Bridemaid's Dresses and New Outfit

The patterns for the bridemaid's dresses have been on facebook for awhile, but I've made sure I can go ahead and post them here as well.

Jacket (R), Overskirt (M) , Bustle (L)

The whole outfit is made out of brown taffeta fabric with burnt orange accents (a faux vest and pattern designs on the overskirt). The girls have all gotten custom corsets made by Stephanie and the fabric just came in this past weekend!

I'm going to make this statement. The girls in my bridal party are *cough* well-endowed in the chest area *cough*. I'm a little bit less so. That being said - there will be enough cleavage in my bridal party to compensate for my lack-of. Haha!

Now - for this WONDERFUL outfit Stephanie is making me so I can be her walking billboard at conventions and Steampunk events I go to.

This is the outfit I sketched out when she offered to make me a corset:

 

So, tall boots, lace stockings, mesh underskirt, skirt, bustle cage, bustle, corset (with hook clasps and shoulder straps), white collared shirt, lace gloves, gloves, hat.

All we had to do was buy the material...

Corset (R), Skirt/Bustle (M), Underskirt (L)

To say I'm super-excited is an understatement!

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Booked:

Venue

Cake

Lighting

DJ

Catering

Photographer

Pianist

Ummm... pretty much everything now. I think the only thing that really needs worked on now is the Thank-You cards from the engagement party (yes, I know, I still haven't done those) and the groomsmens' outfits. Also, if we are having a line dance... yeah... that'll be worked out next year...

More Engagement Party (And Cake)

My mother finally gave me a CD of the pictures she took at the engagement party. I want to focus on the cake first -

There are two cakes in this picture. One, the white one with the white chocolate shreds and chocolate drizzle. This is the extra cake, which is chocolate with caramel liquor filling and white chocolate frosting and (as mentioned) chocolate shreds. The lady we have chosen to do our cake works with Italian Butter-cream frosting, not fondant.

The cake that you need to focus on is the one on the hat box. Yes, that is a cake - no, you can't wear it.

This cake might look like a top hat, but it's actually a raspberry cake with white chocolate mousse and chocolate frosting. The gears are made of a special sugar recipe (that I forget the name of) and the crystals (if you see them) are also sugar. The black ribbon is the only thing not eatable. The rim of the cake is even a solid chocolate!

Both of these cakes were fantastic, and they came from Barb Harvey at Incredible Endings.

Otherwise, here are more pictures from the party:

Being Silly

The King Family (Travis's Parents)

The Klopfstein Family (My Parents)

Debbie (whom is our planner/coordinator person now) and My Mom

All of the Bridesmaids (from left to right) - Alys, Sam, Me, Myra (Maid of Honor), and Mallory

Cutting the Cake Wedding-Style, haha.

Stop and Smell the Lilies

My mother was sarcastically  upset that the florist we chose didn't really like the centerpieces her and I came up with on our own, haha. He has a lot better ideas for more Victorian-style vases and real flowers. So, if you saw the way the tables were set up at the engagement party, everything except for the lanterns will change.

This is the closest picture I can find that looks like what I remember the flower looking like - a lily with a burnt-orange color with a hit of pink and also yellow. I think it's really pretty, and I'm excited about it! The way they will be displayed is going to look awesome as well!

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I don't remember if I mentioned this, but the moving table is back in action! The moving table - a coffee table-size with a glass top that covers the moving gears underneath, allowing the viewer to see them. The gears will rotate platforms the cake will sit on. After the wedding, we are going to remove the platforms (or keep them for display purposes?) and use it as a regular coffee table.

I'll have a sketch up as soon as we get it finalized.

This was one of the first ideas I had for the wedding waaaaay back when I considered having a Steampunk wedding (which was MONTHS before Travis proposed). So I'm super happy that we've found someone to make it for a reasonable price. We were originally told the estimate would be 5K, so you can assume it is much, much less than that - which we are very excited about.

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I still need to get the Thank-You's out for the engagement party. I'll keep that in mind. Also, if you're interested (I'll post it here) - I'm going to put together a video (that we wanted for the engagement party, but I was given late notice and couldn't get it together in time) that compiles pictures of Travis and I (from baby - on). It will also be on http://www.brittanyklopfstein.com/wedding.html - which is the link I put on the 'Save the Date' magnets we gave everyone.

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 Travis's mom is taking us to see the Trans-Siberian Orchestra :) I'm super stoked! I've never seen them live before, and just watching the youtube videos gets me excited!

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My steamstress, Stephanie, at Vintage Modiste has asked me if I've contacted any magazines to cover the wedding - I want to , but I don't know how to sell anything but myself, haha. So she's said that she'll take care of at least some of it :-)

Something I think I also forgot to show you all - this is a sneek peek of what the dress will look like!

This is a terrible picture - it shows every wrinkle (which is a result of how we framed it and the beads against the glass).

This fabric is the same material, and made at the same mill, that Princess Diana's dress was made. It's 100% silk. The beads are of the highest quality - imported from Czechoslovakia, and the pearls are glass pearls. The embroidered design was done on the computer and then sewn into the fabric - it's not a patch.

It's beautiful, absolutely beyond anything I dreamed my dress would resemble. Stephanie is awesome.

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I can't think of anything else right now! More later!

The Engagement Party

Sorry for the late update! A lot has been going on, but I've mostly been waiting to get some pictures from the engagement party from anyone, haha!

The party was fantastic! It was an absolutely brilliant time! I liked my outfit, we had Abuelos (a very nice Mexican restaurant) cater, so we had a fajita bar, the cake was so terrific, and the way we had the room set up was super fun!

Everyone seemed to have a great time and enjoy themselves. I'm not use to having so many people that want to talk to me, haha.

We created the cutest cards to give to everyone - they were folded in half, so had four columns. The front column described Steampunk. I took a lot of it from the wiki article, but elaborated on some of the concepts a lot of people don't generally understand.

While gifts weren't necessary, we appreciate the gift cards and other gifts we received - trust me, the majority of the gift cards have already been put to a very tasty use :)

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All of the bridesmaids are measured! Stephanie has been kind enough to offer to streamline their dresses so we won't have to just buy them at David's Bridal, which would look terrible next to my dress. Which, oh my gosh, I'm thrilled beyond belief with how my dress is looking so far! My mother has been in Florida since the engagement party, and when I tried to tell her today what we've been talking about with the bridal party - I couldn't even finish talking. She's completely handed it over to me, which is a large responsibility since she wants the ceremony to be a little more traditional in a way and I want to respect her wishes the best I can while still maintaining the vision I have for this epic wedding.

Getting ready for the Party

The engagement party is inching closer and closer, and it's in our sights! It seemed so far away when we first talked about it, but I guess that's how it goes. I'll be saying the same thing when the wedding comes around.

Can I be honest with you for a minute? Of course I can.

I'm just crazy with emotions and thoughts. I like to blame it on stress of everything going on in my life, and that does add to it, but a good chunk I think is that... well... I'm nervous.

And don't get me wrong. It's not the idea of spending the rest of my life with Travis, because he is the only one for me. If you've seen me and him together, you understand. Everything in him is everything I've ever hoped for.

Even when I was younger, when I said in middle school, "The man I marry, I want our first date to be going to church and then hanging out afterwords." In which everyone replied to, "You're getting your hopes pretty high for that, dear, you'll scare him off if the first thing you do is go to church." or some other negative comment.

Our first date, we went to church. We then went to the Cheesecake Factory (a relatively expensive restaurant, if you didn't know), which he paid for (I wasn't expecting him to).

What I think I'm nervous about, is if I'll be a good wife. I mean, I've spent the majority of my life being the child, living in my parent's basement. I know I'm ready to be out of here and on my own, but it's like I'm skipping a level of life.

Or maybe it's more like... I'm a growing balloon and about to burst into independence and I'm afraid if I'll be good at it. I'm just a bit scared, I think. It really has nothing to do with Travis and that "is he the one" crap, because that's never even crossed my mind as a serious question. I couldn't even say I was compromising anything for him. He has a heart for God, he's intelligent and creative, he is financially stable and capable, I'm attracted to him beyond all belief, and I still can't believe how lucky I am.

I just feel out of my element. It's like this whole "wedding" thing is just some big party and nothing more.

I'm going to cry at the engagement party. I really think it will be then that something inside me pokes a hole in the balloon of my emotions and I start accepting that my life -is- actually this perfect and I -am- worth it.

God is good, and I am blessed beyond all belief.

So yeah, glad to get that off my chest. A little scared of "growing up" is all, right?

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I drew this up for you all, since the majority of you won't be at the engagement party.

It's really bad, and done quickly, but it's a basic idea of what the tables at the wedding will be set up like. We'll have the tables at the engagement part set up the same way.

...the big grey squiggly thing is a mirror, haha. Beads are inside the bottom of the vase that match the runner linens.

And then the silver wear at the wedding will be gold. I think we're using some silver plasticwear at the engagement party, though.

My dress that I will be wearing also arrived. A couple alterations have to be made, but overall I'm very pleased with it :-)
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I took some awesome pictures at the Wild West Fest this past Saturday. I also had a new costume, but I didn't get any pictures of that. Anyways, here are some that I did:

 That's all for tonight! I'm going to go dream sweet dreams of Travis ;-D

Sorry for the wait...

Oh my goodness, so much has been going on!

Since school started, I've had so much on my mind, it's been crazy!

Ok... ummm... today we met with several wonderful ladies at Essenza Photography. They were super excited about the Steampunk theme! The three ladies we met were all really impressed with what we have come up with so far! Especially Jen, who has told me that if she tells her husband about me that he might leave her, haha. She basically ran into the room when one of the other ladies told her and screamed "I LOVE IT! YOUR THEME IS SO COOL!" it was awesome, my mom and I are stoked to be working with them!

It's really nice, and somewhat difficult, to find people that are willing to embrace and get excited about our theme. We've been blessed to find people that are interested in it or even already have experience with it.

Which brings me to my dress. It's going to look only slightly (or not at all) like my drawings. You see, we've found a fantastic, brilliant lady named Stephanie that has experience with making Steampunk garments. Basically, her awesome is as such:

1. She specializes in Plus Size clothing
2. She specializes in Period dress
3. She's owned a corset-making business and was bought out/shut down because she was too good and was impeding on another company's profit
4. She totally is excited about the Steampunk theme
5. She does a ton of embellishment work by hand (which equals super expensive, but I'm going to be wearing these outfits more than once).

I'm going to have a separate outfit for the rehearsal(EDIT: reception), which is a major secret from my fiance, since he is going to see my Wedding dress before the ceremony for the pictures.

So basically, she is awesome.

Goodness, what else... we are sending out the engagement invitations, or have sent them out already. I have a bunch that I will be handing out to some people, but if you are reading this - chances are you might be on the facebook event, and a lot of you won't get a physical invitation just because there isn't much of a point. There isn't anything special about them, so don't feel like you are missing out.

Engagement photos are taken, by the way! There are a few of my favorites throughout this post, so enjoy those!

My website is all put together! My portfolio pages are flickr slideshows, which I'm not incredibly umm... content with. So lame, but I needed to get something there before I applied to an internship that I hope to get.

It's doing basically what I do for the Student Union at NKU, but I'll be doing it for Fountain Square in downtown Cincinnati (let me hear ya say "WOOT!").

I'm taking my Intermediate Photography class this semester, and it should be my last photography class. We are able to do our own project, so I'm going to aim for Steampunk. IF YOU HAVE ANY IDEAS, let me know. So far I'm doing still lifes, and the League of Cincinnati Steampunks is going to the Old West Fest next Saturday for their Steampunk weekend, so I'm going to try to make a new outfit. Hopefully, maybe. I'll be uploading those pictures as I can. I have a few right now, but I'll save those for when I have more (probably after the Old West Fest).

I'm afraid we've decided against having a wedding planner, and that's all I'm going to say on the subject.

All right, that's all I have for now! I think that's enough, haha.

Long Time No Write

I feel like I didn't post this before, so I'm going to now -

This is me talking about the venue and the menu.




OK, I've been super busy between my summer class, work, school coming up, and all of the projects I'm involved in - so I haven't gotten around to really talking about what's going on with the wedding.

We haven't done a whole lot of the decision-making recently - we did decide that we're going to get the Bridesmaids dresses from David's Bridal - they will be a brown color, and the girls can pick out which style they like. Then we're going to go antiquing for their jewelery.

Also that our centerpieces are going to be small-ish lanterns from IKEA - probably the silver ones. I'm not entirely sure how they will be decorated thus far.

So that is all that I have on the wedding right now.

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Travis finally got an outfit together, so I'm really excited about that! We got to go to another League of Cincinnati Meet-Up at Arnold's Bar and Grill downtown. It was a lot of fun, we had a really good time!

We'll be going to the picnic in Louisville in a couple of weeks as well! With even more friends! I have a few additions to my outfit, too, so I'm excited to show them off!

The next meet-up/salon is in September, where we will be talking about The Old West Festival and probably the Renaissance Festival. There are also several other events in the works, but I'm tired and will talk about them another time.

Presents for my Birthday

Take a look at the wonderful necklace my fiance MADE for me! :D I couldn't be happier! And to top it all off, he's buying me this awesome book! Does my man know how to please me or what?!

Finalizing the design

I'm currently contacting several people in regards to making my dress - these are the designs that I'm finalizing on -

This first one is, I think, the one that would look the best. These designs are all the same except for the neckline and shoulders, which my upper arms are currently my highest priority in hiding and making look good.

The difference with this one, is it has more of a sleeve and the neckline is convex around the neck.

All the designs maintain a sweetheart cut around the upper chest, since I'm kinda small chested and want to modestly make that look a bit better :-)







This second design was my "final" one before, but I'm unsure of the way I have the shoulder straps and the off-the-shoulder straps. I have round shoulders, and I feel like this will accentuate the roundness rather than add elegance.
















This is exactly like the first design, but the neckline is concave to the neck rather than convex - again, I'm a bit worried it will make my shoulders look more round than they already are.







Then there is the issues of gloves, veil, and the actual decor of the hat - but that will all be fixed when I talk to an actual designer rather than just my idea of what looks good on me.

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Other things of note -

Say hello to the engagement party cake. No, this is not a picture of it - it's a brown top hat. It will be covered in gold gears and surrounded in a natural setting.

 Also, there is a Steampunk festival near Cleveland, Ohio this weekend - I want to go really bad, but it's 5 hours away and it's kinda late notice.
The League of Cincinnati Steampunks is having a get-together August 6th at Arnold's Bar and Grill - http://steampunk.ning.com/events/august-salon-of-the-league-of

Anyone can (and is encouraged to) come!
 

Moving Forward

My mother and I met with Kay Nelson yesterday, who is a wedding planner. The first order of business was to decide on a location, and we've decided...

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We (and by "we", I mean "I") really loved the Cincinnati Club. It was the most reasonably priced with the most character out of all the places we visited. My mother has a few hiccups regarding it, but I think once she see's the final product, she'll understand what's in my head and love it. :D

Location: Cincinnati Club
Date: October 22nd, 2011
Time: 6:00pm

Countdown -
463 days
or
11,127 hours
or
667,626 minutes
or
40057000+ seconds


No time to waste!

I'm going to be uploading a bunch of pictures in the upcoming week regarding designs and notes. They will be mostly for the wonderful people helping my vision come to life, but I hope that the rest of you will also be able to enjoy them and perhaps offer a few opinions :D

***Note that pictures are thrown in because I don't like uploading posts without images of some sort. They have nothing to do with what I'm talking about, haha :)

The Cincinnati Club

Today has taken us to the Cincinnati Club.

It's in the same block of buildings as the Phoenix, so again it's downtown.


Pros: Beautiful, and very steampunk. The room I'd have the ceremony in - the Gold Room, has a compass on the ceiling and two-story high windows and mirrors. The Oak Room would hold the reception, which is right down the hall from the Gold Room (Litterally, [oakroom]----hall----[goldroom]). Those are the only two rooms on the level, and the bar is located in the hallway, which is awesome. And since we'd be getting both rooms, the whole level would be ours.
<--- Oak Room
                                            Hall----->
Cons: Parking, just like the Phoenix. Location. It's about the same price, also. I like it better than the Phoenix, honestly, but it has the same issues. Not to mention - the parking is complicated. They come in on the 5th floor of the garage, but it's the third floor of the building, and it's in a different part of the building. Other than that, it's perfect.

<---Gold Room
I loved it the minute I walked in. It was everything I thought it would be and more, besides the parking. I expected that as soon as I saw the address.

We're meeting with the Kay, our potential wedding planner, tomorrow. Hopefully she can shed some light on the subject.

Weekend Updates

Saw the Manor House and took a gander at the Hall of Mirrors at the Hilton Netherland Plaza in downtown Cincinnati on Friday.

Manor House

Pros: Black and Gold trolley to take us wherever we want to go, beautiful gazebo and courtyard outdoor areas for a ceremony, great changing rooms, one of the nicest coordinators I've met, great parking, good location.

Cons: Southern Plantation murals in every room that don't really meet the theme's standards, price (but not as high as the Phoenix), no real "wow" factor in the reception rooms, as much as I wish I hadn't seen it - there were two dead fish in the pond outside... that's a bit of a bummer.

We kept a hold on the Manor House, but we've decided to also keep looking just in case. I relatively liked it, for the most part, I figure we can hide the murals somehow. My mother was less impressed, I think. However, it almost makes me sad to say "no" because Michelle was so nice! Especially when I mentioned the dead fish, and also accidentally hinted at the other locations we were looking at. I felt like a bit of a bridezilla, which I'm terrified of being construed as.


The Hall of Mirrors/The Pavilion

Pros: Beautiful, absolutely beautiful! The Hall of Mirrors was huge, fantastic, and amazing! I really loved it! Then the Pavilion was awesome! The whole "being based on a zepplin" thing was obvious once you see it in person, and the way a person could decorate it would be brilliant!

Cons: Money. money money money money money. Bare minimum for the Hall of Mirrors is $27k, and a few thousand less than that for the Pavilion. It's just way too much. I refuse to allow my mother to spend that much money on just the location. No way whatsoever.

It's just way too much money. I won't even consider the location anymore. Don't get me wrong, 1/8th of that price - yes! Absolutely, for less than $10k, I will totally be all over it! Beautiful, historical, great food, unique! But pricey. Very pricey.


Other

We're going to take a look at Laurel Court and the Cincinnati Club at some point.

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Myra, Mallory, and myself hung out with the League of Cincinnati Steampunks today! They hosted an event at the Cincy Art Museum - a Murder Mystery Scavenger hunt :D It was a great time, and I look forward to attending another hangout/event with them again!

We were divided into teams - Myra was teamed up with a gentleman we hadn't met before (and I can't recall his name), and Mallory and I were lucky enough to be on a team together. Myra's team came in first while Mallory and I came in second. I must say, Mallory was much more aware of her surroundings than I was, I wouldn't have gotten as far without her, haha!

Afterwards, the three of us went to an ice cream parlor in Montgomery while everyone else went to have dinner at Rookwood (sp?)  plaza.

The ice cream parlor was called "Aglamesis Bros". I got a banana sundae with hot fudge, Myra got coffee with carmel, and Mallory got Strawberry with Strawberry with Strawberry whipped cream, haha. It was fantastic, and I will probably be going again :D

The League of Cincinnati Steampunks is having a masquerade at Loveland Castle next weekend - I'll be out of town at an anime convention, but if anyone else is interested in going - they should!

Something Cool

See the pretty thing I bought at the Florence Antique Mall!

It's a bit rusty, but it just needs a good cleaning! There are little lanterns that need to be soldered together onto the posts in the back of the tray. It was only $15, and my mom agrees that it's perfect! I love the benches on the side and the cane stir-sticks!

Also:

Happy 4th of July!

Long day

It's not like me to get stressed from a work overload, and I don't intend to start now. However, this summer (especially the past couple of weeks) has been so busy that my head spins when I just think of all the things I need to do. I'm very eager to meet with a wedding planner, but that isn't until next Wednesday. Before that, we are still going to the Manor House on Friday and then talking with someone at our church (Crossroads) on Monday.

Today we visited The Phoenix. It's very lovely, it really is. It's also very big! Much bigger than I thought it was going to be.
Pros: The ballroom is fantastic - it has a lovely wall that will be great for fantastical lighting! Lovely balconies, lots of room, and I love some of the picture opportunities!
Cons: It's more expensive, parking cost $2 per car, valet services cost money, they don't have the napkin colors we want, it's in downtown Cincinnati. A lot of it was location and parking, but everything else is spot-on!

We went to meet with Barb Harvey at Incredible Endings cakes.We tried a Italian butter-cream raspberry cake, which was fantastic, but I think we're going with a chocolate cake with caramel filling. I'm going to be making a design of a top hat, which will be an ivory, and a gear design This will be for the engagement party in October.

We also just ordered a wonderful cake topper from Pete at Etsy.

Visitations begin

Today my mother, Jade (mom's friend who stays with us, she's a bit younger than me, and she's like an adopted sister - who is getting baptized :D), and myself are going to go see The Phoenix today. Then later we are picking up Travis and going to taste cakes for our engagement party.

Then Friday we are going to see the Manor House - My mom, Travis, and me. Travis can't get to the Phoenix today because of work, but we figure that if we like it enough that we'll make another appointment so he can see it.

Another place we might try is the Hall of Mirrors, which isn't as cool as it sounds (to me at least - my mom likes it). It's a ballroom located in a hotel. A Hilton Hotel, mind you, but still a hotel.

There is something about getting married in a hotel that isn't romantic. There would be no "going" anywhere when Travis and I leave - the prospect of "leaving" is simply going up to your hotel room (if we don't leave directly to our honeymoon).

But we might check it out. Who knows, maybe it's not as bad as I think it's going to be.


Travis is a bit bummed out because he hasn't been feeling well and thus had to leave work early on Monday. Now he has to make up those hours on Saturday right over an event the League of Cincinnati Steampunks is having at the art museum - a scavenger murder mystery :D. My friend (and bridesmaid) Mallory says she can go with me in his stead. I'm really excited about it.

I've been researching, reading, tasting, listening, eating, walking, breathing, everything steampunk that I can for a good week and a half now. I'm exhausted, haha. It's been nothing but wedding non-stop, and it's not like we're behind on planning - we have a year and three months! But we'd rather get done planning early rather than be rushing at the last minute. I just hope I'm not steampunk'd-out by the time the wedding gets here.