Chrissy O Bridal - DO NOT GO THERE IF YOU WANT YOUR DRESSES ON TIME!

DO NOT GO HERE!!! Dealing with this shop was the absolute worst part of my whole wedding planning experience. I went in March to order my bridesmaid dresses for my August wedding. The price was decent and they had the dress I wanted, so I placed my order and gave them my credit card number. In the next 2 weeks after I ordered the dresses not only did I call them to give them one of my girls measurements, but I also e-mailed them. Both times I asked them if they needed anything from me, and they said no. They promised the dresses would be in the end of May. Come end of May, I never heard anything from them, so I called them. Much to my horror, they said they had never placed the order for the dresses because they didn't have my credit card number!!! I told them I had given them my card number earlier and they asked for it again and said they'd put the dresses on a rush order - not once did they apologize or offer any discount or help. They then said the dresses would come in early July. I accepted this as enough time, so I agreed. End of June I called again to confirm and they then told me the dresses had not come in and would not be in until the 3rd week in July!!!! Again, they were not apologetic and did not offer any help, so at this point I lost it at them. I told them I wanted to talk to the owner and I told them I deserved some kind of discount. They would not let me talk to the owner but said they would talk to her for me and get back to me. I never heard back from them and, the 3rd week of July rolled around and still no dresses. At this point my fiance and I went down to the shop and talked to the manager in person. I was then told that it would be another 2 WEEKS before the dresses came in. AGAIN, no apology and I was furious. I told her I wanted a discount as this was completely their fault, and now the dresses wouldn't come in until 3 weeks before the wedding and I still had to ship a dress out to CA for my step-daughter! The manager outright refused to give me a discount or any help and she even had the nerve to insinuate it was my fault that they ordered the dresses so late!!! Again I demanded to talk to the owner only to be told she was not available and that she would call me later. The dresses were supposed to come this week, so I called Tuesday and was told they would be in Thursday. I called again today (Thursday) and *shockingly* the dresses are still not in, and I am told they will be in tomorrow. By the time my girls get their dresses they will have less than 3 weeks until my wedding to do any alterations. Not only are the dresses coming in right under the wire, but nobody at the shop seems to want to help in any way, the manager was rude, they OBVIOUSLY did not put a rush on the dresses when they said they would, and they NEVER ONCE APOLOGIZED!!!! The customer service here is absolutely dreadful, and I would never recommend this shop to anyone!

**This post was submitted to me by a good friend who had a terrible experience with this company.**

The wedding Channel store

Herbalife

Well, I tried my little stint at selling Herbalife but, I just don't think it's for me. There is definitely potential to earn money if you're a good salesperson. I, however, am not. I like to keep my friends and don't want to harass or solicit orders from them. Don't get me wrong the products are GREAT but, if you can't sell them... I even went so far as to set up a website with shopping cart (http://gr8resultz.com). If you are so inclined feel free to check it out. Then I tried selling on Ebay but, after relisting the items 3 times I ended up with only one sale.

Here's the "skinny" on a few of my favorite products:

*21 Day Herbal cleanse - great product and really does cleanse your system. My hubby Josh was even able to stop his daily regemin of alka-seltzer for heart burn and indigestion. He also reported feeling better over all and more energetic.

*Herbal Tea Concentrate, original flavor - This is definitely "skinny tea"! I drank this while I was taking a vacation from running for about a month. I needed to let my knee rest so I could run San Francisco. Not only did I NOT gain any weight from being a couch potato, but, I LOST 4 lbs! Can you believe that? This is definitely one product that will be a staple in our house. Also, Josh loves it too. He unknowingly drank all my "diet tea" and then asked for more. I had to buy two more bottles because he kept drinking all of mine.

*Protein bars and Protein bars deluxe - You know how people always tell you that their protein bars taste just like a candy bar so you buy it and it's totally gross or just tolerable? Well, I'm not trying to sell you anything but, these bars do taste like candy bars! Actually, I think they're more along the lines of a Kudos bar or Snickers Marathon Bar. They taste awesome and have around 12g of protein in each bar! You can't beat that!

Now don't get me wrong, there is money to be made from really great products but, direct selling just isn't for me.

Team GOsmart 5K training

I was recently selected to be an Elite Ambassador for the Omron Team GOsmart 5K training program. I was to recruit 5 people who wanted to get healthy and fit in 8 weeks. For all their hard work they get free of charge:

• Training by yours truly :)
• Areally nice branded tech tee
• Omron HJ-113 GOsmart pedometer
• A free entry into the Miracle Mile 5K in LA

Sounds like a pretty sweet deal to me! I have my 5 lucky individuals and we will be having a kick off meeting next weekend. After I recooperate from San Francisco half marathon that is... But, that is for another day.

Orange County Eco Fest Mud Run

Get ready... I have some bitchin' and moaning to do!

On Saturday July 18, 2009 I participated as a member of FROC (friendsrunorangecounty.com)in the inaugural Orange County mud run. All would have been well and good if the race wasn't so poorly laid out and unorganized! We literally baked in the sun at the start line and waited for half an hour while the 5K runners finished and the course cleared. Let me start at the beginning...

I was to meet my other teammates (Cynthia, Jessica, and Maya), at 7:30am so that we would have all the waivers signed and turned in for our 10k race which was to start at 9:30am. The parking lot was backed up at my 7:30am arrival but, it flowed nicely and I was parked in about 5 minutes. Check-in went off without a hitch and we got out shirts quickly. Then came the waiting portion...

We all gathered near the start line, bag check area and port-a-potties to wait for our start time. Off go the 8:30 am 5kers. After eating our pre-race snacks and energy bars we checked our bags (no problems there), and headed to the start line to watch the racers come in.

This is where the disorganization really reared it's ugly head! The course was set up so that you have to run down and back out to the parking lot and a round some obsticals before running back through the start line and past the finish line and up a hill for more obsticals. Now mind you people have already run about halfway when they passed the finish line so a lot of unexperienced runners thought they were done and had suffered enough torture... But, there was much more to come. The was complete chaos at the finish line juncture. The organizers where yelling at the runners for being confused and making the race harder than it needed to be. The looks on the people's faces sent a pang of instant pity because you could just tell that they had NO idea what they had gotten themselves into! Luckily for us we were a witness to the chaos so we knew when it came time to race that we would pass the finish twice before actually finishing on our third pass.

At about 9:15am we headed down to the start line so secure a good spot in the front. We had heard stories about bottlenecks and hold ups at certain points along the course. Well, we didn't want any part of that so we got to the front which is usually reserved for the elites. Then we waited... And waited... And waited. Until people started booing and hissing at the organizers. Man were people ever grumpy! Finally, at 10ish we were set free to complete the course at our leisure. Yea right! The course was not easy by any means but, it would have been a lot easier if the race had started on time. It was very hot and most people were already tired from baking in the sun for so long. There were so many people cheating I lost count. If you sign up for a mud run then you sign up to do the course as intended and get dirty. But, these people were going around the barriers instead of over them and around the mud pits etc. Very sad indeed!

Even for all the disorganization and late start it was grueling but fun, however, it was NOT worth the $42 entry fee I paid! It would have been better priced at about $15 -$20. The upside is that my team actually came in 2nd place! Woo Hoo! Unfortunately, they were way behind on posting the results and we got tired of waiting for them, so we left and missed out on our much deserved award and recognition! Oh well there's always next year... NOT! I think I'll stick with the well organized and fun Camp Pendleton Mud Run from now on! I will post photos when I get them. :)

**Update August 4, 2009 - We got our medals, finally, and I was not very impressed. For 2nd, place we got a block of wood with a tiny ribbon tied on it that read "Orange County Mud Run & Eco Fest 2nd place". Woo Woo! Yay for Us!**

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