The Poodles make it legal: The dress

Some time a go I asked you all help on deciding inspiration for my dress, but at the end I only made the dress for our E-Pics, things got really crazy with the move so I couldn't even start the dress I had planned for this occasion.

So because my first attempt of finding a budget-friendly-casual-beach-wedding-dress from a stores I was not successful at all, I told Mr Poodle I could just get a plain dress and transform it. We head over to Sears and found a long turquoise dress at $9,99 - That's an awesome price to me hehe!

So this is the dress we bought



…and the transformation began! I first cut it to the length I wanted, take the necklace kind of straps and cut two stripes out of the leftovers to add at the bottom.



and as usual, while I cut and hand sew, Curly slept like a baby!



After I pinned and sew the bottom ruffles, I cut different sizes of circles to make fabric flowers



I made 3 different sizes of flowers and played with them on the top of the dress until I was happy with the way they look.



I sew the new straps, the flowers and little beads to the center of the flowers and TA DA! the dress was ready!!



Here a little close up to the flowers :)



and the final pic!



I'm really happy with the way it looks now! So one thing out of the list for our legal ceremony!

next up on The Poodles make it legal – Gifts and ceremony preparations!

Previously – The Plan

The Poodles make it legal: The plan

Because of our K1 Visa, we need to be legally married within 3 months of me entering the country. We decided we wanted to do that as soon as possible so that we could move on to the next step of our Immigration Process AOS (Adjustment of Status).

The idea was to go to a courthouse with a few family members and sign all the papers, just like Miss Doxie did. But in our first week together, we decided to change our plans (we made lots of changes that week).
During one of our dinner talks with the Future in Laws, FMIL B came up with a really cool idea. Since we already decided earlier that a really close family friend was going to officiate our legal ceremony, our ceremony could take place pretty much anywhere. B asked, “Why don’t you guys get married at the beach?”

We were sold!!!

We planned it so everyone we wanted to be there could make it, and we set the date. But, we only had 7 days to plan our legal ceremony. It was going to be crazy, I could feel it!

The next day, Mr Poodle and I went down to the coast and drove around looking for the perfect place.

Mr. Poodle drove I snapped pictures.

After deciding where we wanted it to take place, we headed over to this really cool old building:

It’s the Orange County courthouse, where we got our marriage license. YAAY! We were so excited that I forgot to take pictures of us with the license, so once we were back in the truck, I snapped a quick shot.

While we drove back home, we started talking about how nervous we were while signing the license, but neither of us looked nervous at that moment. This is how Mr Poodle was feeling on the inside:

He’s so goofy!!

Once back at home, we started making calls since we didn’t have time to send invitations (bummer). But it’s OK, as we’ll get to make Save the Dates for our April nuptials!

Stay tuned, because it is all just beginning!

090 – Remember my handmade wedding dress?

Well, I don't think you can, because I forgot to show you pictures of the dress when I finish it a few days before I came to CA. So I’m sorry and the history begins like this…

One day in a Closet far far away a Poodle bride wanted to take pictures of her perfect wedding dress.



(If you are not a male Poodle you can keep on reading the rest of the story after the jump ;) )

089 – For our loved ones

It’s been a week since Mr. Poodle and I finally were reunited, and we went from using Skype and the phone to say hola and buenas noches each day to saying it with a real hug and a kiss. It has being AMAZING!

But, we struggled again with the visa process. This time it was not our K1 Fiancé Visa, but my family’s. Since they were not able to start their process until our visa was accepted, we’ve now realized accepted the fact that the timing (for our January wedding) was just NOT going to work. And since we would have only been able to have a few of them with us at the wedding, we have decided we are going to move our wedding celebration date, so that way ALL of our Chilean guests (OK, all 4 of them) can be able to make it to our special day.

It sounds crazy to think we are going to change our wedding date just for 4 guests, right? But they are my special invitees (including Poodle Mom and Poodle BM Sister) and they mean the world to me. :)

After our talk, we decided the best month for us will be April, since it will be Mr. Poodle’s brother’s spring break (he is his best man). This will assure that the most important people in our lives will be able to make it.
We’ve faced different delays with our plans, and at this point we decided we were not going to fight it any more. It’s time to start planning for real, and while some things need to be changed, we do feel that everything will be for the best.

During our talk, we decided to focus on all the good things that can come from moving our wedding celebration date to April, so I could have a big smile on my face again!

• We will have our loved ones by our sides
• There will be better weather in April than in January (we hope)
• We will have more time to complete the “oh so crazy” DIY list I put together… hehe
• We will have time to send STDs!  (I was doing the happy dance for this one!)
• And, I’ll have more time to BEE in the hive as a MISS! So you’ll see more of my crafting adventures!!!

After that list, the change in date did not sound so bad any longer. I finally felt relieved because having my family with me is my dream, and Mr. Poodle could not be any sweeter about it.

Changes can be really stressful, especially when we were just two and a half months away from our original wedding date. But at the same time, we now feel happy about it, ’cause our celebration will be all about having our loved ones with us. After all, that’s what weddings are all about… celebrating LOVE! <3

Have any of you faced an unexpected change in your wedding plans? Have you had to change your wedding date for any reason?

088 – The flight to Mr. Poodle’s arms

I am not going to lie, this trip was not the easiest one I’ve done, there was so many emotions blend together. But unlike any other I was so calm and relax (I think I used my stress and anxiety quote of the month the last two weeks hehe)

Saying goodbye to my family was not easy either but the fact my mom said “We’ll see you before the wedding” made it easier for me :) But I was still a little worried about how Curly was going to take the flight – I did train him for the last two months so the 15 hours on his travel cage wont be such a shocking experience, but there’s no way I could fake the turbulence and altitude.

Once we landed in LAX the stress begin, first because I was really scared about all the stories I've read about how sometimes on immigrations they give an extra hard time to people that come on K1 visas, but I guess those were just isolated situations because I actually got treated really good, after he checked my papers he asked me how Mr. Poodle and I met, we chat for a little bit and I was officially welcomed to the United States YAY!!! :) with a reminder we should “be legal” before 3 months.

I started the wait (really long) and later hunt for my bags, after all I was surprised I didn't had any bigger problems with them, since each time I’ve come to California one of my bags gets lost or delay. I didn't have problems with the bags but once I tried to talk to people to know where I had to go pick Curly problems started!! First they were not sure where I was supposed to pick him up, my smile faded away and I started to change into “Bridezilla-with-a-lost-baby-dog-mood”. I think I talk with not only my airline people in charge but anyone I could even from other airlines to know where my dog was!!!  Almost 1:30hrs later the guy came with Curly – He was laying on his carrier enjoying the ride :) and I could breathe again!!

So after almost 2:30hrs I was allowed to go outside the terminal, I hardly walk pushing 3 suitcases and Curly’s carrier, to my surprise I couldn't find Mr. Poodle anywhere, I manage to push everything to a corner and look around to try to find a pay phone, because I was starting to worry, 15 minutes later there was still no Mr. Poodle, my eyes starting to water I was scared/nervous and I could not move to find the damn phone because Curly would star crying so loud!

Finally I head a “that’s a really cool carrier”, I turn and there was him! I was so pissed at the whole I-lost-my-Dog-thing plus the nervous 20 minutes without finding him that my eyes starter watering the moment I saw him, it was magical, the best hug EVA!!

So after we hug for looong time, he went to one knee and ask me if I will marry him :) – OMG! I was shocked – I knew he wanted to re-propose since we “become engaged” over phone. But I was not expecting that at the airport, I didn't even see all the people around us at that moment, my heart almost run away from my chest, it was even better than I could ever imagine. It took me a little to respond since he looked do darn cute, so after I saved the moment picture in my head I said “SI”

(How I wish I had pictures of that to show you!!)

Anyway we headed home and two hours later we were walking with Curly up the stair to our new home :)

Curly got to explore the yard and say Hola to our (kind of scary) neighbors

  {I guess doggy language is universal }

And even though I still have to deal with the explosion of clothes and wedding related items on our living room …

… The next day we got to go to LA and visit the beach :)

I still feel this is a dream, we are living alone with Curly and we get to say goodnight with a kiss instead of hanging the phone or singing out Skype :D

086 - How to travel with a wedding dress?

In the first stages of our planning I researched different options for traveling with a wedding dress. In some threads on the boards, brides were saying it would be of no harm if you just stuck the dress in a backpack as your carry on. Well that’s a really good option, but a couple of things came to mind:

• The closer it is to me, the better! I don’t want to risk losing it.
• The smaller the better! I have so many things to pack and only two suitcases and a backpack. I need to use space really wisely.

Because the space (and weight) of the backpack was too precious, I decided to go a different way, and pictured this in my mind:

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I’ve traveled with pillows before, and I’ve just carried them under my arm with no problems at all. So I thought that maybe I could just make a “wedding dress pillow”. So I went straight to my leftover fabrics and found the perfect one that I had leftover from a pajamas I made a few weeks ago. I grabbed my scissors and jumped into action!

{ I cut two rectangles of fabric and sewed a zipper to one side }

{ Then I started the slow an painful process of stuffing my wedding dress into the pillow. In the picture on the right, you can see I made two of them: one with just plain fabric and other one with a thicker inner layer. }

{ I folded the dress carefully so it wouldn’t get too wrinkled. I’m not so worried about that because I can always dry clean it once I’m in CA right? In the right pic, you can see my dress inside the two pillows. }

{ I tried to squeeze the dress down as much as I could. If you remember, my crinoline alone is pretty puffy - I want to be a marshmallow bride }

This is the perfect way to dream about our wedding, and spend 15 hours on a plane.
I’m really happy with the way it ended up. It’s actually really small (considering how puffy the dress looks) So I’m hoping it helps me get my beauty rest right before I’m reunited with Mr. Poodle!!

Speaking of being reunited, I’m SOO excited!! I’ll be a really really busy bride these next few days with packing and finishing up my last projects before my trip, so I don’t think I’ll be able to blog again until I’m in beautiful California. But to make it up to you, I want to share another teaser from the dress I’m making with the fabric I showed you all in my last post.

{ I still have some work to do, that’s why I’m grabbing it on the front }

Maybe this was too much of a tease, but the next time you’ll see it will be in our engagement pictures.
Now back to the subject at hand. Have any of you had to travel with your wedding dress? What was the best packing option for you?

085 - Engagement session talk

In Chile couples don't usually get engagement photography sessions (What a bummer huh?), so to me, this was one of those – Can WE PRETTY PLEASE? situations – and that’s the cool thing about mixing our traditions :) YAY!

Then, and since we are working on a tight budget, we decided an engagement sessions was “one of those things” we should cut off in order to stay inside our budget. :(

But now we are back in the game! and the Poodles are going to have an engagement session!! *happy dance* :D

And as usual I started the search for inspiration! and what better place to start than here, the hive! so I had to show you all (in case you haven't see then before on the Gallery and the Boards) some of my favorite E- Pics

- First from katiebug3017: I love the way they included their hairy babies on the shots, specially since they met while taking them to the beach.

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After seeing this pictures, I love the idea of including my baby Poodle Curly on our shots :)

 

- From Miss.Gator: I absolutely love their shots on the water, definitely a very unique scenario.

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Since I was a hard core swimmer while in Collage, I would love to do some “water shots” but maybe it will be too cold for that since Mr. Poodle has told me the weather is starting to cool off on the sunny CA.

 

- From Future Mrs. Martin: I love the “laying on the ground” king of shots, and the leafs look so perfect.

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I would love to have some nature on our pictures, but then since our wedding will have a very strong rustic feel I started to look for more city inspiration.

 

- From Jesstagirl: How fun and colorful are this pictures I love how they used the painted walls!

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I love the graffiti and urban feel in this pictures, I bet there’s ton of colorful walls and graffiti's around LA, right?

 

- From Miss Disney: I love the color in this ones too! I can’t get enough of those bright color walls :)

{ Image Source Left – Right }

 

- From nelzbels: How hot is this photo?

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Wasn't that some lovely hive inspiration?

And of course, now that we are having an engagement session I have the perfect excuse (ok, another excuse) to make a dress and search for cool accessories to wear :)

Since I love to tease you all I’m going to show you what my baby Curly did while I has working hard on a dress, and here you can actually see the fabric I’m using for it.

   { Yes! he slept the whole time and Yes! my fabric reminded me Miss Dachshund’s colors hehe }

Now we know we want our E-Pics to have a Urban feel, but we need to start the search for cool places we could use, since I’ll be new there I have no idea how to search and even though Mr. Poodle lives in CA he’s not an often visitor of LA.

We thought about using the places we have visit in LA, but I think we might be missing some other cool ones just because we never saw them before.

So hive do you want to share: How did you search for your E- pics location?  Are you using or did use places you both visit? Did you use a “new to you” location?

084 - September 18th meets the 4th of July for our rehearsal dinner?

I know! that’s a hard task if you don't own a time machine. And your probably wondering what I’m talking about, I’ll get there is just a second.

But before I go deep into showing you what I’m talking about, I want to share EXITING NEWS!!! This was the week!! If you remember last week was not the best for us, but finally we got our Fiancé Visa APPROVED!! *Happy dance* – Now even though some of our plans had to be re-scheldure we could not be any happier, now we know we will be together soon :)

Ok now to the inspiration for our rehearsal dinner… and the story goes like this:

When we first started dating, one of the first thing we though was pretty cool, was that our countries flag’s share the same colors, and both of them have stars (ok just one on my case :) )

And when we started talking about the way we both celebrate our Independence Day we realize we had a lot of things in common, and both of our celebrations also had very unique items that we both liked a lot.

{On the left the Chile flag, but it’s twisted a little bit to the left - Image Source Left – Right }

The Chilean Independence celebrations are September 18th but we are so lucky to have our Dia de las Fuerzas Armadas (the day of our army forces) the 19th so pretty much every year we have  a between 2 to 6 days celebrations, (that’s because if the celebrations happen to be in the middle of the week, we end up having the whole week as holiday)  I know kind of crazy to party for that long, but sooo much fun! Specially because this is the time of the year when Chileans eat more Empanadas, Asados y Anticuchos.

September 18th is by far my favorite Holiday, and 4th of July is one of Mr. Poodle’s favorite – So I thought, what better idea than have a “Independence – Fiestas Patrias” theme rehearsal dinner :)

My idea is to have a little “Fonda” – with Papel picado for decoration (On the next picture you can see that usually fondas have either flags or papel picado as ceiling decor). Lots of 4th of July decor and yummy Chilean Food, with some cool Independence colored drinks.

  {Chilean Fonda – That’s where all people go dancing for Fiestas Patrias -  Image Source }

So I started the search for inspiration decor and this are some of the ones I loved:
This is so clean, simple and colorful! the flowers next to the flags are “Copihues” that’s our National Flower.

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I also found 4th of July projects I just loved! – like this one by Twig and Thistle :) She even has a tutorial and templates for this cuties  

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I found an overload of Inspiration by the Hostess with the Mostess blog, wow this tables look amazing!

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And of course some dessert Inspiration!

I loved the Hostess desert Inspirations, she divided them on two post here and here

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And some drinks we could serve! besides the Pisco Sour we both love so much 

{4th of July Cocktail Recipes from Simple Stated via Hostess with the Mostess }

This will be such a fun excuse to mix what we love the most about our favorite celebrations! I’m officially excited :)

Do you know about more 4th of July inspiration I should look at? Where you found your rehearsal dinner inspiration? Are you having a theme for this event?

083 - A bump on the road

I thought this week I was going to write the post I’ve been waiting to write for 221 days, I though last Monday we were going to have our visa Approved and I was going to be thrilled to announce that I was going to be reunited with Mr. Poodle in just a week. Well that is not happening (just the part of us being reunited in a week)

I know, maybe my expectations were too high up, but there was a no reason to get any answer but an approval, and even though we were not rejected, after the interview I felt like we were.

Trust me, I’ve done mayor research about what they ask on the visa interview and every aspect of it, so I was pretty confident about it – But to my surprise I got the answer I was not ready to take: we have to keep waiting, waiting to know if we get approved (On my head I was screaming at him saying “Are you kidding me???- Does 221 days of wait is not long enough or something?)

I was so frustrated, sad, mad and I felt my heart was breaking, but I kept my head up, took a deep breath, smile and ask him about how they’ll contact me. Later, when I was home I had to let everything out, and I broke to tears, I felt our wedding plans were being trashed away by an Immigration officer, and more than ever I wish I had the knowledge to build a machine to teleport to Mr. Poodle’s arms.

So yeah… After hours feeling like it was the end of the word I realize how much of a baby I was because:

- Yes, this adds some extra weeks to our long waited reunion.

- Yes, it’s going to take longer to move to CA.

- Yes, I will need to put on hold some of my DIY projects.

- Yes, I probably wont see Mr. Poodle as soon as we though, but hey! I will be sharing all the rest of my life with him, every single tear of frustration over this process is so worth it if at the end I’ll  walk down the aisle to the men of my dream, right?

Each little bump on the road makes me appreciate Mr. Poodle more and more, I know I will never take him, our love, or our relationship for granted because we have being fighting to be together for so long. And every single time things got tough, he was my stone, he always gave me the energy to raise my head again, to look beyond the gray cloud and realize we have a wonderful future ahead of us. Our love keeps growing, and all of this will just make us and our relationship stronger.

We had everything so well planned, it was our timing masterpiece, but I now I need to let it go, relax and focus on the half full glass. Sometimes in timing-wedding-planning things just don't work as plan.

Have you faced a suddenly change on your timing-wedding-plans? What have you done to keep a positive attitude if you didn't like it?

082 - Decisions, decisions! - Dress decisions

Remember when I showed you all my inspiration dresses for the one I’m making? Well, at that time I was so focus on finding something I liked that I didn’t pay attention to one little detail – our wedding will be in winter (scare to the cold face) – Just like I mention before on my shoe post, I suffer from a really low tolerance to cold weather. So I realize I need to think about a way to stay warm but still have the dress of my dreams.

Because I was not 100% sure about the shape I wanted for the top of the dress, I just focus on finishing the bottom part and the undergarment, later on I added a splash of color to my crinoline, witch made me really happy! But I had decisions to make, yeah the top needs to be finish AHORA!

( You already know this is one of THOSE post Mr. Poodle!)