Bridesmaid Dress? Check!

The shopping excursion on Saturday was a total success - and a BLAST! I always love catching up with these girls. We rode around in the bus (my mom's VW van) all day - from bridal shop to lunch to bridal shop to Friendly's (mmm...ice cream) and back to my mom's house to hang out and work on our tans.

But I digress...we found a dress! Actually, we found two dresses! One at each bridal salon. Everyone really liked both, and we got all the girls measured at the second shop, but then after some serious soul-searching, I decided I like the first one better and that's the final decision. The original decision-maker was that the second dress came in Peacock blue, but the more I thought about it, the more I thought, "You know...that could be really obnoxious on 6 girls!" Plus, I think the first one will be a bit more comfortable for the girls. So, the decision was made!

It's a Bill Levkoff design, and I love it. I think all the girls are going to look stunning in it. And navy is such a classic, elegant color. I'm thrilled that we were able to find something in one day. I'm thrilled that almost everyone was able to come (we missed you, Stephy)! I'm so blessed to have such amazing girls who are going to be standing up with me on one of the most important days of my life.

Shopping!

This weekend, I'm getting together with almost all of my girls to go shopping for their Bridesmaid dresses. I'm so excited!

We've got a full day planned on Saturday, starting with mimosas at my mom's house to give a good kick-start to the day of fun! Then we are going to a couple different bridal shops, including the one where I bought my dress. After shopping, we'll cap the day off with dinner and bowling - one of our favorite activities from way back in the day!

These girls are pretty much my most favorite people in the world, and I cannot wait to get together and catch up with all of them.

The Girls

My poor bridesmaids. They all keep asking me what I'm thinking of for their dresses, and all I keep giving them is, "Long, navy or peacock blue...I have some ideas." I'm so vague, so indecisive, ha ha. So I thought I'd throw them a bone and give them a look at what some of my ideas are.

I defiitely want them in long. It's a church wedding, it's in the fall...it just seems appropriate for them to be in long dresses. And while I like the idea of letting each girl choose a style of dress that suits her, I also like the look in pictures when everyone is wearing the same. So, all the girls will be in the same dress. Ideally, I would love to find a great dress that is available in the peacock blue color, but I'm finding that not a lot of designers make that color, so it may have to be navy.

I'm torn between two different schools of thought (again): having the girls in dresses similar to mine so that it looks cohesive, or having them in dresses different from mine so that I stand out. I equally like both ideas, so I really don't know what direction to go in. It will probably just come down to whatever the girls find that they (or the majority of them) like, that's what we'll go with. But, that doesn't mean I'm not having fun in the meantime looking at different dresses and getting ideas!!

So here are some of the ones I like if I go with dresses similar in style to mine:

And, if I go with something different:

I know, the last one is drastically different, but I totally love it.

Ok, girls, the floor is open...

The Boys

I am trying to decide what to dress the boys in. David, from JDK (our caterer/coordinator) had mentioned that brown pinstripe tuxes are really hot right now. When he first mentioned it, I admit that all I could think about was a pimp suit. The more I thought about it, though, I became intrigued. I wanted to see what he was talking about. I kind of feel like a black tux wouldn't really fit in with our wedding - there will be no black, anywhere, in our decor or anything. Plus, it's done at every wedding. And, well, I'm not exactly mainstream when it comes to stuff like that. So I looked into it, and I really like what I see. Hee hee - he's headless. But anyway, you get the drift. It's a monochromatic pinstripe, so it's not so "pimpy." I am thinking that maybe I would put the boys in these brown tuxes. Have Matt in an ivory shirt with an ivory vest, and the boys in either a brown vest or a blue vest to match the girls (whatever blue we end up getting for them - peacock or navy).

I also decided that I want to make Matt stand out a bit (not just with a different colored vest). Usually the groom has a slightly different boutonniere. And I came across this one (in the middle) and thought it would be perfect:

I'm having button mums in my bouquet, the girls' bouquets, and the centerpieces. They're nice and small and don't overwhelm the feather. Yay!

Dress!

I found my dress. THE dress. It seriously is absolutely perfect. Exactly what I was looking for. It was, of course, the first dress I tried on - for the day, for the year, for the shopping, for the wedding. First dress, ever. So, with 2 other appointments scheduled for the day, I felt like I shouldn't just stop there! So, like a fool, ignoring the sage wisdom of my bridesmaid, Abriel, who also is a bridal consultant, I did not stick with that, but went to my 2 other appointments and thoroughly confused myself. To the point where I actually put a deposit down on another dress! Can you believe it?! After I got home from the shopping trip, even though I really did love the other dress, I kept going back to the first one in my mind. It was all I thought about! When I closed my eyes and pictured myself in a wedding dress, I pictured that one, not the one I bought! Ugh! So, I confessed my bridal sin to my mother and she said, "Ok, let's cancel the order then!" And we did, and I called the first store and told them to hold onto that dress!

It really, really is perfect. I could not have designed a better dress for my wedding day. I am SO excited! In searching for a picture of it online (because it's no longer on the designer's website - it's a discontinued style, and I'm actually purchasing the store sample), I found another "sample" for sale in a size 6, which is bound to fit me MUCH better than the one at the store where I now have a $400 deposit holding it. My mom convinced me that it's better to get the one that is closer to my size and have it taken out the little tiny bit that it may need to be taken out, rather than get the one that is about 3 sizes too big and they would need to basically reconstruct the top to make it fit my chest. Soooo...we're ordering the size 6 with 2-day shipping so that it'll be there by Friday when I go back to my mom's to try it on. If it's terribly mis-sized, we still have the one at the store to fall back on. Oy! Such a mess!! But I'm sure it'll all work out in the end.

The actual brick-and-mortar store where I found the dress is Cocoa Couture. We're ordering it from My Dream Dress, which is basically a warehouse of "oops, I bought it and then didn't use it" dresses. The price difference between the 2 is pretty much nonexistent, so neither one ends up being a better "investment" - unless we end up saving significant amounts on alterations with the size 6. So, I guess we'll see! Nonetheless, the folks at Cocoa Couture were awesome. I absolutely loved my consultant (though I don't remember her name - I'm sorry!).

I'm also going to meet with my coordinator at JDK again on Saturday to talk about flowers. It's the one part of the wedding planning that Matt is soooo not interested in, so I'm going with my mom. Cuz she's good at flowers. And cuz she's awesome.