unofficial sponsorship: etsy

Um...this is not a post really so much as a bunch of random thoughts and a deep love of the internets. Sorry. Real stuff to come, I promise! (Always with the promises, this one...)

I know that I've joked before about how this wedding is brought to you by Target (and really, if they wanted a corporate sponsorship, I would be willing...give me a call Big T, if you're interested!) but really, a very large amount of it is being brought to you by etsy.

If you couldn't tell from like every post ever. I mention them often.

I don't remember how I found this wonderful online flea market, but brother do I ever love it. Almost all the jewelry options I've given my 'maids or considered for myself are from etsy. Most of the birdcage veils I have bookmarked are from etsy. The amazing shrugs (which I must must must do a post about) that I am considering buying or (cough) "recreating on my own"...yeah, they're from etsy.

Also most of the rad christmas/birthday presents you have received from me in the last two years are from etsy.

My most recent etsy purchase was some fabric for our guestbook area...which I think I'm going to try to keep semi-secret for at least a little while longer. But here it is anyway...isn't it sweet?

My mind races with projects to use it for AFTER the wedding. It's actually a bit softer in person, but I think it will work well for our purposes. From fresh squeezed fabrics...I want all the fabric she has to offer.

And just as an update...my bridesmaids are amazing. They are constantly abuzz with planning and I could not be more thankful for them. They're more on the ball than me in many ways...planning their hair appointments, showers, many of them have their jewelry and I myself do not.

And just as another testiment to the POWER OF THE ETSY, my sister 'maid searched out and customed ordered her jewelry before my butt could even make the suggestions...and it is phenomenal!

from KristieGK. I've heard they're even better in person! The other girls are finding jewelry and shoes and I'm just...very...very...happy.

No, not just happy. I'm...excited?


OKAY GUYS I'M OFFICIALLY STARTING TO GET EXCITED!


Let's get married!

bridesmaids: soon to be ACHIEVED

Thanks for the bridesmaid dress input, both in the comments and in personal discussion. I have decided that we should go with the Alfred Angelo Separates, and, at the brilliant suggestion of the O.H's, bridesmaids will get to choose amongst the tops and the two skirts (because AA offers TWO tea lengths. Gotta love it.)
All I need to do tomorrow is check and make sure that I want his color "grape" over "eggplant"...because eggplant is a darker purple I thought that was where I was supposed to go, but on the internet eggplant looks almost navy. A quick trip to my local bridal shop will clear that up quickly and we can get these babies ordered!
I really like this idea because then there's some unity (all tea length with pleated tops) but they can choose either a fuller or more narrow skirt, and the three tops each have a very distinct look. They can choose what looks the best on them or what they may wear again...if they need a pleated orange top, of course.
(The collage above is just a guess of what it could be, but I'm sure it will look much cooler in real life...but check out the font. Pretty sweet, yeah?)

Bridesmaid Dresses

or, alternately:
SHIT.
or, third title option:
Bride Lesson: Stop Assuming Things Will Make Sense
and last but not least:
Please Help Me.

Let's go back that beautiful moment in Loomis when I realized that I was actually wearing the dress in which I would be married. It was a lovely moment. Things were in place. We decided while we were there that we should maybe look into bridesmaid dresses and have my sister (the Mrs-0-H) try on a few of the styles and colors I had been considering so we could see those colors next to my dress because, you know, it all goes around the dress.
Getting married is a very selfish endeavor.
Well it turns out I was once again wrong about what I wanted for this wedding. Or I suppose "Ignorant to the Beautiful Possibilities" is a nicer way to say it. I said I wanted a short, simple dress, and I end up with a long, elegant, pleated to within an inch of its life confection of dress perfectitude. I also thought I wanted plain brown dresses for the bridesmaids, possibly bought from an online source like jcrew, overstock.com, or even Target. I figured brown was a nice neutral safe ground and would maximize re-wearability.
But then I realized, when I actually had Jessie trying on dresses next to my dress, that I had forgotten that I have really beautiful bridesmaids with lots of personality, and that neither of those things were being represented by "brown." So I decided to shake things up a bit and go back to a color scheme that I had briefly considered: purple and orange. Or, as we later discovered, "Grape" and "Sienna." These colors are really gorgeous together, are Halloween and Fall themed without making one gag, and lucky for me, I have two bridesmaids that will look brilliant in burnt orange and three that will glow in dark purple. Once we got down to the swatches, clearly the perfect colors were made by Alexia designs. They didn't have any dresses that really thrilled me in the store, but they gave me a website address where I could view all their styles. I went, I looked, and I was unimpressed...until I chanced a click on their separates collection, where I found this:


I really love this dress. The pleating on the top hollas back to my dress while also offering a little tummy camouflage (I figure if my dress lets me stick it out all the way, why not theirs?) I also loved the idea of separates because my maids are all different sizes and I didn't want them to spend an arm, a leg, and a sleepless night over alterations. It seemed perfect!
Until I emailed for a quote and it turns out they don't make tea-length skirts for their separates.
THIS MAKES NO SENSE TO ME WHATSOEVER, especially since most of their bridesmaid dress styles are available in tea-length and it's like the most popular style at the moment.
So I had to look somewhere else, where the colors are not "Grape" and "Sienna." (which, not to have a total bride moment, but other colors of burnt orange and dark purple are not the same. Boo hoo hoo. Poor me.)

I remembered Jessie trying on an Alfred Angelo at the store. I liked their purple color better, but the orange was just a little more orangey than I liked. But I would rather have "slightly orangey" than no orange at all, and I found out he has a separate line WITH TEA-LENGTH SKIRTS. As one OUGHT TO HAVE. Suck it, Alexia.Their separate line has several super cute options that add pleats and visual interest:





The only problem I have with their line is that in the virtual simulator the skirt seems to be a slightly lighter color than the tops. I'm not sure if this actually bothers me or not. Probably not. There's also a dress or two, although I'm not entirely willing to give up on the separates:
So I thought, let's go with Alfred Angelo then. These are pretty cute!


But then I was reminded today by one of my fabulous fellow costumer friends that if I really liked the Alexia ones, the skirts could probably just be chopped off by a skilled seamstress and it wouldn't look to funky. So now I'm totally torn.

Alexia pros: The orange is a prettier, more sophisticated color, and I think Alexia is slightly cheaper than Alfred Angelo. It also has the most structured pleating, and the skirt seems to match colors almost perfectly. And, here's a big one, Alexia is carried by net bride, so girls who couldn't find a salon or wanted a discount could order online through them.

Alfred Angelo pros: We wouldn't have to worry about someone butchering the bottom skirt because it would be the proper length. Alfred Angelo is also a lot easier to find in salon if not on net bride. Also I think the pleats on the first top pictured above look the most like the ones on my dress.

Please give input, ESPECIALLY if you're one of the bridesmaids in question...this has to be decided SOON!

But just so you can see I'm not crazy, check out how pretty the colors will look together:

inspired yet?

Okay, this is NOT an inspiration board...this is just something I made up in about five minutes with sloppy Photoshop (sorry Paul, I know it's embarrassing) just to see if I could live with tan suits in my life...erm, I mean wedding. Because My Wedding Is Not My Life. It is a small, small part of my life. A small part of my life that could actually look SUPER cute.
I think you're all right. Tan suits will fix the "too much brown!" problem. But tan suits really mean my dress has to be super casual. Hm. Need to go dress shopping.
(Brown dress by J.Crew, shrug by Newport News [with an orange photoshop filter], wedding dress by -sigh- Stephanie James, suit by Men's Wearhouse)

ain't no party like a bridal party

Oh! And I DID manage to see the girl from Maine so our bridal party is official now!
The boys (which Greg can go into more detail with and find pictures of) are Roommate Ben as Best Man, Greg Brother Dave, Greg Brother Mike, Greg Brother Joel, and Shannon Brother Justin.

The girls are Roommate Ashley as Maid of Honor (who has tried on more wedding dresses than I have, and is learning to crochet, making her better at wedding than me. We also work at almost all the same jobs so it's kind of Co-worker Roommate Ashley. Which, as you can see in the pic, she is totally fine with )
Shannon Sister Jessie as Matron of Honor (cuz she married, yo! Although Matron does make her sound old...Married Lady of Honor? Big Sis of Honor? Whatevs. She also looks very enthused in this picture)
Shannon High School Friend Katie (the elusive "One from Maine" who I asked at Old Chicago because I'm super duper classy...Ashley did convince me to at least call Katie to our side of the table, as opposed to just shouting "Hey Katie! Wanna be in my wedding?" over the talking of the twenty other people who were there.)
Jacksies College Friend Krystal (Krystal has been in like a thousand weddings. She is doing me a favor and doing the bridesmaid thing AGAIN because she loves us and is awesome. We might really exploit that love and make her sing at the wedding. This picture, btw, is from a series that makes me laugh SO HARD when I see them that I almost pee. Every. Single. Time.)

Greg High School Friend Jessica (a Jessie and a Jessica! This will cause problems! Jessica is one of the hippest chicks I have ever met. She and Greg went on a road trip to Chicago and they brought a George Foreman Grill to make grilled cheese on the road. But she is also a vegetarian, which means bachelorette party bacon theme is out. Shoot. I will also probably exploit her singing and crochet skills)

(and yes, I just went to facebook and found whatever pictures of the girls made me laugh/happy.)

The bride and groom, well, they've been decided for a while now.
The ring bearer will either be Ruffles....or an actual Ring Bear. It depends on the venue, I guess.