Posts from — June 2008

Possibly one of the most controversial parts of planning your wedding is the bridesmaid dresses.  Since I have just started paying attention to wedding etiquette and such about a year ago, I am not sure how things were before, but it seems like today, the options for bridesmaid dresses are endless. It is not assumed that all of your girls will wear the same dress since many brides choose to have their girls choose their own, or to give them options. But for those of us who want the conformity in our bridal party, we risk being seen as “bridezillas” who just want what they want and don’t care about their maids feelings or bank accounts. Here are some examples of the different ways you can go with your maids (and remember, I say to each her own, there is no right or wrong way of doing it):

There are the dresses that they will never, ever wear again.

The matching dresses that they could wear again to another wedding or cocktail party.

The dresses that are the same, but each maid can choose their own color or fit.

 
(pictures via the brides cafe)

The same color dresses, but in whatever style/brand/price the maid chooses.

(picture via style me pretty)

And the dresses that the bride just said “go with this color”.

(picture via the talented Matt Morgan)

See! There are so many different ways to go. Later today I will show you one of the ways I might go, and one way I would go if money grew on trees

Good morning! You know when the weekend comes up and you have nothing planned and you are so excited to just, well, do whatever, even if that means doing nothing? Well that was how I felt Friday, yet somehow I ended up just going going going all weekend and I am exhausted. Between walking around Bass Pro Shop for a few hours (how many stores do you know of that have thousands of pictures of them on flickr?) and trying to keep up with 60+ children – all under 10 – Sunday morning… I could have slept for a few more hours this morning. I needed a day off from my weekend. But alas, here I am. Awake before 8am…   Here is some inspiration via Snippet and Ink to keep you (and me) going. 

These are our wedding colors, which i like to call grey and sunshine  At first I wanted a really pretty, feminine palette. Light grey/silver with whites and light pinks. However, this proved a little too feminine for Bryan, so we went with this one. I am excited to work the colors into the wedding. Later on I’ll post some possible bridesmaid dresses while I continue to gush about how much i love JCrew.

I absolutely love jcrew. love it. sadly I can’t afford it most of the time, but that doesn’t stop me from getting their catalog and checking out the website for new arrivals.  Some of my favorites right now:

I love polka dots! and the jacket with the jeans.. a perfect outfit for a day like today, casual friday!

And of course one of the beautiful wedding dresses. Any dress with a pocket, I am sold.

Indulge yourself in the rest of their clothes here.

Lauren, if your internet is up and running, these boards are for you

And my personal favorite ‘purple’ inspiration board:

All boards found on snippet and ink.

Ok, so last week myself, my mother and 4 of my maids went to Costa Mesa to the bridal salon Mon Amie to try on dresses.  The salon is beautiful and they have so so so many dresses. The day we went was the first day of their Jim Hjelm  trunk show. Background on this: a friend of Bryans went to Mon Amie for a trunk show and walked out with a dress for only $500, way less than the original price. So I went into the store thinking that the dresses would be, like, half off since you take home the sample dress as is. Here are the two favorite of the day, and I would gladly wear either one down the aisle.

This one my mother made me try on, and she was right (as always) and I loved it.

This one fit perfectly, the lace is very me. And according to Lisa it made my butt look amazing.
Images here. 

Once I had them on and had already fallen in love, the salesgirl told me the (special!) trunk show price. Ready? 10% off. Of $3,000. And if I bought it that day they would throw in a Ralph Lauren tux. So $2,700 for a dress and a tux… tempting. But considering our entire bride/groom attire budget is $1,000 (including shoes, veil, everything) I reluctantly had to say no.  Helpful hint for bride-to-be’s: don’t fall in love with a dress that isn’t in the budget. Here’s to finding a gorgeous dress, in budget, that I love just as much!

I want one. Found here.

The ‘tulip’ top is still in. Here.

When Bryan and I first started talking weddings, I loved the idea of wearing a family members wedding dress. We brought it up at dinner with my grandparents one night and grandma goes “I still have my wedding dress… I think it is in the bottom of a trunk somewhere…” Well, that week I went to my parents house and there, sitting on the piano stool, was this tiny box. The size of a medium sized nordstroms box. No way that was it. Yes, it was. We ran into my moms bedroom (we as in my mom and my sister and myself) so that Bryan wouldn’t see it on me. It was a little discolored, and didn’t have the hoop skirt thing that goes under it, but with that aside, it fit like a glove. Could this be my wedding dress? 

Maybe without the little jacket, and some cute peep toe pumps?  It is still an option. We need to get it cleaned and see if that helps.  Part of me wants a long gown with a train to match the formality of the church.  Later I will post some of the gowns I tried on.  As far as Bryan, he has decided on the look that Mr. Bill (what I called my grandfather all my life. I miss him.) went with. But probably with a tie…

Ok, so a little bit more about me, my life and my wedding.  I live in beautiful Southern California, I work as a graphic designer and I design paper goods (wedding invites, greeting cards, etc.) in my spare time.  Need invites or announcements? Visit me at Girl vs Boy Design. I am not a writer, so I apologize for any grammar problems or misspellings. Some things about me/us:

-I will be married at 25 and honestly that is older than I would have imagined back in the day.
-Bryan and I have been together about 3 years.
-He is catholic, I am just a follower of Jesus
-We are getting married in a beautiful catholic church and I couldn’t be happier.
-Except the priests decided to have their conference on the one Saturday of the year that we wanted to get married… So we had to change the date
-I use those face icons a lot… probably because I email/text/IM most of the day and like people to know how I am feeling when I say something, since you can’t hear me.
-I was a photography major and am now a graphic designer.
-Bryan was a history major and is now a graphic designer.
-Bryan is older than me.
-I love him.
-I haven’t cooked enough in my life to say that I am a good cook, or a bad cook in that case. But I want to be better at it. 
-I went to London once and loved it.

Hello! This is my blog, and yes, Bryan and I met in a bar. Now that that is out of the way, we can get to the important stuff. I’ll post (almost) daily about my life, things that inspire me, and for the next year or so, about weddings. We are getting married next year (yay!) and this will be a place for me to write down the joys and hardships of planning a wedding. Oh, and there will be lots of pictures. I feel that life is all about visuals, design, and capturing those things with pictures, so you will always see them here.