Bridesmaid Dresses

M's sister Natalie is in town for the month of September taking a break between PA school and starting her new job, sooooo we decided to do dinner, which turned into dinner with both his sisters, which turned into dinner plus bridesmaid dress shopping (at her suggestion!) 

I think it's safe to say we annoyed the bajeezus out of the sales ladies, and I'm not sure why. They're guaranteed 6 sales (or at least, DB as a WHOLE is) from us... but man did we get some dirty looks trying on tiaras and veils. What?! every girl wants to be a pretty pretty princess bride. 

 

  

I honestly had written myself off as a "veil" bride. 

I think they look pretty on some people, but I felt a little cartoonish. Or at least I THOUGHT I'd look cartoonish. BUT between Katie talking about veils and putting a few on, I'm starting to reconsider. We'll see :) 

On second thought.. maayyybeee it was this that annoyed them:

 

Katie rocked the veil. 

Both the girls ended up falling in love with the same style! They didn't order yet, but these are the front runners (Katie on the left, Natalie on the right) (but in black, obviously): 

OH, and I impulsively (sort of) ordered my wedding shoes! 

I had tried these on for Meagan's wedding last October, since you can order them in any of the DB dress colors. I LOVED the style, and they were super comfortable. 

SO, when the girls were trying on dresses, I wandered over and tried them on again. Here they are:

 I really wanted a blast of color under the dress for the shoes, ...you're really not going to see them much/at all, so why not have some fun with them!? and let's face it, the "pulled up front of the dress shoe shot" is one of my favorites. I wasn't dead set on the "something new, old, borrowed, blue" thing either, but if I could find a pair of blue shoes I liked I was going to try to do it. 

old: my grandpa's law fraternity pin on my dress/bouquet

new: dress (cop out? meh)

borrowed: going to get a broach or some jewlery from grandma - she has FANTASTIC jewlery (and maybe get one of each, from each grandma)

blue: shoes 

My other stipulation was, I wasn't spending tons of $ on blue shoes that, lets face it, I may never wear again. These were only $50! I'm undecided, but I may add some bling like Syndal did on hers.

I got home around 9, and with M out of town last night for business.. TJ was extra snuggly. 

The up side of having a pet, especially a kitty, is when the bf/fiance/husband is out of town.. you never have an empty bed. TJ is such a good little snuggler. Until about 4 a.m. when he gets hungry and starts sticking his paw in your face and whiskers up your nose. Alas, he's worth it. :-)

Overall, a fun fantastic little Wednesday to get me over that hump and looking forward to the weekend!

-Kelly

Bridesmaid Dresses: a redo

Welp, I feel like I jinxed myself a bit with the "zomg look at me! Target bridesmaid dresses!" yippee skippy blog post.

Two of the girls had ordered dresses when another bridesmaid pointed out that they didn't have stellar reviews.

Oh yea... maybe I should have looked at those. Der.

Tis the trouble with Target .. I've found it's hit or miss in terms of quality. This is true of myself when I try on Target dresses, so I'm not sure why I thought it'd be different or easier for 6 very differently sized women.

Anyway, long story short, after one poor review and one "it'll work" review..rather then have the 4 others try dresses and hope that they worked, or that the "poor review" could be saved by a different style, I've scrapped the Target idea. I loved the idea, but I'm not going to force it. The cycle of buying a dress online, returning it in store, buying a new one online until we found a style and size that worked for everyone would've given ME a headache as a bridesmaid so I'm not doing that to the girls.

We've moved on to David's Bridal. People in the wedding world are quite opinionated when it comes to DB. Ideally, I'd love to have been an "alternative" bride and gone with a cutesy small boutique.. but cutesy small means $$$$$$ oftentimes, and I'm far far too anxious about having my girls spend a lot of money on these dresses. DB is easy, affordable, and they're located across the country-- as are my girls. I think they've also gotten a lot trendier when it comes to styles. Here are a few of my fav's:
1. 

 2.

3. 

4.

5.

 I love #3. Hands down, my favorite. It's so classy and modern. Which, conveniently-- is the "vibe" I'm going for with the wedding! haha

SO, there's the update on the dress sitch. I'm excited to see which ones the girls pick, and one of M's sisters has already indicated she wants me to come with, which I'm looking forward to! I gave them all the option of just going alone (I actually prefer shopping alone), or inviting me along.

I have a mini apple pie recipe I'll be sharing soon, so stay tuned for that! 


-Kelly

Bridesmaid dresses, photographers, engagement sessions

I've been a busy little wedding-bee since we last chatted. I was putzing along on Twitter the other day when imagine my surprise, I see a tweet that basically said:

"Target carries bridesmaid dresses. genius" annnddd my little heart leapt.

What do women love more then weddings and Target? Answer? NOTHING.

What I love even more? What you're about to look at, looks like they could be bridesmaid dresses from ANY boutique across the country. BUT? a FRACTION of the price tag. I lurve Target.

So, I put totether a few boards of the styles/colors/fabrics I liked. I've always wanted to do different styles. I think it looks nice, and I have 7 girls with VERY different figures/breast sizes, to be blunt. We have some busty babes, and some "just a handful" not to mention a 5'10" and a 5'0".. so, it was hard finding a "one sized fits all" approach to style. Or at least I thought so. That being said, all the designer lines where you can pick the same color/fabric but diff styles are insanely expensive. Call me crazy, but I was in knots thinking about asking people to pay $140+ for a bridesmaid dress.

Aside from my wedding dress, I never have and NEVER will pay more than $100 for a dress, unless forced to (i.e. I'm a BM myself). Prom dresses were both under $100. I just can't bring myself to spend that much money on any one item of clothing.

SO, imagine my delight in seeing target had a few styles of a few dresses in coordinating fabrics! Behold, my initial "design" boards made with MS Paint:

 I sent the 3 options to a few girls, knowing all the while I liked the chiffon best. I'm not even sure what "shantung" fabric is, but it scared me a bit. Looks a LEETLE like a garbage bag in the photos. and the sateen were a LEETLE bit too shiny for me. Sorry if any of you reading picked shangtung or sateen dresses, they COULD be gorgeous, but knowing we can't try them on before means photos are important. -- oh yeah, the dresses are all "online only"- which isn't ideal, but they all can be returned "in store".. plus, if they are a bit "off" in how they fit? at $70 a pop, I feel comfortable that alterations for a bit more still isn't unreasonable.

SO, the "chiffon" collection it is! I sent an email last night, and almost everyone responded right away, and so far we have 2 picking strapless, 2 picking 1-strap, one with the 2-straps... I love the variety, and I think the styles will look great together!

In other news, we met with a photographer on Tuesday that came recommended by a co-worker. I had the contract signed and deposit ready by Wednesday morning.

We went with: Agape Moments.

 I LOVE their style. LOVE LOVE LOVE. I wanted a photographer that

1) took the type of candid/non-posed "different" shots I liked naturally so I didn't have to feel like a crazy pants saying "did you get a shot like this? what about this kind?" and I could just relax and smile and put my total faith in them.

2) had the type of finishing style I liked. I LOVE the kind of vintage filter they use in a lot of their photos.

We emailed a bit today, and officially have an engagement shoot on the books for October 5 - a.k.a exactly 365 days before our actual wedding! How fitting! I'm sure the fact that it marks the 1-year mark will produce plenty of natural "grinning like an idiot" moments for the photos. Now begins the compulsive Pinterest scouring for outfit ideas for both of us. I cannot flippin wait.

Tomorrow we're having a long overdue small ceremony at Fort Snelling for my grandpa. He passed away in February of 2011, and was cremated. There was a lot of discussion about what to do with the ashes, and myself, along with others, were upset that there was not going to be SOMETHING at Fort Snelling. Scatter 98% of his ashes if you want, but I personally wanted a solid concrete place I could go on "important" days, to visit him, to leave flowers, to sit. Also? If anyone deserves to be at Fort Snelling it was my grandpa. He was the 2nd youngest lieutenant (I think that's the right designation, I could be off) in WWII. Fort Snelling is such a beautiful cemetery.. all the national cemeteries are.

Anyway, after that we're off to Moorhead for the weekend to visit M's dad and gf, his sister and her bf will also be up there, so I'm excited to get to spend some quality time together! She just found out she got into the U of M law school on a special program that allowed her to skip the LSAT! (LUCKY. soooooo jealous. hahaha).. so, I'll be sure to take some pics and post a recap Sunday or Monday!

-Kelly