The Hunt for An After Party Dress

Being that are wedding reception is taking place in Saratoga Springs, on opening weekend....and it's our wedding!! we want to keep the party going! We already booked a hotel for the night (at a outlandish price) and are hoping that our wedding party and some guests come out with us.

Here are the issues:
1. It's opening weekend! Bars and the streets will be packed with out of towners going and coming from the track (which leads to #2)
2. I LOVE MY DRESS! I do not want people stepping, tripping, spilling food, spilling drinks, and any other horrible thing that could happen to my beauty, happening!
3. I don't want to worry about being a klutz and spilling drinks/food on my dress.

Some how, I imagine a mud pit sprouting up in the middle of the city and this happening to me. Minus the pouffy sleeves,  sleeves, gigantic veil...okay, scratch the 80s dress in general
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All these concerns lead me to this conclusion...I NEED a party dress!

Let me tell you, it is hard to find a party dress that doesn't break the bank! Here are my four criteria:

1. Needs to be knee length

2. Nothing simple, needs to have some detail or a little beading

3. Needs to be a little flowy (It is going to be mid July and I will be feasting all day, I don't need something that clings)

4. Needs to be reasonably priced (I already spent bucco bucks on my wedding dress)

Here are some of the contenders.

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Did anyone else decide on an after part dress or a fun reception dress? Where did you find good deals?

Oh Track Season, I Hate You!

Around September of last year, my wedding world was turned upside down. Here is a little background info for you all. My FI and I booked the Canfield Casino in Congress Park, Saratoga, November 2009 for our July 23, 2011 wedding; because if you want a place like the Canfield in prime summer months you book early! Well with all the track drama that occurred for it to even open this year we were hoping and praying that the track would open the last weekend in July 2011. Since that is when it normally opens....but, they opened it a week early last year. 

Yeah, we thought wrong because they didn't change it back for 2011. Instead our wedding is the Saturday of opening weekend! So instead of being excited to watch this:

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I now feel like this:

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What does this mean, well besides the fact that Saratoga will be insanely busy from everyone coming in from all over for opening weekend, the hotels have decided to jack up every room at least $300 a night. That's right ladies, so the hotels I thought I would be able to get rooms at for around $115 a night are now at least $400 a night!!! And on top of that no hotel will let me block hotel rooms! The one hotel that would would only block 15 rooms and you had to book at least 2 nights for $300 a pop. What person is going to spend $600 for two nights? That doesn't even include all the out of town guests we have coming from 15 different states, Germany, and Brazil...

*sigh* This was always a reality way in the back of my mind. In the depths behind all the wedding filled bliss in the front, but now it is just disappointing. Our friends who had their wedding booked for the last weekend of track, Travers Weekend, decided they didn't want to deal with all the nonsense and changed their date to October. Thankfully they had only booked the venue and photographer and could change easily. For us that it no longer an option and I have become attached to the date.

Is anyone else getting married during track season and feeling the wrath of Saratoga's jacked prices?

All Aboard!

The wedding day trolley!

I would say that we have an average size wedding party. 5 on each side making the grand total of 12 including us. Whenever I have been in a limo before (say a 10 person limo with 10 actual people inside of it) There is always people on the floor and the people sitting in seats are smooshed together. That's the last thing I want on my wedding day, everyone stuck together all decked out in their formal duds. No thank you!

So we began looking into the idea of a trolley. And who could blame me with awesome pictures like these?

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Has anyone else jumped on the trolley bandwagon as your wedding day transportation?