1 bridesmaid dress down, 7 more to go!

Ok ladies, time to bring your A-game -- the first bridesmaid dress has been found! Morgan just ordered this adorable little navy number from J.Crew. Love it! Paired with red heels, red lipstick and maybe some pearls and a cute hair clip, and this baby is good to go (down the aisle). =) Good job, Morgan!

Hair accessories

So here are the bird cage veils / fascinators that I'm attracted to so far. I like the handmade cloth flower look, but I'm not sure if I want an actual veil in front of my face. Maybe have the veil to the side of my head instead?

 All these pieces are like $75 and up, which I find ridiculous. I actually found a pretty gardenia flower (3.25in) on eBay for about $10. Crafty friends, do you think we can do something with it?







And I thought it might be cute if the bridesmaids wore a smaller version (maybe in red?) like this. Thoughts?

Found the dress!

So I settled on a vintage-style dress from classic offbeat designer Stephanie James. The standard retail dress was a whopping $2k, but with a little Internet sleuthing, I found a slightly damaged dress for $650! With a few inches hemmed, it'll be good as new! Of course, I'll need to lose a few inches myself - it's just one size too small. But for a nearly 70% discount, I'll fast without complaint! I'm also removing the built-in chiffon so I can wear a light blue petticoat underneath the dress for a little splash of color. I love my mom's tailor! Here's a pic of me trying on the dress with a sash (altho I think I'll do without at the actual wedding). One of my bridesmaids made me try on the hat and shoes for "context," but I actually dig the peep-toe heels. I found a couple of pairs at Dillards and Nordstroms, so now it's just a matter of wearing them around the house for an hour and seeing which pair kills less! =) I also need to start researching birdcage veils so I can craft one custom. Etsy, I'ma comin' for you!

Wedding dress finalists (so far)

So based on 2 weekends of looking and a MILLION website searches, I'm down to 4 finalist dresses. Two are dresses that I've actually tried on, and two are dresses that I ordered online based on what I now know about my body type and what looks flattering on it. I'll receive the two online dresses by the end of February, so I won't really be able to make an informed decision til then. Anyway, here are semi-finalists (click to enlarge):

 

 

More blue dresses

Some of you ladies have expressed some concern over the theme wardrobe, so I thought I'd put together a quick montage photo using dresses from -- you guessed it -- modcloth.com to show you examples of 1940s dresses (click to enlarge). And I think red lipstick and pumps are a definite -- cheeky! =)

Must love pinwheels

So I just did a Google image search for "fabric pinwheel" because I wanted to find a tutorial for the little "fan crease" type flowers but didn't know what they were officially called. But instead, what came up were images of the types of pinwheels that actually blow in the wind -- and they are ADORABLE! Love love love them. I think I'd like to make fabric pinwheels an underlying theme of the wedding. I mean, how cute would these little pinwheels be as groomsmen boutinnieres? (This is actually a little bobby pin that I found a tutorial for -- but you get what I mean.) Even Dave was spellbound by their adorability. Ok, that may be overstating it, but he thought they were cool and definitely didn't hate them.

I also wanted to make a quilt for Dave's parents and my parents to thank them for their support. I found a beautiful quilt picture that I'd like to emulate, so if some of you craftier friends could give me some quilting tips ... *raising eyebrows eagerly*

We could make larger paper pinwheels as carnival game prizes, and maybe even my little sock monkey toppers could each be holding a small pinwheel. Squeal! So excited!

The Save-the-Dates are ready!

I must say, I'm pretty darn baller at this whole Adobe Illustrator thang. Below are the save the dates I whipped up. I think I'm just going to email the majority of them since stamps are expensive and people are fairly technology savvy, but there may be a few print-outs for the non-email generation -- and my scrapbook!