I'll take Men Swear for 200. That's Menswear actually.

      Enough about me and the things I'm wearing and doing, lets talk about dudes. Fiancée and I have been talking about his wedding style recently.  We've been  browsing the internet and the Mens Wearhouse  website to figure out his vision. I wanted to him to take the reigns on this one since he's the one wearing the tux, not me.

      He's  thinking something like this.

                                                              Image Via blacktiephilly

                                                               Image Via eastsidebride

    Since my fiancée is a sexually trim fellow he can totally pull off these vintage tapered looks. The question is can Mens Wearhouse pull them off? He is very concerned about the fit. He owns one suit and hates the jacket. He says he looks like a kid wearing his dad's jacket. This is some what true. The jacket was not properly tailored and should really be re-done. So when it comes to the fit of his tux jacket on his wedding day he is very fearful of looking like a total dummy.

   I have reassured him I won't let this happen, we will get a jacket that fits him properly and it will be totally rock n roll and hip to the max! What kind of concerns does your groom have about wedding day fashion? Are most grooms going modern or more traditional?

Engagement Aftermath

    I hope you enjoyed watching the video and it wasn't too long. We got a lot of positive feed back on it. People that we are mere acquaintances with would tell us they saw it on facebook and cried at the end. That was a little strange to me at first. I wasn't sure if I liked sharing such a private moment with people I didn't really know. But then I looked at it another way, we brought some romance into their day. They barely know us and they were moved to tears, that can't be a bad thing.

                                                Image Via icanhascheezburger
     After that huge shock of the proposal I felt shaken,. I really felt like I had just been in a car accident or something. I had serious adrenalin going and was a hot mess. I had no idea it was coming and it was a major shock to the system. Turns out a few people knew it was coming. My fiance had consulted our neighbor about a good jewelry store and my mom had been called while at the store to confirm it was a good diamond. People at his work also knew it was happening. Some people who didn't  know were his parents and since it was my birthday we had already made plans to have dinner with them that night.

       About 15 minutes later we were in the car on our way to the dinner with his parents. I remember sitting there in the car taking deep breaths and trying to look like I hadn't been crying. We met with them and when we got to our table we revealed the big surprise. They weren't quite as shocked as I was but I do remember his dad jumping out of his seat and pulling us out of the booth for hugs. He then told our waitress and sufficiently embarrassed me. He took this picture of us shortly after.

                                                      personal photo

    So that's the whole story. It was then time to start planning a wedding. I was actually in a bit of denial at first. I wanted to soak up the engagement a little bit before I started planning. Eventually people start asking you so many questions about it that you have to start planning.

     What did you do after he popped the question? Did you immediately start planning or give it some time to sink in?

Birthday and Engagement Anniversary!

      Today is my birthday! Yay! Woo hoo! Happy 28 to me! But there's something else special about today. It is exactly one year since I got engaged. Yes ladies and gentleman, that means that my now fiance proposed  on my birthday last year. Get yourself ready for this romantic and thoughtful story. Tuck into your cubicle or cozy up in those slippered feet because it's go time.

     It's Tuesday May 25th, 2010 on my 27th birthday. I go to work and get home around 7pm. I had bought a video camera for myself the week before so I wasn't too surprised to see my boyfriend playing with it when I got home. I open the door and he's got the camera set up on the counter recording. I play it cool. He asks if I'm ready for presents. Duh! Let's get this birthday started!

    He then makes an outstanding move, he hands me a clue. Now you have to understand that I have a special place in my heart for scavenger hunts. My dad used to make them for me and I've made one before for Mr. Betty. I read my clue and the chase is on. He follows me with the camera. Now, at this point people have asked me if I knew what was coming. Honestly, I had no clue. I thought he was videoing me getting presents. The thought briefly crossed my mind that maybe at the end there would be a ring but I wholeheartedly believed he couldn't afford one and there was no way that was actually going to happen, it was just me having silly girl thoughts.

      I could keep explaining what happened but you know you'd rather watch it. So here it is. We'll discuss when you've finished but I have to warn you that the video is 10 minutes long. Most of it is me roaming through the house finding little gifts and the last one happens right back where we started in the dining room. Skip ahead if you like. I do have to warn you that my fiance was extremely nervous and acting weirder than normal.

      I still get nervous when I watch that! In this age of technology any one else have a proposal that we can all share?

Latest Vintage Finds

    I'm on the hunt! I've been going to garage sales and I've already shared with you the loot I pilfered from my grandma's house. I'm looking for all things household vintage to be turned into non-traditional centerpieces.  Yesterday I decided to expand my Craigslist search and look through some other categories. I stumbled upon a listing for an antique shop that is going out of business less than a mile from my house! Score! Not for them, but for me!  It was time to go pickin'. I love these guys and they have taught me much about picking.

                                                      Image Via www.tvrage.com
    The plaza that it's in is not the best so I made Mr. Betty join me on this shopping trip. Sure enough the place is being packed up as we walk in. The owner told us that everything was 50% off and he maybe able to do even better than that. This shop was way bigger inside than it looked from the street. There were tons of shelves with tons of crap vintage stuff on them. It's one of those places that has so much going on you can't even focus. It's kind of like when I shop at Forever 21, the place is so packed with all different things that I have hard time finding anything I like, let alone the right size. Who's with me on that?

    So we looked around and came across a few cool things. I came to the conclusion that I'm totally spoiled by paying cheap garage sale prices. There were things in that shop I wouldn't pay more than 2 dollars for and they had a price tag of 30. My darling fiance found both of the items that we purchased. One being a fake old phone and the other an old record player. Once we picked out our stuff it was time to make a deal. Here's where my picking skills came in handy.

                                                             Personal Photo

Rule #1 - Let them say how much they think it's worth. I said "let's make a deal, what do you want for the fake old phone?"

Rule#2 - Point out imperfections. I called it a fake old phone.

Rule#3 - Bundle to get the best price. After he told me how much he wanted for the phone I asked him "what about if I take the ratty record player too?" I then got both for the price he had quoted for just the phone.

       Now don't go to someone's garage or estate sale and call their belongings ratty or fake. I only used those words because this was a store and I knew the guy had no feelings for these objects. At someone's home you're better off pointing out a scratch or something similar but you might as well just bundle instead.

             Anyone else hunting for wedding decor? Any garage sale tips?

Betty's Favorite Things: Black Lace Appliques

    Welcome ladies and gents to another edition of Betty's Favorite Things! Today I will be sharing my love of black lace appliques. This is a new found love that I hope I carry on a long time. It all started when I decided I had to have a sexy wedding dress with black accents but couldn't find one at an affordable price. What's a girl to do? Add her own black to a plain dress of course! And so started my search for black appliques.

     Surprisingly, I can not find any black appliques in my local sewing stores, they have white but no black. The online search then began. I have since stumbled upon this lovely Etsy store.

                                                      Image Via .Etsy

      Here are just a few of the lovely black lace appliques she has for sale. I am trying hard to figure out which ones I'd like to put on my dress.

Birdacge Veil Prototype 1.0

    The Veil....the all important bridal accessory. With out it you're just a girl in a white dress, I think it's when you put it on that you start to look like a bride. As with everything else I have to try my hand at making mine. I've decided to go the vintage route with the very popular and attractive birdcage. In the first few months of my engagement I learned what a fascinator was and I'm going to try and make one of those too. I'm joining a rather large group of DIYers (these are pretty popular projects, wouldn't you say?) so I'm feeling confident.

                                                        Image Via bfabevents.blogspot.com

Photo-rific book part 2

     For those following along you'll remember I was last working on a photo book to give our parents at the rehearsal dinner. I'm using Picaboo (only because I have a Groupon) and was having a bit of trouble getting used to it. I spent some more time on it yesterday and I think I'm getting in the swing of things. Lets go over it.

Things I like:
      There are thousands of back grounds. Really, it's amazing how many there are to choose from. I hope you aren't indecisive because you could spend at least an hour looking through those babies. I went with Vintage wall paper and also Vintage desk. Here's a screen shot of the first page with the Vintage desk back drop. (You're getting a sneak peek at the e pics!)

                                       Personal Screen Shot of Picaboo