My Trip To Kleinfeld Bridal

*Ah! I just realized that I didn't post about my recent trip to Kleinfeld on this blog. But I did post about it earlier on my other blog, StuffLindsayBought.blogspot.com*

Recently, I went to New York City and the whole reason why I recently went was to help my sister, who lives there, with her wedding dress fitting.

Last August, she ordered a dress from Kleinfeld (yes, the shop from that TLC show) and was told that it would be in by mid-April. So we figured that me taking a mid-May trip made sense. You know where this going right?

I arrived in NYC on Thursday, May 12, and at that time, there was no dress. My sister made one last desperate call to Kleinfeld the following Friday morning and oh yes, they were just going to call her because the dress was there. But the earliest they could get her in for a fitting was mid-June (which was bumped to early June when my sister explained she was leaving the country for her wedding in mid-July).

So for a while there it looked like I wasn’t going to see the dress. But Saturday morning, after being coached by me on what to say to hopefully secure one of Kleinfeld's “emergency” spots (and I know they have these spots because I’ve seen them referred to on the show), my sister called the store again. Unfortunately she just got the answering machine. So things continued to look bleak.

But then my mother called. She’d talked to someone at Kleinfeld and had managed to get us a viewing (though not a fitting) for that afternoon. Yeah!

Yes, the girl on the show was trying
on a "Pnina", similar to this

So off we went to one of the world’s most famous bridal stores and yes, they were filming Say Yes To The Dress when we were there. But no, we’re not on it. The filming was only taking place in the show room and if you don’t have an appointment, the most you can do is poke your head inside that room, which, just like the lobby, is not as classy or as elegant as I had imagined it would be.

But anyone can head down to the basement, where the fitting rooms are, along with a small collection of overpriced shoes and other accessories. This is a pretty small space and again, it’s not as elegant as it could be (Toronto's White was noticeably nicer).

But while Kleinfeld was a bit of a letdown in interior design, it did have amazing service, once we were inside the store.

The woman manning the fitting area desk was very warm and even though we were just doing a viewing, we were assigned a seamstress who explained what alterations needed to be made and helped us pick up a veil.

Even though we were being “squeezed in”, the experience never felt rushed and while we did have to wait a bit to get our room, it was only about a 10-15 minute wait, which considering the store had over a 100 appointments that day, is pretty good.

If I lived in or around NYC, I would check out Kleinfled because it does have the largest selection of dresses in the world. But I would be reluctant to be a Toronto resident and buy a dress from there, given the store’s deadline issues (plus there’s the hassle of getting your dress over the border).

Also, while you don’t have to get your dress alternated there; alterations are a big part of the store’s sell and the way Kleinfled’s does it is that you pay a hefty, flat fee and then get as many alterations as you need. This is great if you live nearby and have a dress that needs lots of changes but obviously isn’t that practical if you live in another country.

As for visiting Kleinfled’s just for the sake of visiting it, I’d say pass. Sure, if you’re in the area I guess it wouldn’t hurt to pop in and check out the few dresses displayed in the lobby but again, unless you have an appointment, you’re not getting into the showroom (and even then, the bulk of the dresses are in the backroom). And while the accessories section did have some pretty items, none of them, least of all te Jimmy Choos, were cheap.

57 Wedding Invite Designs

One of the hardest aspects of my wedding was finding an appropriate invite design. I literally looked at several hundred different designs over on Esty, as well as various do-it-yourself kits and a few offerings by local invite companies.

Initially I thought the big problem with picking an invite design was going to be our limited budget. But then I started looking at designs and realized that no, our biggest problem was going to finding something that we liked.

Eventually we did find our invites but damn, did it take a lot of digging and while I love what we end up with, I do wish that this blog post had been made in say, January 2010, because it would have saved me a lot of time.

That post highlights 57 different wedding invitation designs that are for the most part anything but traditional. If you’re like me and want something different than your typical coloured-ribbon invite (you know what I mean), you’re going to want to check it out.

While it doesn’t contain pricing info or anything like that, you can click on an image to get to a page what will give you the name of the designer and from there you should be able to track him or her down.

Here are a few of my favourites:

For those of you not feeling Google Maps.

Interesting New Wedding Venue: Neubacher Shor Contemporary (NSC)

*Updated on April 25 with a venue link*

A couple of weeks ago, I got an email inviting me to the launch party of a new venue, something that, as far as I could tell, was simply called “The Venue”. While the picture included in the invite looked intriguing, I couldn’t find anything online about this place and its location, 5 Brock Avenue, confused me because I know that area and I couldn’t imagine where this place would be.

Then I saw this article over on BlogTO, a review of some place called the Neubacher Shor Contemporary (NSC). It was the full name for what I was calling “The Venue”.

As the article explains, this space is both an art gallery and an event space, with the event side of things being called NSC The Venue.

The picture to the left should explain why I couldn’t figure out where this place was located. From the outside, it doesn’t look like much. But the inside, which offers 3,000 square feet of loft-style space, would make for an ideal, contemporary wedding space. (In case you can't the copy on that top image, this place fits 150 sitting; 250 standing.)

Annoyingly, I can’t find a website for this venue but based on the invite I got, I’m thinking that the catering company Eatertainment is providing the food so if you’re interested in this space, maybe they can put you in touch with the right people.

Thanks to Jasmine for the venue link!

A Fun Wedding Blog

Sometimes it’s fun just to look at pretty pictures.

If you agree with that statement, you’ll want to check out The Lela New York Wedding Blog. It’s packed with beautiful image, after beautiful image of wedding-related stuff (for example, check out this post about short wedding dresses) and offers categories for easy browsing.

As the name suggests, this is a blog out of New York so many of the products it showcases aren’t available here but this blog can still be a great source of inspiration (for example, check out these fun mini-cakes). Plus, with the Canadian dollar flying high, it might be worth it to try and track down some of the items it highlights, like these too cute cake toppers.

My Honeymoon

While looking this blog on Friday, I noticed that I never posted anything about my honeymoon! And that’s just wrong because my husband Shawn and I had a great honeymoon. We took it in February and spent two nights, in Los Angeles, five nights on the French Polynesian island of Moorea and five nights on its sister island of Bora Bora.

I wrote up several blog entries on the Bora Bora and Moorea portions over on my other blog, Stuff Lindsay Bought.  So check them out and let me know if you have any questions: wedtoblog[removespace]@gmail.com.

Below are a few of the almost 2,000 pictures we took (yeah, we went a little picture crazy).

Love Online Coupons?

I know that I've talked about Groupon before on this blog but I don’t think I’ve mentioned One Spout, a site that basically collects all those Groupon-like online coupons into one place.

This site offers a bunch of different sorting options, including by distance and category, though you can’t sort by newest first, which is kind of odd.

That one flaw aside, this can be a great site for a bride-to-be.  It lets you declutter your inbox while still letting you catch a great deal, like over 50% everything from flowers to photos to wedding cakes. There’s even deals on wedding show tickets.

One deal that caught my eye was this one from TakeItAndGo.com that, for $89, gets you an at-home spa party for you and three friends. The really nice thing about this deal is that you can buy an unlimited amount so in theory, you could buy three of these coupons and have a twelve person bachelorette where everyone gets a mini- massage, pedicure and manicure (if you’re interested, the deal’s still on for four more hours).

One Spout isn’t just a Toronto thing; it has sites for most major North America cities as well as areas like “Halton region” and “Niagara region”, so this a great site for brides all across the continent.

Some Wedding Reading For You

Last week, the Toronto Star updated its online wedding section with a ton of new articles. Topics covered include ways to keep costs down (including a look at City Hall weddings), wine advice and invite ideas. And yes, there are multiple pieces about dresses (looks like my decision to wear a big dress makes me fashion-forward in the world of wedding gowns).

The Star’s wedding section is actually quite extensive, with dozens of articles that go all the way back to August 2008. It’s worth it to flip through some of the back stories since some of them, like one bride’s personal story on where to spend and where to save, are a great read.

LouLou magazine also recently launched an online wedding section, to go alongside this month’s wedding-focused issue. Since LouLou is a shopping magazine, there is a real focus on “stuff” so if you’re on a budget and/or have problems with shopping you might want to skip this one.

But LouLou really does highlight some great items like these reasonably priced shoes and these pricier ones.

And some of the articles, like the ones on nail trends and fragrances, are actually sort of useful.