New Antique Find!

Oh, Knoxville. Your wonderful hipster vibe never ceases to delight me.

I found a wonderful new antique store, that I think I'd maybe been in once before when they started but it's a lot different now.

It's called Retrospect, and it's in the boomin' new area of Knoxville known as Happy Holler.

Yeah, it might be a hipster paradise, but it is totally worth going to check out.

Retrospect is smaller than most of the stores in Knoxville, but it makes up for it by cramming every nook and cranny full of awesome stuff.

Most of it was in great condition, and they set up shop in a uniquely organized way. Like, there's an entire rack of owl stuff and the post cards were alphabetized which was super helpful if you're looking for a certain genre or group of items.

But, there was still plenty of piles and booths to search through aimlessly.

On my end of things they had some beautiful globes and amazing vintage maps and suitcases galore.

While most of the items were wayyy out of my price range, I nabbed (FINALLY) a yellow suitcase, and an adorable green one for about $30 for the two. There were definitely some nicely priced items in the midst of the $50-$100 dollar items, and they did offer my some great deals on suitcase sets. 

I am planning on heading back for a few items but I would highly recommend this store if you're looking for some neat stuff. It was a good mix of clothes, shoes, hats, and furniture along with some just plain freaking awesome things you need in your life. 

We also ordered our country flags for the send off...and they should be here today!!!

SO. EXCITED. 

Appy Together

Weddings? There's about a million apps for that.





And since I've been trying them, I thought I'd pass on what's worked...and hasn't worked...so far. Because I've probably downloaded about thirty so far.



This post I'm going to go over five of my favorite apps and one website. Keep in mind, since most of my planning is done, these are mostly management apps not planning apps!

 

Here's what the icons look like, if you end up looking for them. 

Zola

Technically, Zola is more useful as a website, but the app is a fun way to use it. It's a registry website, but it offers you the chance to register for AMAZING things like cooking classes, dance lessons, and even set up a honeymoon fund.  

While the stuff on the website is pretty freaking cool, the downside is that a lot of it is way too expensive and the "experiences" you can register for are, for the most part, only available in bigger cities at the moment. 

So far though, this is by far the most unique and fun registry we've used. I doubt we'll get anything from this list, but if we did I would be ecstatic because the items are so unique.

Another cool thing about it is you can follow your wedding hashtag through the app! 

The Knot

Next I want to talk about the two Knot apps I have been using. Everyone knows that the Knot is the go-to for wedding stuff. 

The website has pretty much every single thing you need, and makes it amazingly easy to build your wedding website, manage guest RSVPs, and do anything else you can think of. 

But I love that the app has a countdown for your wedding, your checklist, budget and your guest list all right there. 

I hate that the app splits in two so that the guest book and website management are in the "Guestbook" app, but it's still worth having the two apps. 

It's all really easy to use, clean, and has a lot of "inspiration" and vendor pages. Even though I have all mine, it's nice that they have it available. 

 Guest book app. 

 The Knot app. 

Target Registry

Ok, so you can get a registry app for pretty much every store you want to register at, but so far I think the Target one has been BY FAR the easiest to use. 

It's easy to log in, which I thought would be easy for all of them...but it wasn't. 

It is also super simple. 

The menu has only four options: Browse, My Items, Checklist, and Scan. 

Browse biggest pro is that it allows you to look through collections and categories like "Most Registered Items" or "Hadn't thought of these". It also has grouped items from designers.

The biggest downside is that you can't really browse outside of these collections or categories, so it's not like you're going through the whole website. You can, however, add things from the regular app or website onto your list. But it's kind of nice to have all the items you need and really want grouped together without having to think of them on your own. 

My Items is pretty obvious, but I will tell you that I don't like that you can see what people have purchased or not. It kind of ruins the surprise! So I've just been adding and not looking. 

The Checklist option gives you items by department to make sure you've got your essentials down, and it's actually been pretty helpful. It makes sure you cover all your bases, and you can click on each item you don't have filled in and it will take you to those items to add to your list. Sort of like a grocery store bingo. 

The Scan option is also self-explanatory. You can go into any Target, scan an item, and it will add it to your list. No registry gun necessary!

Wedding Party

Ok, this is definitely my FAVORITE app! It does several really cool things. 

The first is that all of your wedding guests can download the app and make a profile. You create a code so only your guests can get in, but once they do it compiles them all into profiles like this:

It's SUPER delightful, and it lets you communicate with all your guests through the app!

It also lets you add pictures and do amazing things like put your wedding events, registries, and area accommodations on there so all your guests can find them easily. 

^Seriously how I feel about it. 

 On top of all that, it also has a planning section where you can look at other weddings and read articles and look at pictures and I LOVE IT. 

Perhaps the best part though is that it has a camera feature, and at the wedding guests can use it to take pictures and Eric and I have instant access to them all so we don't have to go hunting for them afterwards!!

 

So those are my favorite apps so far, which brings me to the two apps that were the WORST. 

The first was Appy Couple. 

I don't even have screen shots because I deleted it out of fury. 

Basically, the reviews were great and it looked like something I wanted. 

The app was free so I downloaded it, but when you open the app it tells you to go to the website to register.

   

Fine, Appy Couple. I will do that. EVEN THOUGH I downloaded this app because CLEARLY I am not at a computer and I'm on my couch Netflix binging Unbreakable and do not want to get up right now. 

So I waited until the next time I was at a computer, naturally. 

But THEN. I get to the website, and it says it's the stylish wedding website and app, and that gets me excited because it does look very pretty. You have my attention now.  

So I click on Get Started only to find a price of $35.00 pops up. I immediately begin searching for the "free" option because I'm a millennial damn it! I'm not paying for SHIT! And I'm sure enough not paying for something that I paid hundreds of dollars to learn how to do in that stupid website design class and am just too lazy to do!

Come to find out, there is no free section and I literally went no further because NO.  

It might be a great app but I'll never know. 

The second worst app was Seat Puzzle. 

In theory it is suppose to help you plan your seating chart using a handy drag and drop feature that lets you create and move tables, then fill in your guests from Facebook or your address book. I'm interested... 

   

But in reality is a clumsy white space that's hard to use. You can't set the dimensions of the room, so it's like looking at a blank computer screen when you're trying to type up your final that is due in six hours and you just started.

   

So I start trying to figure it out, and for SOME reason, I can't figure out how to rotate the tables. This should be easy to do, but I can't. 

I start scouring the internet for answers, but I can't find anything on itunes or Google so I'm pretty sure at this point the answer doesn't exist. So I Facebook message their developers because apparently that is there chosen method of communication...

So I ask them how to rotate these DAMN TABLES to which I receive the following message:

"Hi Marvyl. Unfortunately you cannot rotate tables in Seat Puzzle. We may add this feature in a future version. Best regards, Seat Puzzle Support"

Well, I could go on forever with my GIFs of rage but I won't. 

BUT HOW DO YOU DESIGN A TABLE ARRANGING APP THAT DOESN'T DO THE ESSENTIAL FUNCTION OF ARRANGING?

Anyway, that brings me to my website replacement, which is Tablerrr.com

Why does it have three R's?

But so far it's been easy to use, and the freaking tables rotate. So. There's that. I've just started using it, and I'll update you on if it actually works or not in the end. 

So that's my app reviews so far. I hope this helps anyone out there meandering through the world of wedding apps since iTunes apparently can't make it a freaking category! 

I hope I've saved someone the trouble of Seat Puzzle, at least.  

Round Two of Nostalgia

So my curiosity got the best of me and so Eric and I went out to explore the other Nostalgia store.

And I actually took pictures! Yay!

So, this one was more like a fun garage sale/estate sale than an antique store.

It definitely had those random things that you really REALLY wanted in your life, despite them having any real purpose other than being really freaking cool and weird. 

Who needs this chair? I DO. 

What is this? A projector? NEED IT. 

It definitely had a 70s/80s vibe more than the other one which seemed more like quaint 50s/60s. The booths were set up half like little closets and half like living rooms you remember going to with your parents back when you were a kid. 

That couch, tho.

 While we did find some pretty cool suitcase collections, and even this one which I really loved:

It was REALLY expensive. Like, $50 a suitcase kind of expensive. Even though that has been pretty par for larger suitcases, these were not in good enough condition to warrant it. 

I don't know how much they would have brought the prices down, but with Eric there I had less time to haggle individual purchases so we didn't even try. 

 Mostly it was clothes, shoes, and furniture. While it is definitely somewhere I wish I had gone when I had my first apartment and wanted to deck it out with retro-vintage-hipster stuff, it wasn't really what we were looking for.

On the other hand, if you're going to a decades party or need some funky apartment decorations...head right over!


So we walked out with an atlas, and headed back over the other Nostalgia.

Now, from the picture I can see how there seems to be little difference, but you can definitely feel it when you walk in. Eric said he liked this one way more.

There aren't as many clothes, but there are way more "things". 

Like this bar cart that I tried to convince Eric we needed in our life. He disagreed for SOME reason. 

This one has a more bright, dainty feel about it...again more reminiscent of the 50s/60s. 

Eric actually looked around longer in this one, he said the prices were more reasonable and the stuff was better. 

We decided against the sombrero but we did get the two cases I wanted for my bridesmaids to carry:

I managed to get the blue one (which is in perfect condition) for $26 and the bottom one for $15. It's a little broken at the front but the color is great for their dresses and it's really cute and little!

If you want to see some of our suitcase Pinspirtation, check out my blog board: Follow Marvyl's board To Be Triscritti on Pinterest.

If you want to see more about both Nostalgia stores, you can click here.

Or, if you want to check them out on Facebook, you can go here or here.

New Antique Love Affair

It's been a quick minute since I've been antiquing for wedding stuff, but yesterday I was able to squeeze a little in and holy heck, I found a wonderful, wonderful place.

A lot of you have probably already been to Nostalgia, but for some reason I've never been able to find it because my GPS refused to cooperate. But I finally did and it was wonderful.

Nostalgia has two locations, but I visited the one in the Bearden area, down from the Orangery and Naples.


It looks kind of small from the front, squished in between two other business (I wish I had taken more pictures!) but inside it was HUGE.

As soon as you walk in, you can tell you've hit the hipster jackpot.

It's definitely an antique store, but it's antiques that you actually need/want. And by that I mean you're not going to find random pieces of antique tractors or weird spoon collections from various states.

Immediately I needed every single thing I laid my eyes on.

I weaved in and out of the booths, which while smaller than most antique stores were decorated and themed beautifully, and were full of stuff in great condition. I didn't find anything that was almost falling apart, and all of the stuff looked like it belonged in my living room.

There were a ton of clothes and hats, and plenty of furniture items, but also the usual records, knick knacks, and neat little finds.

While the prices were definitely higher than the Clinton area, they were pretty average if not below for the West Knoxville area. Plus, a lot of the booths had sales and the staff gave some awesome discounts for the larger items.

Overall I found a bunch of stuff I'll be going back for and this which I fell head over heels for:

It's the perfect suitcase for the welcoming table. I loved the real travel stickers and the bright colors, and I loved what great shape it was in. 

I can't wait to check out their other location, and I am dragging Eric back to this one for sure. 

Oh, and did I mention they let their cats roam around the place? IT WAS DELIGHTFUL. 

I'm heading back for a sombrero and possibly these suitcases for my bridesmaids, but I'm still on the fence...

If you want to check out more about them, you can click here. 

Emma Rose is killing it down in Florida. She's had a few weekends of amazing finds! 

I'm hoping to get started on the Save the Dates soon, so that'll be updated here hopefully in the next few weeks!

The Other Dresses

Everyone has been asking me about my bridesmaids dresses, so now that I've finally picked one I figured I could write this post.


While we were planning our travel theme, Eric actually suggested our bridesmaids being dressed as flight attendants.

I never thought they would go for it, but once I showed them my idea, they were all super excited about it.

We were trying to go for a vintage stewardess look initially:

Originally the first dress we picked out was in the vein of the Pan Am look, but once I picked out my dress we realized the blue wouldn't work with it. 

So after looking around, I found this one:

While on it's own it may not look exactly the same, it still has the vintage look I wanted, and when we pair it with the pillbox hat and the suitcases they will be carrying, I think it will have the effect I'm going for. 

It was hard to choose a dress as my bridesmaids are all different shapes and sizes, and I really, really wanted to find a dress that made everyone feel comfortable, and also make the dress not too fancy so that they could wear it again. 

I feel like this dress will suit everyone's shape, and can easily be worn to work or to other parties and such. 

But that may just be crazy bride talking. . . 

After all, it could be worse. 

Also, here is our flower girl's dress as a bonus:

You can see some of the dresses that inspired me on my blog board: Follow Marvyl's board To Be Triscritti on Pinterest.

And if you want to check out where we ordered our dresses from, you can find them here. 

The Engagement Party- A Lesson in Planning

As nervous as I was for the engagement party, it might as well have been the wedding.

The days leading up to it I obsessed over all the details, the timeline, the decorations. Everything.


But if it was any indication of what my actual wedding will be like, I am so freaking pumped.

Because it was the best weekend EVER.


So after the wedding dress search (see previous post) we went out for lunch, and then to get our hair done.

We went to Hairpeace which is my favorite place in the whole world, and they miraculously managed to get all of our hair done in an hour.

After that we rushed to Remedy Coffee to set up for the party.

The theme was black and gold, and basically I had decided everything I didn't get to do with our wedding was going to happen here.

First of all, I was sure that I had bought way too many decorations. I had like, a trillion candle holders and a million feathers and such and was sure it would be enough.

But once I set it out on the one long table (because Eric insisted we have a Game of Thrones style table to sit at) it didn't look like enough at all. Still, it looked fine and we got set up reasonably quick.


Now, this was the first time our families were meeting and it ended up just being Eric's parents meeting all my friends and family.

There was music and food (because of course I had to have Bradford Catered Events do the food! SO GOOD. ERMERGERD.) and everyone was dressed all fancy.

My beautiful talented Maid of Honor put together an icebreaker game for us to play.

Everyone took turns drawing questions and answering them, and even though the questions were silly and harmless, somehow everyone made them super emotional and I cried the whole time.

But it was definitely the sweetest, best thing I could have asked for.


Everyone answered and gave little speeches and it was beautiful.


And she also created a newlywed game for us to play, which although *technically* I lost (but I really won because the scoring was done incorrectly! ERIC.) it made everyone laugh and it was so much fun.


The party itself was a huge success but the real fun started at Jig and Reel afterwards where we scared everyone out of the room because we were turning Heads Up into the rowdiest, loudest good time game you could play in a bar.

I can't remember the last time I laughed that hard, but I woke up the next day with sore ribs from laughing hysterically all night.


We went dancing afterwards, and while I can't tell you everything that happened...I'll tell you that I got to see some of my favorite people in the world dance all night, there was a bar brawl, and I had to ship a lot of people home in taxis.


When Melissa and I got home, we couldn't do anything but laugh. What a wild and crazy night it had been, with stories we'll tell forever.

I couldn't have planned anything so amazing, with any other group of people.


It was a lesson I really needed before going into the actual wedding.

I may have the best of the best in vendors, and I might have a beautiful venue and have every detail down to the minute planned out meticulously (11 months ahead of time...) but the truth of the matter is, the people who I'll be with are the ones who will make it the day I'll always remember.

I'm marrying an incredible guy, with the most incredibly fun and loving family. I have the most AMAZING friends and family. I know that even if we got married in a parking lot and only had PBR and cheetos, it would be hands down, the best day ever.

Because at the end of the day, it's all about family. And I have a huge, fun, loud, rowdy, caring, spectacular one.



You can see some of my party inspiration on my Pinterest board: Follow Marvyl's board Engagement Party on Pinterest.

The Dress

This weekend was a big weekend that was definitely one to remember. I'll be splitting it all up into separate posts, but I figured the best place to start is the beginning.

Saturday I had an appointment to try on wedding dresses at White Lace and Promises. 

I don't know what I expected it to be like, but whatever I was thinking it was going to be it wasn't. 

Friday evening I ended up watching Say Yes to the Dress for the first time, and I'm not going to lie, it terrified me. 

I did not want to be in the middle of that hot mess, and it made me super anxious about the morning.

But, my best friend and Maid of Honor was in town and so were my future in-laws, and we took them to the Cotton Eyed Joe which pretty much distracted me from all of that. 

Seeing my MOH was pretty much the best thing ever. I miss her all the time, and I was so excited that she drove all the way down through a major snowstorm just to be here for this. 

So we spent Friday night line dancing and shooting tequila like old times, and watching Eric's parents break it down on the dance floor...claiming their rightful titles of coolest in-laws ever. 

We woke up Saturday morning and drove to the dress shop. It wasn't opened yet, but there was already a line of anxious brides-to-be hovering outside, peering into the tinted windows. 

The dress I was dreaming of was there in the window. It was the dress I'd  pinned and fawned over in magazines and online and it was shining in the morning sun right there in front of me. 

This was the "Jade" dress by Maggie Sottero, and as soon as they signed us in I had them pull it out of the window to try on. 

So you walk in and they sign you in and then they bring your entire wedding possy into a mirror lined room, decked out with chandeliers, white couches, and a pedestal in the middle for you to stand on.

Walking through the shop to the room was exciting and terrifying and dizzying. It was just sparkles and lace and glitter everywhere...hundreds of dresses lining racks that went on for rooms and rooms. 

We set our stuff down and the woman helping us, Lindsey, gave us the run down of how it would go. 

They give you colored clips and you go around sticking them on any dress you like and want to try on. 

It's entirely overwhelming but also kind of the best shopping you could ever imagine doing.

So there's like four other brides and their groups of bridesmaids and moms and cousins and sisters and they're all rummaging through racks as if someone else might get the best one if they don't find it first.
 

Ok, so it wasn't THAT dramatic. But there was still this weird sense of urgency. Partly because of the other brides, partly because your window is only two hours, and partly because you have an entire group of people waiting on you which is really freaking intimidating.


So I immediately found twelve dresses to try on, and disappeared behind a black curtain to begin trying them out.


Lindsey was pretty much the best and immediately made me feel comfortable and not crazy. I felt super weird asking her to do things for me, or get me things, or having someone dress me, but she was a pro and made it so much easier and fun.


So I slipped into the Jade dress first, expecting to fall madly in love with it and call it a day.

I don't know if I was expecting this shit to happen:

But it certainly didn't.

It was beautiful, but I didn't get that weird giddy, OHMYGODI'MGETTINGMARRIED feeling I thought I would have the moment I was in a wedding dress.

I walked out and stood on the pedestal as my lovely group of bridesmaids and my future mother-in-law gasped and oohed and ahhed at the dress.

Before I knew it I was in the second dress, which everyone adored, and I loved too.

I can't tell you how many we went through...talking about what we liked and didn't liked about each one, what I thought, what they thought, what Eric would think, what the ladies in the spot next to us thought.

I tried on a bunch of dresses, and it was very fun. There were some stressful moments, but it was basically like playing dress up with ball gowns that made you feel like a straight-up, real life, princess.

You basically get in a dress, come out, be the center of attention, and act like a model.


You end up feeling pretty fabulous and beautiful and lucky.

And then there's that one dress.


Lindsey strapped me in and I turned around to look in the mirror and I smiled so wide. It was that Cinderella moment I was waiting for.

I came out and everyone freaked out.


It was truly an intense moment, staring into the mirror and feeling like THIS was the dress.

My mom got there at that moment, and burst into tears when she saw me.

Which of course made me cry, which made everyone in the room cry.


So there was a lot of crying after that point.


One of the worst parts of the whole ordeal is the paralyzing fear that the dress you really, really love may not actually be THE ONE. (Kind of like...you know...GETTING MARRIED.)


So you decided to go find another twelve dresses and you try more and more on.

We did find one other one, that we had picked out mostly for fun because like, when are you ever going the get the chance to try on wedding dresses again?

It was a princess ballgown, and I legitimately have never felt more like a queen than at that moment when I spun around in that gorgeous damn dress.

But it didn't feel like me. It felt like me dressing up. Plus it was strapless and I knew I'd be thinking about it falling down or me popping out of it all night.


I went back and forth between the two, trying them on over and over.

It came down to three deciding factors:

1) My mom crying every time she saw me in dress #1
2) The bridal party saying they liked it
3) The group of women next to us giving me all the thumbs up on it


So at the end of the day, I walked away with a dress that made me feel like not just a queen, but Queen Marvyl Triscritti.

 



All in all, I'm glad that I had my bridesmaids, my mother, and my future mother-in-law there. I found a dress that I knew my friends, family, and Eric would love and on top of all one that made me feel wonderful.

Finding the right wedding dress is, you know, like finding the right guy.

You have this idea in your head what your perfect one is, and you try a bunch on and some of them are awful and some of them make you look fat and some of them are ok and some of them are really beautiful and perfect but they're not for you.

And then you find one and it makes you happy and gives you butterflies and makes you glow and you show it off to everyone you love and who cares about you and they tell you what they think and then you make really terrifying decisions about keeping it forever.

And there might be moments where you go over all the options in your head and wonder if you made the right decision because this is a really big fucking deal and then you look up and you see yourself in the dress (or you come home to your man, depending on what side of the metaphor you're on) and you just know that it is love. You know this is the ONE.



If you'd like to see the dresses that inspired me, check out my blog board on Pinterest: Follow Marvyl's board To Be Triscritti on Pinterest.


If you want to check out White Lace and Promises, you can here:

http://whitelacepromisesbridal.com/

Ask for Lindsey! She's the best!