We Have Some Goodlooking Friends!

The men...looking dapper as always....


I love this photo. You can see the raindrops that had started falling!



What a goodlooking bunch of guys. :)

And now for the ladies!

Aren't they beautiful??? And remember - those dresses were just $40!

Loved their bouquets! So simple, so cheap - and so beautiful! Just two hydrangeas!

Much more to come!

(All photos courtesy of Audrey Snow!)

Everytime I See A Picture Like This...

...I get so excited that my bridesmaids will be wearing little black dresses! :)

Source

The Difference Between a Bridesmaid and a Maid of Honor

I have three sisters. My fiance has two brothers. There is a gap of ten years between my younger and youngest sisters. It just made sense for my fiance's two brothers to be Best Men and my two sisters closest in age to be my Maid and Matron of Honor.

My youngest sister is only eleven years old, but I didn't want to make her a junior bridesmaid. Heck, she will be taller than most of my bridesmaids! (She is a fabulous basketball player).

I was afraid she would be offended that the other sisters were Maid/Matrons of Honor, while she would be a bridesmaid. When she asked me what the difference between the two is, I responded,

"The Maids of Honor have to hold up the bride's dress when she goes the bathroom."

My youngest sister was suddenly very okay with the idea of being a bridesmaid. :)

I could help but think of that exchange when I saw this photo on Wedding Cabaret - love it!

Bridesmaids Jewelry

I'm trying to find some fun jewelry for my bridesmaids to go with their fabulous dresses. In case you missed their bridesmaids dresses, here they are, modeled by my future sisters-in-law!

Mom recently introduced me to 1928 Jewelry. If you love vintage-looking jewelry (at an affordable price!), you need to check this place out. I'm trying to find some jewelry for my bridesmaids, and here were some lovely pieces I found from 1928 Jewelry.

I also thought about maybe doing something like this...

..which I found on Etsy by the way! Love that site. But now I'm thinking about possibly doing something like this for my wedding jewelry.

What do you think? Thoughts? Opinions? What type of jewelry would you pair with their bridesmaid dresses?

Baby's Breath?

Mom's wedding bouquet was made up of red roses and baby's breath. Here she is as a beautiful bride, quite obviously in the 70's. :)

She loves to tell the story about Dad's reaction to hearing that her bouquet would include baby's breath. From the way she tells it, he crinkled his nose, and asked in disbelief, "Baby's breath? Why would you want a flower that smells like a baby's breath? Yuck!" Or something to that effect. :)

I have to admit, I have never been a fan of baby's breath. When I said something about it to my fiance, his reaction was almost identical to Dad's!

But then I saw these pictures yesterday on Weddingbee. My heart skipped a beat. These are beautiful!

What do you think? Are the bouquets made up of baby's breath?

I am really looking forward to seeing more pictures of this wedding! The bouquets look so good with the black dresses! Could this be the cost effective bridesmaid bouquet option I have been looking for, with a throw back tribute to Mom's bouquet?

A Few Dozen of Your Closest Friends...

I was talking with a friend the other day who was having a disagreement with her fiance over how many to have in their wedding party. She wanted 3, he wanted 5. My fiance and I really didn't discuss this too much. My fiance wanted 7, and it seemed like a good number to me and worked well with who I wanted to be in the wedding. My family, however, couldn't believe I wanted that many - they thought it was WAY over the top! I guess this brings up the question, how many bridesmaids is too many?

Four bridesmaids?

Seven bridesmaids?

Ten bridesmaids?

Twelve bridesmaids?

Thirteen bridesmaids?

(All photos by www.abryanphoto.com)

I think my fiance's cousin had 18 - wish I had a picture of that to post! How many bridesmaids did you (or will you) have? How many do you think is too many?

My Future Sisters-In-Law Love Their Dresses!

I couldn't think of a flashy title for this post - but I think it about sums it up! My future sisters-in-law love their dresses! (Yay!) They were in town this weekend, so they finally got their dresses this weekend and tried them on. I couldn't be happier. They look fabulous, and they don't break anyone's budget (let me remind you - these dresses only cost $40!). AND they may actually wear them again! (But doesn't every bride say that? Hehe).

My fiance's little sister striking a pose

My two future sisters-in-law modeling their shoe choices - or NOT! :)

We had a great time hanging out with my fiance's family this weekend - even my future father-in-law loved the bridesmaid dresses! Fabulous.

Shoes for My Girls

One of the first questions all my bridesmaids asked me when they got their dress was "What shoes do you want us to wear?" Hmmm. I hadn't really thought a whole lot about it. Look at this fabulous idea:
But I am probably too much of a control freak to let this happen. Then I saw a wonderful photo of bridesmaids in little black dresses like mine and gold shoes. VERY CUTE. (And I wish I could figure out where I saw that picture...)

But in an effort to help out with my girls' budgets (I'm not the only one feeling the stress of unemployment!) I think we will go with black. I keep telling them that I love peep-toe shoes, but I will not be picking an "official" shoe. I'm sure they can do a lot better job (and feel a whole lot more comfortable!) picking their own shoes! Look at this great shoe my bridesmaid Jessica found by Steve Madden - and on sale!

But as my tallest bridesmaid, she is waiting to see which groomsman she gets paired up with so she doesn't tower over them in a shoe like this. :) Three of my seven bridesmaids most likely won't be wearing heels - two for medical reasons, and one because she is 11 and can't walk in heels yet and doesn't want to try. :) I'm thinking something more like this for them:

I think those are just so sweet, but the final choices remain to be seen. What shoes will your bridesmaids be wearing on your wedding day?

The Bridesmaid Dress Saga (The Final Chapter!)

In case you were beginning to lose faith, there is a happy ending to the bridesmaid dress saga. We left off with the beautiful, but entirely too expensive, Watters dresses.


I was beginning to feel as thought I would never find the right dresses! And then...I had an impromptu visit to the outlet mall near me, and went to visit the White House Black Market outlet. I walked in the door, and learned they were having a sale - every dress in the place was $39.99! I began looking through the dresses and found this beauty!



Isn't it beautiful?!? Unfortunately, the only sizes they had were size 00 and size 12. Neither of which would fit any of my bridesmaids. Hmm. I wrote down the style number and left without too much hope. I got home and began calling every White House Black Market outlet I could find. Alabama? No luck. Orlando, FL? No luck. Ft. Myers, FL? Yes! They had this dress in just about every size imaginable! I have seven bridesmaids, and guessed they were all somewhere between a 0 and a 10. Not a problem - they had several of each size! So, to be on the cautious side, I ordered 11 different dresses in varying sizes.

And this is where I became a HUGE fan of White House Black Market! Because I was spending so much money, they shipped the dresses to me for FREE....AND they gave me 5% off! And not only on this purchase - on every purchase I ever make from White House Black Market! Wonderful! The dresses arrived just a few days later and they are beautiful! Here are a few pictures of the dresses (on yours truly). :)

I'm so excited about my find! And so are my bridesmaids! :) And such is the conclusion of the Bridesmaid Dress Saga!!!!

Do your bridesmaids dresses come with a saga/story?

Introducing...My Bridesmaids & Maid/Matron of Honor!

As I have mentioned before, I have seven wonderful women standing up with me at my wedding. There will be five bridesmaids, one maid of honor and one matron of honor! Here they are!

Shannon: My older (but not bigger) sister and my Maid of Honor! She is the unbelievably creative one whose inspirations often appear on my blog. Here we are on a recent family cruise...

And here are way back in the day!

Tabitha: My younger (and now married!) sister. Tabi will be my Matron of Honor. Here is my beautiful little sister and me (a few years and much shorter hair ago)...

And here she is, yawning as Shannon and I read her a story. :)

Ashlyn: My baby sister and one of my bridesmaids! Ashlyn is 11 years old and is very happy I'm not making her wear anything pink for the wedding. :)

Jessica: My future sister-in-law and another bridesmaid! Jessica married my fiance's brother almost two years ago. Jessica and I have become very close friends, and I cannot wait until she, her husband, and their beautiful son move to Florida to be closer to us! :)

Chrissy: My future sister-in-law and my fiance's baby sister! Chrissy will soon be graduating from FSU, like her big brother. Here she is with her (and my soon-to-be) nephew and Jessica's son Malachi!

Kelly: One of my best friends and another bridesmaid! Kelly and I met about a week before I started law school, and I don't think I would have made it through without her!

Courtney: My college roommate and another bridesmaid! Courtney and I were roommates at UNC and have stayed close since graduating. We are especially close now that we are both planning our weddings! (Check out her blog at: http://somethingcarolinablue.wordpress.com/)

And those are my lovely ladies!

The Bridesmaid Dress Saga (Part 3)

Now...where were we? Oh yes, we left off with the girls trying on these dresses. I forgot to mention that they had a sash. Which I (of course) decided to wear like Rambo.

But those dresses were not "the ones". So the search continued. I began to look on my own (I had dragged enough people to enough stores) and went to a fabulous bridal store in St. Petersburg called CC's Bridal. They have a ton of beautiful bridesmaids dresses (and wedding dresses - but I wisely chose to not even let myself look at their collection!) I started trying on bridesmaid dresses. I had seen this one online and loved it...and loved it even more in person.

This is Watters 326, and I imagined it in the color "Gem" - more like a crimson color. But the price tag was $225 - yikes! Definately more than I wanted to ask anyone to pay. (I do think this dress could even be beautiful as a wedding dress for an outdoor/more casual wedding - it comes in offwhite and that is a great price for a wedding dress! I love the little covered buttons on the back!)

But this was clearly not the right dress for my bridesmaids. And so the search continued...

Will You Be My Bridesmaid?

I am a lucky girl. I will have seven wonderful women standing up with me on the day I marry the love of my life. I wanted to find a creative/meaningful way to ask them to be my bridesmaids. I searched high and low on the internet and found some great ideas.

There were bridesmaid gift sets:

There were bridesmaid cookies! (How cute are these???)

And there were more cards out there than I ever imagined. But I wanted to make the gifts myself. So I came up with...a bridesmaid survival kit!

What does every bridesmaid need? Band-aids, for those inevitable blisters. A nail file for those last minute nail crises. Bobby pins, for the hair do that just can't quite survive the wind. Mentos, for some fresh breath. Safety pins, for those unfortunate dress incidents. Kleenex, for those unexpected tears. And chocolate kisses, to remind them that no matter how crazy I get, I really do love them. :)

I tried to get creative with some of the items...

And I found these beautiful bags on clearance at Bath & Body Works! (Only $5 each!)

And so, the survival kits were created. I put a little note in each one that read:

It's hard to believe that in just a little while,

Nate and I will be walking down the aisle,

You've stood right beside me through thick and thin,

And I want you to be there when I marry him,

Nothing would give me more joy and pride,

Than to have you there, by my side.

Will you be my Maid of Honor/Bridesmaid?

I wish I could take credit for the poem, but I found it online. :) And I am happy to say that the bridesmaid's kits had a 100% acceptance rate!

How did you ask your bridesmaids/maid of honor to be part of your special day?