I like this hair style!

My sister and best friend (MOH) decided to give me a hair and make up package on the day of my wedding as my shower gift. I am so THRILLED that they did this for me because I was pretty worried about what I should do for the beauty part of our big day and now all I need to do is pick out my make-up "look" and my hair style! I just saw this on Oh So Beautiful Paper and I loved it! I need to go get a trial so I can see what looks good on me! Eeee thanks so much Andi and Sarah, you guys are the BEST!

Bridal Jewelry, so fun!

I receieved my earrings in the mail yesterday! Naturally I got them from Etsy and I am so impressed with how PERFECT they are for my overall look!

I love the filigree... and the nice little drop of crystal. Eeee I am getting excited as each little piece comes together!

I ordered them from RebeccaJDesigns

Pretty!

Another pretty wedding day look that I would love is this one from The Bride's Cafe. I think it's time for me to go find a Sephora and get a make over to see what I like!

Beauty

I saw these photos online and I just wanted to post them because I love her "look". I have no clue what I am doing for make-up (or hair!) for the big day, but I know I want it to be very natural and clean. The girl in the pictures just looks so fresh and pretty! I might want to go a little less on the eyeliner since I have such light hair and fair skin, but I am admiring her right now :)

100 Layer Cake

Pretty Hair!

I saw this picture and was admiring the girl all the way on the left's hair style. Sooo pretty! Definitely saving it!

Green Wedding Shoes

Then I saw this on Grey Likes Weddings. J'adore!

My infinite love of Etsy

I have been putting off posting this hanger that I ordered a few months ago, but I finally decided I had to share! I saw this seller on Etsy a while back and I HAD to have one of her custom made hangers for my wedding dress. I think this will look so neat in the pictures of my dress, I just love that the hanger holding my dress has the name that I will recieve while wearing the dress... so exciting! I ordered it from: LilaFrances

These are the buttons I bought from a couture store in Richmond so that the seamstress could add them to the back of my dress. Unfortunately I did not search Etsy before buying them and afterward discovered the same buttons for an unthinkable amount less than what I paid! The buttons I purchased were $3 a piece, which adds up pretty darn quick when you have 24 buttons to get! I then found a seller on Etsy who could make them for about .45 cents a piece. The couture store did not let me return the buttons :( I am still pretty mad about this situation... but oh well... ya live ya learn! Now hopefully future brides might see this post and learn from my mistake: Research a little before you commit to buying! The Etsy shop that I found was LiDDesignSupplies.

Flower Girl Dress

This morning I saw that J. Crew is having a 20% off and free shipping deal for all items that are already on sale. J. Crew is constantly teasing me with these type of e-mails, but I've had my eye on a dress for Lora and Lenna (my cutie pie flower girls) and so I thought it was now or never to order it for them! I got in touch with my Aunt Shanna and she agreed that we should get them because of how simple and lovely they are... so yay, we now officially have flower girl dress picked out and ordered! I am having dinner with them next Wednesday to finally let the girls know that they are in the wedding and that they will be the princesses of the day :)

J. Crew

Bridesmaid Dresses ~ J. Crew <3

I was waiting until we had officially ordered the dresses before I announced them and last night we got them all ordered and so that piece is done, hooray!

I seriously was obsessed with J. Crew dresses and while we all looked around at tons of dresses from other bridal stores and such, I couldn't stop coming back to J. Crew. My maid of honor and I were particularly infatuated with a floral print they make and so we decided it was absolutely necessary to have it somehow in the wedding party. I decided that my Matron and Maid of Honor would wear a light vintage floral pattern and that my other two bridesmaids would wear a caramel/champagne color. In the beginning I was convinced I would have the bridal party wear green since it's my favorite color and I had hoped to have my main color be green. I soon discovered that green is a mighty ugly color for bridesmaid dresses and I really didn't run across anything I loved. (J. Crew did actually come out with a green version of the champagne dress we chose that would have been beautiful, but we were still too sold on the floral pattern and needed something that matched better) I can't say I would have chosen strapless, but I think the beauty of the dress far outweighs my pit against strapless, so in the end the dress wins :)

So, here are the choices and I can't wait to see them when they come in! I love how romantic and pretty they are... the girls will all look gorgeous!

This is the dress for Michelle and Melissa. Very simple and definitely re-wearable so that is a plus! I'm thinking a green sash around the middle? See it here

The back of the floral print dress

Oh, how I adore this pattern!

Front view, I am thinking a creme sash instead of a leather belt. See it here

A Lovely Christmas

This Christmas was so wonderful! My sister came for a visit with her new baby and he sure is bringing a lot of joy to all of our lives. Such a cute little guy, I miss him already!

I am kind of in disbelief that this was my last Christmas where I will be spending Christmas Eve night at my parent's house with my sisters. However, I keep smiling thinking about how next year will be our first Christmas together as a married couple... is it weird that I am already excited to send out Christmas cards with wedding photos on them?

Anyhow, besides the adorableness of my nephew and amazing memories spent with my family this year, I recieved some gifts that were blog worthy seeing as they relate to the wedding! First up, my Mom gave me beautiful diamond stud earrings. I don't have a photo because I refuse to take them out (they're screw-backs so I'm slightly lazy) but man are they nice. They are .75 carat and I LOVE them! I had been wanting some diamond studs so I am very happy!

Then AJR ordered me a gorgeous hair pin that I will wear in my hair for the wedding. I may have dropped some not so subtle hints that I was in love with the hair piece so I was beyond elated that he did in fact get it for me! :-D It is from Etsy, made by Heart n Sole. This lady has a lot of beautiful pieces that I adore. But the one I got is definitely my favorite! It has ivory freshwater pearls, Swarovski crystals and rhinestones twisted in sterling silver wire.

Then AJR's sister, Emily, gave me a very pretty and vintage inspired clutch that will be perfect to keep my little things in on the wedding day!

 

So, my wedding day attire is complete! Now I take my dress to get a few more things added (some lace here, some buttons there) and I am done! Just need to start looking into hairstyles I want to try out with my beautiful new hairpin!

Non-Matching Bridesmaid Dresses

A new and exciting discovery made by brides everywhere is that you don't in fact have to make your bridesmaids completely match in the same bridaly (ahem, ugly!) dresses you choose at the local bridal store. Bridesmaids are rejoicing worldwide, hooorraay! I finally made my decision about what my girls will be wearing the other night but before I reveal that, I want to do a post on how fun I think it is to let the girls choose their own dresses in a color you pick for them. The look is so neat and I think you get happier bridesmaids and a more visually appealing look for your wedding (since the girls really set the tone for the scene!).

I just think this look was so well put together. The picture is amazing with all the women who are different sizes and shapes and in the different cut/styles and varying shades of the same color. A+ my friends.

GREEN! :-D

So romantic with all those pretty shades of pink!

I absolutely adore this. First of all, I tend to think bride/bridesmaid pictures look better when there are fewer bridesmaids because you can really see each of the women and what their individual looks are easier. This photo is so well balanced and the overall look is perfect. I'm jealous that those aren't my colors.

And this is my absolute favorite. Perhaps it's because I am drawn to off white/champagne colored dresses for bridesmaids and the fact that two of the girls are in lace is definitely helping their case, but I LOVE this look. I would be thrilled to have my wedding party attire look like this!

{found here, here, and here respectively}

Hair Styles for the Wedding

I stalked TheKnot.com again to find some wedding up-dos that I might like. I found some really pretty ones that were worth posting! I envision having my hair up, but low and to the side, possibly in a loose bun or with curls. I'm excited to explore some more pictures of styles!

A simple up-do with a cream rose. So romantic.

A twisted bun

Pretty curls... ah, I love.

This girl had very fine hair and had the stylist curl it and pin it into a low up-do. Beautiful with the custom made hair pins!

Another hair style with pinned up curls. So pretty!

Wedding Shoes!

I mentioned finding my wedding shoes this weekend... and here they are!

Ah, I love them. I was hoping to find a pair with a smaller heel, but the one on these isn't so bad. However, the color and the peep toe/closed heel is absolutely what I was looking for. I found them on sale for $35 (can you believe it, THIRTY FIVE DOLLARS) at a DSW and they are made by Nina.

They are online here

Bride Wars

So... I know I already posted today, but who says I have to stop at one post per day!?!? Psshhh, Not I.

Last night I walked into my living room to see the movie "Bride Wars" playing. Naturally it's about weddings and naturally I had to get sucked into it, because well... it's about weddings. Duh.

Anne Hathaway is in the movie and the dress she wears is O.MI.GOSH.TO.DIE.FOR.  My mouth was visibly hanging open with drool when I saw it. Seriously, it is drop dead gorgeous and I just had to search for it this afternoon. The dress was from the 2005 Vera Wang Wedding collection and it is just mouth watering (as I demonstrated with my reaction to it last night).

I couldn't find a picture of the back of it, other than a girl that posted about it on Wedding Bee. This lucky girl actually wore the dress in her wedding. Ahhhh-mazing.

So why am I posting about dresses when I already have one? Well, here is what happened. When I went to that bridal store last week and found my dress, I realized that there are a MILLION gorgeous dresses that really aren't anything like the one I would choose to buy for my wedding. For some reason, now that I don't have to stress about my dress, I can take pleasure in browsing and actually appreciate the beauty of many other dresses.

Okay, I feel like this post is getting a little boring, but to add to the boringness... update on my dress: Last night I took it to Oksana, my Russian seamstress that I may or may not have a girl crush on. She says things like "Ze Dress!" and "Oy!" and gets right down to business when you ask her questions about alterations. She pinned it all in since it was about 3 sizes too big on me and we talked about some options regarding the slight changes I want to make to it. I go back December 4th to make more progress after she takes it in. I'm so excited!

"I'll put a Flower in your Hair..."

I am still completely infatuated with the idea of using succulents in the wedding. They are so beautiful! And they last forever... unlike all other traditional wedding flowers that will brown and die within 24 hours. Okay, they don't actually last forever but you can have them cut in a certain manner so they are easily replantable. And even if you aren't able to do that, they will still keep for weeks afterward. I am definitely infusing my bouquet with them! And how sweet does it look in her hair? That is gorgeous!

This image was taken from an amazing wedding I found in my inbox from Green Wedding Shoes. Everything about that wedding was incredible... I may have to put it under my "Favorites" and come back for ideas!

The Dress

And now.... for the biggest announcement of my wedding planning (drum roll please) I HAVE A WEDDING DRESS! Woo-Hoo!!! (alright I admit, it's a bit superficial to think the dress is the biggest announcement. but still. it's huge. i'm psyched.)

Yesterday I used my Veterans Day holiday to tackle a few wedding things and man do I feel great about it all! I now officially have a photographer (I will introduce her in my next post) and a beautiful wedding dress is hanging in my bedroom. (eeee!)

The Dress situation was definitely worrying me a little because I originally fell in love with a $3000 Paloma Blanca gown and I was convinced that it scarred me because while I could never even dream of being able to afford such a dress, I wanted to compare it to everything else I looked at afterward! But then my future sister-in-law, Lauren took me to the bridal store, Jeanettes (where she got her wedding dress a few years ago) and I was instantly in awe over the AMAZING selection! Everything was beautiful and quality and I wanted it all! Lauren was an awesome sport and sat through two hours of me trying on dresses and asking a zillion "Does this make my butt look big?" questions... I mean haha, just kidding, but a lot of "ahh... is this The One? Do you think this would be me?" Many thanks to Lauren for bringing me to the place where I found my dream dress and for bearing with me through it! (I'm really lucking out with the cool new family thing. yay!)

So next step is to take it to the seamstress I found and have her make alterations (and a few minor changes to the dress to make it perfect) and I am finito!

Unfortunately, that's the most you'll be hearing concerning the dress on this public blog where my loving fiance is just a click away from reading. However, if you're that interested and your name isn't AJR, I'll show you a pic :)

Now here are some dresses it ISN'T:

(hee hee ;-)