining credits to spa treatments or even photo mementos of your screams on Splash Mountain. (Mr. Lemon is a sucker for those… although most of the time he prefers the free photo-ops of his total score-shattering domination of Buzz Lightyear)

Banana Boat Ride (for those on a Disney Cruise)

Couple’s Massage @ Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa

A Romantic Dinner for Two at the Sci-Fi Drive-In

A Romantic Disney Photography Portrait Session

But in the end, I found the site to be elicit the response that most opponents of honeymoon registries have: it just looks like you are asking for money outright. It’s sad too, since the idea is fun, but I’d feel so much better handing someone $300 with a note to have a wonderful honeymoon dinner on me instead of buying them 4 credits for dinner.

I’ll start you off with a tempting picture of the dress…and then I’ll share our story:

I have to admit that while I love shopping, I have my share of breakdowns while I’m in the dressing room. My height and body shape create extreme difficulties in most shopping environments, except for a select few that happen to charge $220 for a see-thru tank top. So, while I was really excited to go dress shopping last year, I was also really quite scared.
I had been inundated with the images of bridal gowns in magazines just like everyone else, but what I saw time and time again were shapes that would NOT work on me. I wasn’t quite sure where and when to begin, but luck happened and I found out that only steps away from my doorstep that the St. Pucchi boutique was having a sample sale. I made a quick appointment on a Friday, gathered some friends, and went in for my first shopping experience. Now here comes the lucky part — all of the dresses were runway samples… and they were designed for crazy tall people like me! And while I didn’t find a dress that I was willing to call “the one” … I did discover that I only had one shape to look for….

Drop-waisted with some shape but not too poofy and not a sheath.

Well that pretty much eliminated 99% of all the dresses out there, and the ones I found all seemed to be friends with the ridiculously expensive tank top. (Knowledge is a dangerous thing, especially when it comes to wedding gowns and your money!) So instead of worrying about everything, I made my next gown appointment at my all-time favorite shop, Monique Lhuillier. I mean, if I’m going to shop big, I might as well check out the storefront I’ve been drooling over for the past few years!

This time, “the one” was found… complete with gaping mouths from my friends and a scream of delight from Mr. Lemon’s co-worker (who randomly happened in the store at the same time for her dress fitting). I was ecstatic about the experience until I opened the little price quote card and realized that my dream gown was over $6k before taxes! So, I packed up my hopes and dreams about the dress, and I put them away for the next month and waited with baited breath for the ultimate indulgence in the bridal industry: the sample sale.
Monique Lhuillier has two sample sales a year (summer/winter), and my one hope was that my dream dress would be sitting on a lonely hanger in perfect condition with a price tag that I could afford. The sale started on a Thursday, but a horrific flu and 102 degree fever kept me in bed all day… and I delayed my visit to the store until Friday morning. Among the racks of dresses, I spotted the neckline immediately and tried not to jump for joy. Without looking at the price tag, I just took it to the dressing room, tried it on, and suddenly everyone around me started talking about how much they liked the dress (don’t you just love public dressing rooms!). I crossed my fingers when I glanced at the price tag, and when I saw that it was 70% off, all seemed to be right with the world. The card was swiped and the bag was wrapped…and I drove home still sick with a fever but so happy that I didn’t notice. And thus, my dress shopping was complete!

And so it’s been with me for 10 months, and I’m still in love with it today. In fact, I had a moment of panic the other day that it wasn’t perfect, but all I had to do was visit another dressing room at your normal brand store to remember how lucky I was that I finally found something that really truly fits. Panic gone…  

Here are some of the photos I collected of the dress… all of them “not” featuring me (we can’t give Mr. Lemon any ideas!):

I have to admit that the first thought that crossed my mind when I saw these invitations was, “How much did THOSE cost to mail?!?” but then again I broke the 4 oz cost on my envelopes so I really can’t talk. However, in concept and design, these invitations are too precious not to “ooh” and “aww” over… which I guess is why they’re baby shower invites and not those of the wedding variety. Who cares… they’re yellow and adorable and genius!




(Source: Oh Happy Day!)

William’s Sonoma has some great personalized gifts that might be fun as gifts for your kitchen showers!

Tailored Monogrammed Apron, $34

Personalized Silicone Spatulas, Pink, Set of 3, $27.50

Monogrammed Bud Vases, Set of 3, $39

Personalized Recipe Gift Set (recipe box, embosser & 100 cards), $65

Personalized Recipe & Entertaining Journal

Recreate your favorite MTV wedding by purchasing Carmen Electra’s $11,000 Badgley Mischka dress… for the bargain price of only $4,599!!! Oh, and just to let you know, it has been worn twice and has been sized down to a street size 0 and has a few loose beads.

If you’re in LA, you can even drop by the owner’s house (not Carmen… but the girl who bought it from her on eBay no less) to try it on for size!

The fun and whimsical line of Weddingish is
having a sample sale! Come by and snack on their wedding favor cookies,
cocktails by Martini & Rossi, and shop the day away with great
prices and pieces for you and your maids this wedding season.

All of my envelopes are addressed and ready to go… even those to the “VIP” Guests. Sure, they won’t be coming to the wedding (although I do have the in’s with Mickey & Minnie) and they will be getting a pretty color copy of the invite instead of the real thing… but I’ve heard they send lovely momentos in their place. In case you’d like to invite some VIPs to your wedding, here are just a few of the addresses I have collected:

Mickey and Minnie Mouse
The Walt Disney Company
500 South Buena Vista Street
Burbank, California  91521

[for CA residents]
The Governor & Mrs. Arnold Schwartzenegger
State Capitol Building
Sacramento, California   95814

The President & Mrs. George Bush
The White House
Greetings Office Room 39
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, District of Columbia, 20500

[for Catholics]
Pope Benedictus XVI
Prefettura della Casa Pontifica
00210 Citta del Vaticano, Italia

[for Brits -- you won't get anything back unless you are a British citizen]
The Secretary to Her Magesty
Queen Elizabeth II
Buckingham Palace
London, England   SW1A 1AA

Any names/addresses you’d like to add to the list??

On Sunday, my most amazing bridal party threw me an oh-so-lovely shower in Malibu. We gathered for brunch at one of my favorite spots on the coast, Duke’s, which is a sister restaurant my favorite Maui restaurant (and my namesake) Kimo’s.
My mom flew down for the weekend to attend the shower, and other than the location and time, I had no idea what to expect. We had a beautiful table overlooking the clear skies (it was supposed to rain) and beautiful ocean waves. Sadly there weren’t any dolphins frolicking that morning, but the location couldn’t have been any better!
We all chowed down on the amazing Hawaiian buffet and far too many chocolate covered strawberries, and then sat down to play games. We had the “who knows Miss Lemon best?” game, as well as a fun one that Mr. Lemon had submitted answers for. After the laughter subsided, I found out that the theme for the shower was “Things I Could Use on my Honeymoon” and boy are my friends creative! Oh… and warning… I take very SILLY pictures and make the craziest faces… and sadly the camera captured most of them.

All of my pretty pretty presents (minus my favorite fishy purse)

My beautiful mom and I 

My adorable Neighborhoodies tank top! (thank you J!!!)

Awesome Bobbi Brown Beach Fragrance sunscreen spray & hair conditioner — have you ever smelled this stuff? They somehow captured all of the smells of the beach into a bottle.. it’s amazing!
 (Thanks M!!!)

For the plane ride… my Brookstone NAP set! (Thank you A&M!!!)

An awesome gift assortment from Swoozie’s — a packable beach towel bag, awesome orange cosmetics case (to match my signature giant orange travel purse) and an engaved mirror with the message “Damn I look good!” (Thanks N!!!)

This one was obviously a little hard to open?

This present was just for Mr. Lemon… in honor of his old nickname “Flake”

I had to hide some of the presents since the waiter was giving us some strange looks and the guys at nearby tables were keenly watching our activities! This was an awesome set of lingerie…(Thanks T!!)

And from one of my bridesmaids who <3′s yellow as much as I do (she’s a fellow member of the yellow car club!)
– Thank you G!

Super packaging and card making skills from my grad schools buds A & C!

They arranged to get us a honeymoon cruise of our choice (either a sunset cruise or a catamaran escape) while we’re in St. Kitts! And they got us our own castle (sand castle that is), waterproof UNO cards for our beach games and an awesome ship to sail whenever we want!

Thanks to WeddingBee, my mom knew where to get me some fun accessories for the trip!

Here goes the assembly of the ribbon bouquet:

And the finished product!

We even got my favorite Hula Pie for dessert!! (Macadamia Nut ice cream pie!)

And how else to end an event but with the perfect blue & gold favor from Godiva! Inside were 2 adorable and delicious starfish and seashell chocolates.

So… this was my first bridal shower EVER (I’ve never attended one before!), and boy was it a lot of fun. My bridal party did an amazing job of putting everything together and I hope they know how much I appreciated it and just how loved and lucky I feel to have such amazing friends! I can’t wait to spend my wedding day with everyone who came!!!