All I can think about are pretty, polished, shiny nails this week! I love when brides go bold and pick a bright shade. It makes me think the bride is fun and laid back. And, then again, there's nothing like the perfect, classic nude to let your dress take center stage.
While I plan to go neutral for my own nails, I'm thinking it would be really fun for my bridesmaids to do bright colors - best of both worlds!
Will you be going for a bold or nude hue for you big day?
Source: top left, top right, bottom left, bottom right
Now that I have my dress, Ican't wait to pick out the heels! I love the look of a neutral color with sparkles of some kind.
On the other hand, a brighter color would be fun.
Other things on my checklist are that they are comfortable, stay on my feet, not be too high, and that they aren't crazy expensive. I can't wait to find the perfect ones for me. I'm thinking I'll be ordering several contenders so that I can try them on and see how they feel on and with my dress.
Where did you shop for your wedding shoes?
This week I'm trying to find a hair stylist in the small town where we'll be getting married. And while looking for someone, I've been searching for a lot of inspiration. I've known from the beginning that I want to wear my hair up - but that was about as much as I had decided.
Source: left, right
It looks like I'm drawn to styles that are soft, romantic, and a little messy. :-)
Which one is your favorite? Did you know from the beginning how you wanted your hair?
I am about six months from my wedding and I am celebrating by finally buying my wedding dress this weekend. Well, I haven't actually bought it yet. To be honest, I haven't even found the one yet. But I am off to wedding gown mecca, aka Kleinfeld’s, while I am in New York City this weekend and I am crossing my fingers and toes that THE dress is there. Here is a quick reminder of what I will be looking for. WISH ME LUCK!
Credits: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
I am pretty sure you know what I am talking about just by the title – yep, bridesmaid dresses. If you’ve been in a wedding, I bet you’ve heard the above statement and so desperately hoped it would be true as you handed over your credit card to pay for a very pretty, yet, likely, very expensive dress. Unfortunately, bridesmaid dresses do not grow on trees, and despite how beautiful they are, the second-time wear is probably rarer than the Northern Hairy-nosed Wombat (seriously, look it up). Since several of my bridesmaids live across the country, I really wanted to keep the cost of the gown in check. I’d rather the ladies spend it on airfare to come to my wedding or bachelorette than a dress. But, that being said, I didn’t want to stress about finding a gown that would suit the taste and body types of eight different women! As we all know, I haven’t had the easiest time shopping for myself!
Luckily for me, the trend of letting your bridesmaids pick their own dress has really taken off. This allows the bridesmaid to wear something that they feel amazing in, hopefully at a price point they are comfortable with. And, an added benefit for me is that all my bridesmaids have AMAZING taste, so I know they will all look awesome!
Hmm, but what color…
When we were originally planning a more rustic, outdoor wedding I was definitely leaning toward gray.
And I also loved a more neutral tan as well.
But then we decided on our present venue, The City Club, which I felt called for a darker, more formal color.
I liked navy, but my sister called dibs on that shade way back in high school, so that was out.
And then I started seeing images of black dresses and fell in love with them – especially long black gowns. There was a chance (I admit small) that the ladies may actually already own a black gown. And if not, maybe they knew a friend they could borrow one from (again, wishful thinking – but a higher likelihood than other colors!).
And of course if they decided to buy a new one, they are ubiquitous so it hopefully wouldn’t be too hard to find one they loved (or even just liked!) at a reasonable price.
I also love the way long black gowns look with a classic tux.
I actually haven’t officially made my decision about bridesmaid dresses – I am waiting to do one more round of dress shopping for myself before I make it official. But I would love your thoughts – did you let your bridesmaid pick their own dress? How did it turn out? Or were you able to wear a bridesmaid dress again? I want know!
Credits: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
Since JB and I became engaged, we've been planning, re-planning and constantly discussing the rehearsal dinner. We quickly found out that most of the places we'd love to have our dinner either 1. Don't make reservations for parties on Friday nights during dinner time, 2. Are ridiculously far above our price range, or 3. Don't have a space large enough for our group. We aren't having a HUGE dinner...just near 50 people, but turns out many restaurants accommodate around 35-40 in their private rooms. After searching and searching for the perfect place that's meaningful to us, but also has the unique food we love, I think *fingers crossed* we've finally settled on a new restaurant near our houses, Next Wood Fired Bistro & Vino Bar. With the location decided, now it's time for us to start brainstorming the fun stuff! Here are a few of the things I'd love to do at the dinner and my style inspiration for our wedding-eve.
1.Postcards: I want postcards sitting at the tables for people to leave us notes, advice, drawings, etc. At the end of the night, JB's mom will collect them and then mail them to us, one each week until we have them all! I'd love to get one of these Pantone postcards each week. Wouldn't they make the CUTEST little album!
2. Music: It's always important to JB and I to have the music we love playing at our events, so the rehearsal dinner is no exception. At our venue, they normally have a guitarist, but we're in a separate room and may not be able to hear his music. If not, here are a few songs we have to play. P.S. The linked playlist is on Spotify, which I LOVE. If you don't have it yet, you should, you can share songs with friends, listen to basically any music you could ever imagine...it's just great.
3. My style: I bought my rehearsal dinner outfit at the end of last summer (when all the whites were on sale), but here is my inspiration for my outfit. I'm even thinking that I might wear an antique hat or headpiece, because why-the-heck not. What are you wearing for your rehearsal, are you going formal? Casual? I'm wearing a skirt and top (all in white, of course), so I guess I'm right in the middle.
4. The After Party: What do you think about an after rehearsal dinner party? Have you had one, been to one? I'd love an opportunity to see a few people who weren't at the dinner before the craziness of our big day. Let me know about these later-night, after-dinner get togethers!
My main wedding jewelry (other than my completely gorgeous engagement and wedding rings), will be worn on my ears. I'm not wearing a necklace, but I really want to play up my some ear jewels (JB likes my ears, so it works out nicely). I've never been super in to sparkly, rhinestone like things (unless it's a full sequin/glitter/rhinestone dress...then I'm in), but I've ALWAYS loved rocks...I even had a rock collection when I was little. Because of this, I absolutely adore the geode jewelry that I keep seeing. Specifically the gold dipped geodes, ugh, I could own a new pair for everyday of the year. However, I just can't decide if for my wedding earrings I should wear something white/ivory/neutral or if I should add a little color. What do you think? Here are a few of my favorites...
Clockwise from top left: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven
Do you have a favorite? Have you seen good geodes anywhere else?
P.S. I know the third pair are pearls, not geodes, but I love them, so I couldn't leave them out.
My bridesmaids, bestmaids, are my very best friends from high school. I love each of them completely for being so adorably unique that I always knew I wanted them to each wear a dress of their choice. I gave them a color scheme and let them pick and things have gone even better than I could have imagined. Each dress looks like the friend that picked it, which is exactly what I wanted (how often do you and your friends get to dress up fancy and take tons of pics? I want them to all look GREAT). Three of my four besties have their dresses already:
Don't the colors look great together?! I'm in love, so sun-washed summer!
However, my fourth bestfran is still looking for her dress. We're thinking something in a caramel, warm brown color, but we're having trouble finding anything online that you can easily return for money back if it doesn't fit right. Let me know if you've seen anything you think would look great, because we're struggling!
My girls are all wearing neutral-ish shoes, but the accessories are what I'm currently excited about! The J. Crew champagne colored dress is going to be paired with a gold belt like this, and probably no necklace. However, I want my other two girls to wear some neat statement jewelry. I've been scouring the web for big ol' (affordable) statement necklaces for my friend in yellow and slightly more subdued ones for my friend in orange, but I just can't make a decision. Here are some of my faves, what do you think? Have you seen something better?
Clockwise from top left: one, two, three, four
We're also on the lookout for a belt or sash for the orange dress, pretty please send me anything you think would look good!
Happy New Year!
Next week I'll be sharing my Save the Dates because...I'm getting married THIS year!
For me. it was never a question of suits vs. tuxes, it's simply always been which suit (or suits...I'm not in to the boys matching, so I'd like them to each have their own unique suit). In my dream world, all the boys in the wedding would look like this:
However, I know that JB is so far from being in to these kind of suits that for him to even glance at this picture would be a miracle. So, I've pulled myself away from hoping that the boys look as if they stepped out of an Italian magazine and am beginning to try to find some more reasonable suit inspiration.
With my whimsical theme and just general taste, I won't be having any black at the wedding (I just don't really do black). So that means brown, camel, khaki, beige...suits for the men, which are a little harder to come by than a nice fitting black suit. Here's where I need your help, where do I find great, slim fit suits for my boys? I've seen Indochino.com (which is SUPER neat) but their color options are limited. Do you have any other suiting suggestions?
It's VERY important to me that the boys' suits fit them well, (I mean, slim cut shoulders, skinny legs, shorter blazer), but it is hard as heck to find suits like this for a reasonable price. Let me know what you've found, because I'm floundering in the world of Men's Warehouse without any luck!
Here is what I'd like the boys to look like (in my *slightly* more realistic dreams):
Clockwise from top left: one, two, three, four
Do you feel the same way? Have you struggled to find reasonably priced, modern suits for the men in your wedding. Are you having the boys match, or simply giving them parameters for a mismatched grouping?
P.S. The dress fitting was GREAT! It was the correct dress, all of my accessories worked flawlessly and there are only minor changes to be made. I was starting to think I had buyers remorse, but when I put the dress on, I loved it all over again.
My extensive list of wants and ideas for this wedding is getting a little out of hand. My mom is continually trying to help me focus, which I've done on a few parts of the wedding, but on others, it seems like the inspiration and possible choices are never ending! That brings me to my wedding headgear (not the braces kind).
I've been searching for the perfect reception headpiece for a while now to no avail. It's not because I don't like anything, it's because I LOVE everything. I can't get enough of chiffon flowers, tulle bows, vintage pillbox hats and especially not enough of live flower crowns. Now you can see my true frustration and utter confusion because of the plethora of over-the-top duds to perch on top of my head. I keep telling my roommate that I want something ridiculous because when am I ever going to get the chance to wear a flower the size of my head in my hair ever again? But then I find precious little bobby pins and my vision shifts again.
Here are a few of my favorites (a FEW). Do you have this problem? What are you wearing in your hair? Veil, hat, fascinator, nothing? HELP ME DECIDE!
Also, almost all of these are from Etsy...I am an Etsy fiend!
Clockwise from top left: One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen
P.S. I've already bought my headpiece for the ceremony, but you'll have to wait and see it at the wedding (my attire is the one thing I'm trying to keep secret from JB and let me tell you, keeping it a secret [even if JB doesn't really care] is HARD for me).
