MIA

I can't believe it's Friday and this is my first post of the week! I have lots to catch you all up on - my fabulous Pennsylvania shower being on of them. But first things first. On Monday I received a very important package:

SHE'S HERE! I waited to open the box until the future mister left the house for a softball game. And I had my mom on video chat so she was able to share the moment with me. The dress is about a size too big in the torso area, but I was expecting that. They also forgot to ship the veil with my dress, but that's all taken care of and will be arriving on Tuesday. Now I just have to schedule my fitting appointments! Until then, though, I have her hanging in our guest bedroom/my office/craft room. I know that the future mister wouldn't dare go in there, but it still makes me nervous.

Did anyone else have to worry about hiding their dress from their fiance?

THE call

Happy Friday! This week has certainly ended on a high note. Yesterday afternoon I received THE CALL. The most anticipated phone call for almost every bride. The call we anxiously await for months (or for me - a year and four months!). THE DRESS IS IN!

I purchased my dress at Kleinfeld's back in October 2009 during a trip to NYC with my mom. At that time, we decided that I would come home and have the alterations done at Kleinfeld's, which would guarantee that my mom could be there. Right after Christmas, though, the thought of having to somehow fit in and schedule another trip up North with all of the other stuff going on made me a sweaty, heart racing, anxious mess. So the dress will be shipped to me and I'll have the alterations done at the seamstress shop that Anne Barge recommended, which is in Atlanta. At least, that's the current plan.

Now I just have to (patiently??) wait for the delivery on the 21st!!

Hope you all have a fabulous weekend!

black, black, black and blue

This past Saturday, the future mister and I met with our officiant for the first time - wooo! And he didn't "fail" us or deem us unfit to be wed (not that I actually thought he would) - double wooo!

While we were in the area, we decided to hit up the outlet stores. After finding some new clothes at J Crew, we made our way down to Brooks Brothers to check out the ties.

There, nestled in between the other blue ties, was the PERFECT color. The color that I never in a million years thought I would be able to find (in a tie).

(good thing I carry the bridesmaid dress swatches with me wherever I go)

BUT there was only one and we would need six. The very nice salesman who was helping us out left to make a phone call. We were in luck - the closest other store had five ties and could ship them to us for free. Wait a second...could things really fall into place that easily?? I tell you, it was wedding serendipity at it's finest, so I snatched those babies right up.

I was so amazed by my good fortune that I sadly didn't listen very closely to the future mister's opinion. He agreed that the blue was the perfect color, but he wanted skinny black ties. We decided to try the suit on with both ties (since he already has a black skinny one from our e-photos) and, luckily, we can always return the blue ones - so no harm, no foul.

Cute, but very traditional/very wedding-y

Oh my gosh - hold me back! Are you sure you aren't a GQ model??

I have to hand it to him - the future mister was right with this one. The blue may look perfect in theory, but the black tie can't be beat. Now we just have to find black ties for the rest of the groomsmen.

Which would you choose - black or blue? Were you ever quick to make a wedding decision (that you were soooo sure about) only to be proven wrong after the fact?

just call him mr. suave

Happy Friday!!

A few weeks ago, while we were in Charlotte picking out and picking up our rings, we also purchased the future mister's wedding suit! It is the Brooks Brothers Fitzgerald 1818 suit in charcoal gray. Both the sales consultant and tailor commented that the future mister had the perfect build for this suit (we have to agree since we kept coming back to it after looking at Jos A Bank, Macy's, etc.). It did need a few minor alterations though, so we left it in Charlotte. And this week, a shiny, new, tailored suit arrived on our doorstep!

don't let him fool you, the future mister really is excited about his new suit

now that's better!

I get so giddy thinking about how this is what he will be wearing when we get married! Now we just have to find some ties for him and the groomsmen and maybe a new shirt and new shoes.

Did any of you get excited when picking out your fiance's wedding day attire?

dresses are in

Right after Christmas I got a wonderful call from Bella Bridesmaid letting me know that our bridesmaid dresses were in and that they would soon be shipped out to all my girls. Woohoo! Everyone has them by now, so it's time to make some decisions about the rest of their ensemble.

First I narrowed down our shoe options to silver or raspberry and asked my lovely ladies for feedback and opinions. Although the raspberry would be an awesome pop! of color, it would probably look best if all the girls had the same exact shoe or same exact raspberry color. That seems like too much thinking, searching, stressing. So silver it is!

Jewelry?? Well, MOH Ash had the fabulous suggestion of maybe incorporating raspberry into the jewelry. That got my wheels turning and reminded me of this beautiful berry colored hair flower that my co-worker wore at her wedding in October - from ban.do. My mom and I had already discussed possibly making a fabric flower of some sort to either go on the girls' sashes or in their hair. Perfect solution. So...silver shoes, silver jewelry (if they want to incorporate the raspberry into the jewelry, great, but not necessary) and maybe some raspberry flowers. Done and done.

(dress, flowers, shoes 1, 2, 3)

How did you decide on your girls' shoes and accessories? Did you give them guidelines or leave it all up to them?

the final bm dress colors

I kind of left you all hanging with regard to the final bridesmaid dress decision. What colors did we choose? Well after much deliberation - yes, I fedex overnighted the swatches to my mom in Pennsylvania because I have a hard time making up my own mind without her input - we decided on these beautiful shades of blue:

Powder Blue, Tiffany Blue, Mist, Paradise and Pond
(this photo shows the colors more true to life than the ones shown below, fyi)

MOH Ashley - LulaKate Pearl (as shown) in Powder Blue

MOH Sam - LulaKate Angela (as shown) in Tiffany Blue

BM Emily - LulaKate Pam (with straight skirt) in Mist

BM Katie - LulaKate Gina (with straight skirt) in Paradise, which is the color of the dress she has on

BM Becca - LulaKate Pearl (with box pleat skirt) in Pond

I'm really excited about the choices we made and think the different shades flow nicely together. I can't wait to see what they all look like on the day of the wedding!

Do you ever have a hard time making decisions on your own? Is there one person's input that you rely on more than anyone else's?

bridesmaid shoe-spiration

As of Wednesday afternoon all of the bridesmaid dresses have been ordered! They will all be wearing LulaKate dresses in different shades of blue. I'll let you know what we ended up choosing for the final colors a little bit later. For now, though, let's talk shoes. I'm going to let my lovely ladies pick their own shoes (or wear ones they already have), but I'm having a hard time deciding which direction I want to take. The choices are endless, I guess, but I've narrowed it down into a few different color categories - silver, gold, pewter, nude/beige/ivory, or something fun like raspberry or fuchsia.

1. BCBG Mirna 2. Butter Claudia 3. Nina Papina 4. RSVP Sadie 5. Brigitte Bailey
6. Nine West Accolia 7. Badgley Mischka Randall 8. BCBGirls Ariel

1. Nina Culver 2. Naturalizer Prissy 3. Anne Klein Frolic 4. Anne Klein Kalei
5. Nina Forbes 6. Naturalizer Princeton 7. Me Too Sweet

1. Nina Electra 2. Romantic Soles Hailey 3. Isola Dolce
4. Etienne Aigner Vivica 5. Lovely People Karen

1. Nina Fulvia

What color do you think would go best with light blue/aqua/robin's egg blue dresses? Did you have your bridesmaids wear the same shoes or did they pick their own?

color swatches are in!

The color swatches that I requested from LulaKate came in last week - with a nice little note, no less! I'm not one hundred percent satisfied with the colors I picked, but there are still a few more options to choose from.

From left to right: Paradise, Powder Blue, Surf, Mist, and Tiffany Blue

Seeing them all lined up together, I love the Powder Blue and the Mist. The Surf seems a bit too blue, almost closer to periwinkle. And the Paradise and Tiffany are almost too saturated.

(source)

I'm probably going to request to see Pond and Waterfall, and possibly Cloud and Jade. Overall, I am very pleased with the customer service from Bella Bridesmaid and LulaKate. Since our appointment a few weeks ago, I have received a follow up phone call, an email explaining the process of ordering if we're interested, an email inviting me to a special LulaKate event this Thursday (which I'm still debating whether or not to go), and the above swatches. I love that the store is by appointment only because we were able to get one-on-one attention. In my opinion, great service shouldn't be reserved only for the bride. For those of you still looking for bridesmaids dress, Bella Bridesmaid is a great option to consider.

During your engagement, did you have any notable customer service experiences, good or bad? Also, what are your thoughts on the color swatches?

dressing my ladies - bridals by lori

After we left Bella Bridesmaid, we decided to stop for lunch at nearby Tin Lizzy's Cantina.

(source)

Because my bridesmaids are awesome, Emily offered to drive my car so that I could enjoy some lunchtime margaritas. It was a major buzzkill, though, when on our way to Lori's we got pulled over. None of us had any clue why - maybe speeding? Turns out, it was because we ran a stop sign at a 5-way intersection. Eek! I'm pretty sure the SUV in front of us did the same? But I can't say that I was paying very close attention. We, or I should say Emily, got a citation. Bummer. We brushed it off and eventually made it to Bridals by Lori.

After trying on a few dresses, we decided to focus on the flowy, silk chiffon ones by Amsale. Everyone loved this stunning one-shoulder dress.

Becca

Katie

Sam

Emily

MOH Sam also loved the halter above. The floral detailing is a nice touch since my dress has flowers on it. The upside - everyone loved these dresses. I even tried some on and they truly felt like pajamas. I also love the look of chiffon and think it meshes well with our vintage/rustic/garden wedding (more so than the stiffer looking silk shantung). The downside - there was only one color even remotely close to what I was looking for and it just didn't make my heart sing (sorry - corny, I know) like the LulaKate colors.

Amsale - Ocean

If ocean was just a little bit lighter/brighter I would most likely scrap my idea of having all the girls in different shades and go with the Amsale dresses. With that said, I guess I'm leaning more towards the LulaKate dresses. Any ideas/insight/suggestions would be much appreciated!

dressing my ladies - bella bridesmaid

This is going to be a long one...

Our first stop Saturday morning was at Bella Bridesmaid, a quaint little shop in the Buckhead area of Atlanta.


After trying on a few different styles, the maids were gravitating towards these two from Coren Moore - one boatneck and one sweetheart, both with lovely detailing.






We were excited that the dress picking was so easy, but little did we know that the fabric color palette that the consultant had laid out on the table (with at least 10 different shades of blue, that I loved) was not the one for Coren Moore. Instead we had only 4 shades of blue to choose from and they didn't flow together as nicely.

(source)

So we discussed a combination of their tiffany blue and lime.


Sometime during this discussion, the consultant came over and showed us some photographs of a wedding where half the bridesmaid dresses were tiffany with light green sashes and the other half were light green with tiffany sashes. To give you some reference, this is the photo I showed her as inspiration at the beginning of the appointment:

(from the newest edition of Southern Weddings Magazine)

Needless to say, the photo she showed me was pretty much the exact opposite of the above mismatched look I was going for. At that point, another consultant came in and took over our appointment. It was just at the right time, too, because I think my bridesmaids were picking up on the fact that I was disappointed and a bit overwhelmed/frustrated with the other consultant's lack of understanding. So they spoke up and we started over. This time, we focused on the dresses that coincided with the color palette I was initially drooling over. The following dresses are LulaKate or - as our (new) consultant put it - the build-a-bear of bridesmaid dresses. There are 14 different bodice choices and about 7 different skirt choices. My bridesmaids picked out the following styles:

MOH Sam chose Angela, a straight across strapless shown with box-pleat skirt. She liked this style as is.

BM Emily chose Pam, a cross-over/sweetheart with straps. It is shown with the box-pleat, but Emily likes it better with the straight skirt.

BM Katie chose Gina, a scoop neck front and back. She prefers the straight skirt as well, rather than the party skirt shown here.

BM Becca picked the sweetheart neckline, Pearl, with the box-pleat instead of the straight skirt shown.

All of the dresses would include the band as seen in the Angela and Pam photos or potentially a sash instead, similar to the Coren Moore dresses we liked in the beginning. And below are all of the shades of blueish green. I'm waiting on Bella Bridesmaid to send me some swatch samples since the colors look drastically different in person. Right now I'm leaning towards a combination of Pond, Tiffany Blue, Surf, Mist and either Waterfall or Paradise. As BM Becca explained to the consultant - I want my bridesmaids to look like 5 girls showed up to the wedding wearing dresses that just happened to go together.

Here we are, at the end of the appointment, happy with the decisions made and with plenty of options to discuss over lunch. All of the girls' measurements were taken and their preferred style combinations were written down. Now I'm just waiting for an email from our consultant and some fabric swatches. The designer for LulaKate will be at Bella on the 27th, so I might be able to go back and get sketches made and price quotes for all of the dresses we are considering.

Next up: our appointment at Bridals by Lori throws a wrench into the mix.