Our Rehearsal and Rehearsal Dinner

It was on this day last year that Zac and I headed out to Wolf Lakes Park with our families and bridal party for our wedding rehearsal. We were both very excited that the time had finally come to get this show on the road.

The rehearsal went very smoothly and ended pretty quickly. After the it was over, Zac and I had invited our clan back to our home for a backyard fiesta themed rehearsal dinner.

Zac had worked hard to get the back dock completed over the last few months. The cement had been poured, the pond was finished, and the seating had been built. On their last visit, Zac's parents had brought up this amazing sign as a gift for the area. The "Zac & Cristina's Cantina" sign went perfectly in the space!

We had set up a few tables and chairs in the backyard with bright yellow linen, sombrero centerpieces, and bright multi-colored floral arrangements.

All of the decorations, including the multi-colored lanterns that were hung from the awning, doubled as decor for the post wedding day brunch on Saturday. As Saturday was Cinco de Mayo we thought that it would only be fitting to have a fiesta theme for the event. Making the rehearsal dinner the same theme we were able to get all of the decor and set up complete the day before the wedding and it was all still in place and looking great for the brunch two days later. We knew that we might be a little tired after the wedding so keeping set up minimal for the brunch was fantastic!

At the dinner we all had time to relax a little and enjoy some food and margaritas. Zac and I also gave out some gifts to our bridal party, officiant, and parents.It meant so much to have all of these people participate in our day. All but two people from our bridal party live out of town so we felt pretty lucky that they could all make it to the rehearsal.

For my girls, I had large men's button down white shirts embroidered on the pocket with their initials. They wore these shirts while getting ready the next day along with a pair of boxer shorts that I included in their gift bags.

They also received personalized wooden hangers that I made for their dresses. The hangers went pretty well with the "Mrs. Chapman" hanger I had ordered from Etsy for my own dress.

The parents received frames. Zac is the last one in his family to get married. We thought that his parents would love a frame filled with photos from all of the weddings in their family. The first photo was from their wedding, followed by a photo of his sister Sarah's wedding, a photo from his brother Eric's wedding, and a blank spot ready for a photo from our wedding. From their faces when the gift was opened, we think they liked it.

I am the first one in my family to get married and my parents don't have any photos from their wedding so our gift to them was a little different. My mom is quite the picture lady and we knew that she would want to display a bunch of pictures from our wedding as soon as possible. We left 3 of the 4 spots open for her to fill as she desired. In the first spot we placed a printed saying: "Today a bride, tomorrow a wife, always your little girl."

The rehearsal evening was a fun night and made Zac and I both pretty excited for the next day. We're so glad that everyone from our bridal party and both of our families were able to make it out that evening to share in the rehearsal and enjoy some yummy fiesta food. We were also super grateful that our videographers from Ahwahnee Films, were able to capture the whole night.

Once the sun set and the night came to an end I said goodbye to Zac as he headed to the hotel with his groomsmen since the girls and I had a bridesmaid slumber party planned at the house. I had a difficult time sleeping that evening. I was far too excited for the next day.

Bridesmaid Dresses: Amanda's Dress

Back in October, the girls and I set about changing their bridesmaid dresses from David's Bridal selections to different, less predictable options. After a lot of searching we came up with our final selections. (Click here to check it out.) Later that month we found out that Amy and her husband, Scott, were expecting their first child. Though little Tyler should be arriving before the wedding, we decided to get Amy a different dress; one that would be more comfortable for her post baby body. She ordered a dress from a maternity store online, and once the dress came in we realized that it was more pink than grey. Thankfully, we had a few other options available, and we were able to quickly change her dress with no problem.

Meanwhile, Sarah, Kim, and Amanda ordered their dresses and we thought that all was ready to go. Sarah and Kim received their dresses with no problems and with only a few alterations needed. (Kim's dress was a little big on her and needed to be taken in, and Sarah's was a little long.) A few months had gone by and Amanda still hadn't received her dress.

Amanda had chosen this beautiful dress from a store online:

When a few months had gone by and she still hadn't received the dress, Amanda began sending email after email to the company. Unfortunately, she did not get a response back. Eventually, she disputed the charge through PayPal, got her money back, and we were on the hunt again for another beautiful dress for Miss Amanda.

The search didn't last very long. Amanda was on her game and quickly found a few options that she loved. This dress was the one that we both loved the most:

Isn't it sassy and sexy?! I think that it will look great on her. Amanda plans to order it in the next day or so and it should be arriving in about 3 weeks. Cross your fingers, knock on wood, say a prayer, etc. that this dress works out for us!

So our dress selections have gone from this...

..... to this, and I couldn't be happier. I think the dresses are all going to look fantastic together. They all have their own personality but they mesh together pretty well. I love the different shades of grey. I can't wait to see how the pictures look with all of the girls and I together. Just a few more months until the big day!

Why Didn't I Think Of This?!

I always love hearing/reading stories about how brides ask their best girls to be bridesmaids. It's such a special moment and some of the stories I have come across have been amazingly sweet. The stories are made even better when the ideas used to ask friends to be bridesmaids are super clever.

Recently I came across a SUPER clever idea by bride to be Bethany over at Rinse.Repeat. and I knew I had to share it.

Similar to my own situation, the majority of Bethany's soon to be bridesmaids lived out of town. Rather than call her girls or send them letters, Bethany created these amazing little bridesmaid boxes.

Aren't they beautiful?

She found the boxes at Joann's Fabrics, and painted them to match the color scheme of her upcoming wedding. The white bracket that made space for her message underneath the lid was done freehand by the bride to be. The message "be my maid?" was affixed to the box lid with stickers.

The inside of each box was filled with some incredible little goodies.

Bethany filled her girls in on all of the wedding happenings with adorable typed notes. These notes told the girls all about the wedding day plans, who the other bridesmaids were, what their roles in the wedding would be, and the dresses that they would be wearing on the big day.

In addition to the notes, Bethany included inspiration board style photos, paint chips, and fabric swatches to give her future bridesmaids an idea of the wedding vision she had created.

Such a smart idea! Not only are these bridesmaid boxes clever but they're also very informative to the future bridesmaids. What a neat way to ask the question "will you be my bridesmaid?" Kuddos to Bethany! If this is how she asked her girls to be bridesmaids, I can't imagine how amazing her wedding will be. I totally wish I would have thought of this!

Don't get me wrong. I love the way that I asked my girls to be bridesmaids. I had a great time making these wine bottles for Sarah, Amy, and Amanda (read all about the process here)....

...and this candygram package for Kim. (Click here to read details.)

More important than the fun I had creating these gifts, my girls really seemed to love them. Even if I could, I wouldn't go back and change the way I asked my girls to be bridesmaids.

I really think that Bethany's idea was pretty amazing (don't you?!) and I might have to figure out a way to modify it and create something just as nifty for my girls.

How did you ladies ask your girls to be bridesmaids? Did you write a note?...Create a gift basket?....Take them out to lunch?....Feel free to share your stories.

Bridesmaid Dresses: Mission Complete

A few weeks back, I decided to change up the bridemaid dresses and find an alternative to David's Bridal. (Read all about that here.)

I loved this picture I found at explore.dream.discover. (formally From Portland to Peonies).

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The dresses all went together without being too matchy-matchy. It didn't look cookie cutter bridesmaid and I really loved that. My girls are all different and I didn't want to mold them all into one bridesmaid look.

This picture found at Love and Lavender was really inspiring!

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Seriously, how beautiful are these dresses all together?! I found the dress on the far left (in the picture above...it's the middle dress in the picture below) at Charlotterusse.com for only $36.99 . This gave me hope that I could find cute dresses for my girls that wouldn't break the bank.

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I love the combination of fabrics and the addition of lace into the mix. Jacin over at Lovely Little Details (if you don't already follow LLD you really should!) came across these lovely vintage looking dresses at Forever 21 for under $30 each. The dresses are all very different but they really go well together.

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I found that I could easily find inexpensive vintage looking dresses in a blush or nude color palette. Finding dresses in shades of grey was a more difficult task and I was afraid that I wouldn't find what I was looking for. This picture I found at Ellie Loves caught my eye.

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After a little searching I found the dresses at J. Crew. Unfortunately the dresses were each around $230 and that really wasn't the price point I was looking for. I kept searching and finally came up with this little combination:

I was super happy with all of the dresses and loved the way that they looked together. It had a little bit of everything; a little lace, some chiffon, and a variety of grey hues. The best part about the dress selections was that each dress was less than $50. (In fact, the lace dress on the far left (found at Dorothy Perkins) was only $18.00!)

It was so exciting to finally have the dress situation taken care of. After deciding not to go with the dresses from David's Bridal, it had been three long weeks of dress searching, and now it was finally finished. Just as I was about to send the links to the girls for each of them to find their dresses however, both the lace dress and the one strap ruffle dress were out of stock!  Only moments earlier the dresses were available and their links had no notice that the dresses were low in stock. I couldn't help but laugh, but the frustration of the almost finished dress search led me to call it a night, turn off the computer, and do something else.

The next morning, with a day off from work, I sat back down at the computer, fully intending to start looking for more grey lace dresses for Sarah, and another inexpensive one shoulder grey dress for Amanda, when instead, I decided to do something that I should have done from the very start: I put the picture of the girls' dresses next to a picture of my dress. While looking for the bridesmaid dresses, I was so focused on making sure that they looked good next to each other that I neglected to check that my dress went into the mix as well.

As much as I loved the flowy chiffon, and vintage lace look, it didn't look so fabulous next to my dress. I'm keeping my dress a surprise until the big day, so I can't post a picture of what it all looked like together, but I will say that my dress is satin. If my dress were more flowy, chiffon, or lace, it would have gone together pretty nicely. Instead it looked like two different looks trying to fit together.

Though I was disappointed that the vintage look wasn't working out, I was so grateful that I now had a direction to go in that I knew would look fantastic. Finding satin dresses for the girls would be a much easier mission than my previous search. Before the morning was up I had dresses chosen for all the girls, googled coupon codes (I found codes for Sarah's and Kim's dresses), put together a little image so that the girls could see what they looked like next to each other, and emailed my ladies with all the info.

So here it is! The final product! Here are the dresses that the girls will be wearing on the wedding day.

I'm really pleased with the end result. I love the different shades of grey and the fact that each girl has their own look while still coordinating. I also like the look of the satin dresses next to my dress a lot better than the lighter, flowy dresses. It took a little while to get here but in the end I think it worked out perfectly.

Did anyone else have second thoughts about bridemaid dresses? Love the look of different dresses in a similar color palette? Find dresses for super cheap? I'd love to hear your experiences.

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In other bridesmaid news, I have been working on their gifts that I plan to give them at the rehearsal dinner. As my girls are known to check out this blog from time to time I can't reveal the details of the gifts but I guarantee that you'll see pictures of them after the wedding. I'm very excited about them and I hope the girls love them!

Candy Gram!

Reading the wedding forums on sites like weddingbee.com and theknot.com, I've noticed that there have been a lot of brides who regret their bridesmaid choices. I cringed reading stories of uninvolved bridesmaids, fights about clothing, and friendships ending.

I'm so thankful to have such amazing girls in my life! I knew that I wouldn't be one of those brides who would look back at photos from the wedding in 20 years and have regret or feel sad that the girls who stood by my side were no longer around. (Whether they like it or not my girls are stuck with me for life!)

I didn't realize however, that I would regret NOT having someone there.

I've been having some regret about not asking my girl Kim to be a part of the bridal party. I absolutely love Kim. We always have a fantastic time together and I know that I can count on her when I need an ear, a shoulder...or a glass of champagne. Talking the situation over with Samantha, and after running into Kim at Deja Blues, I knew that if I didn't ask Kim to join the bridal party that I would really regret it.

*Like I said....This is how I always great Miss Kimmie!*

Instead of just calling or sending her a text, I wanted to find a fun way to ask Kim to be a bridesmaid. It means a lot to me to have her by my side and a question like this was in the need for something special. (When I asked the other girls to be in the wedding I gave them all wine bottles.)

Kim moved for work and her job keeps her on the move so I wasn't sure when I was going to see her next. Since I was planning on mailing her a little gift,I decided that I would need a cute way of asking her that perhaps included a little poem or note. I revisited the ideas I had back in January and decided that the candy gram idea was the cutest way to ask Kim to be a bridesmaid.

I thought the candy gram idea was super clever. It involved incorporating candy names into a little note about bridesmaids. So I gathered together all the candy needed and began putting together Kim's package.

The candy used included: Dots, Mounds, Snickers, Smarties, Dove Promises Chocolates, LifeSavers, and Now and Laters. I also added some Good and Plenty.

After arranging the candy to fit into the box I printed out the note to include with the package. After all, Kim needed to know why I was sending her a box of candy. I printed out the note on cardstock and attached it to some pretty scrapbook paper.

The note reads as follows :

Bridesmaids are more than Dots in your life. They are Mounds of fun and make you Snicker. They are Smarties that share advice and keep their Promises. Above all, they are your Life Savers and will stand by you Now and Later.

 Would you be my bridesmaid?!

 I guarantee the fun times will be Good and Plenty!

I love you Miss Kimmie! I really should have asked you at the beginning and I have been kicking myself for not asking you sooner! I love you so much and I would be honored if you would stand by me on the big day!

Love you girl!

-Teeny

**I hope this candy sweetens the deal!**

I found a cute little round box at Michael's Craft Store that I used to hold the candy, and tied it up with some white ribbon. The package went out through overnight shipping. I went to sleep with a little excitement knowing that Kim would be getting the package the next afternoon.

I decided to text Kim the next afternoon to make sure that she was going to be home. Kim teaches a mobile classroom and she travels from city to city to teach. Thankfully she was going to be home that day to pack up a few things before heading to the coast. Had I waited a few more days Kim's package might have melted on her porch.

A few hours later I got a phone call from a very excited Kim! She said that she would love to be a bridesmaid and I am so happy that she'll join the other ladies by my side on the big day!

All of my ladies:

I love you girls!

A Change In The Line-up

In yesterday's post I shared with you our shoe selections for the bridesmaids. In case you don't want to refer back to the post to see the beautiful shoes, here is a picture:

I'm very happy with the shoes we found, but right after we made our selections I had an uneasy feeling. Something just didn't seem right to me. At first I thought that it was the shoes, but I soon realized that it was dresses that I was unsure about.

We picked out the bridesmaid dresses back in May when all the girls were here for wedding dress shopping. The original idea was to have all of the girls in different dresses in shades of grey. David's Bridal only offers one shade of grey (pewter) so we realized that the girls would all have to be in the same shade but at least we could still have them all in different dresses. While selecting dresses we found out that Sarah's dress was not available in pewter so to keep her in color with the wedding, her dress was going to be in yellow (canary). It seemed fitting that she would be in a different color since it would make her stand out a little bit as maid of honor.

Over the last few months I've had second....third, and fourth thoughts about putting Sarah in a yellow dress. All my girls are blondies which is why I wanted to have them all in grey to begin with. I also wanted the girls to be in different shades of grey that all coordinated. David's Bridal's limited selection of colors caused that to change to the girls only being in one shade of grey. Looking at a color swatch of the pewter fabric and referring back to the pictures of the shoes we picked out for the girls I had reservations about how everything would look when we put it all together.

With my doubts about putting Sarah in a yellow dress and my unsure feelings about the shoes and dresses combined, I decided to put together the images of the girls dresses and shoes to see what they would look like next to one another....

....what a hot mess! No wonder I couldn't sleep. The shoes are all lighter than the dresses, the fabric on the dresses are just a little too shiny, and the combination of it all just does NOT go well together! It wasn't what I had in mind when I first thought of having the girls wear different dresses in different shades of grey. I wasn't about to have my girls spend a bunch of money on dresses that didn't look right, so I decided to change the dresses!

It's been four months since we picked out the bridesmaid dresses so in the wee morning hours when I made the decision to find new options for the girls, I was nervous that they had already ordered their dresses. Thankfully, after I got in contact with them, I was relieved to hear that the orders hadn't yet been placed! With that news, I went full force into looking for new dresses in various shades of grey.

I looked at over 500 pages of grey dresses on shopstyle.com (yes, 500...it's a sickness) and found many grey dresses that would look great on the girls. Here are just 20 of the dresses that I saved.

There were a few things that I needed to keep in mind while looking through images of grey dresses:

- While the dresses could be in different shades of grey, they all had to coordinate together and go with the shoes that we had already selected.

- I wanted the shades of grey to be closer to a slate color rather than having hints of purple or blue.

- Though the fabrics didn't need to be the same, they couldn't be drastically different (ex. cotton and silk etc.).

- Since the dresses at David's were $130 - $140 I wanted to save the girls some money on the new dresses and keep the price under $100.

After a long afternoon of searching for dresses, I came up with a combination that I absolutely loved! All the dresses are similar in length, have color tones that coordinate, and were well under the $100 mark. (The average dress/shoe combination would be $89.00.) Best of all they look really good together.

#1. Amy

Lily Boutique - Greek Goddess Grey Chiffon Drape Dress 

#2. Amanda

Lily Boutique - Falling in Love Strapless Chiffon Bow Dress

#3. Sarah

Dorothy Perkins - Grey Ruched Flower Dress

I was excited that in an afternoon, I had found new dresses for the girls that looked great together, coordinated with the shoes, and cut the girls' costs. It was a HUGE weight off of my shoulders and I felt so much better about the dress situation.

After putting together the images to make sure that everything went together nicely, I decided to send the girls links for their new dresses so that they could check out the styles and let me know if they liked what I had found. When sending Amanda the link for her dress, I was SO disappointed to see that her dress was no longer in stock. I had somehow missed that when I first found the dress. Just when I thought the dress search was over, it started up again.

This is the first taste of stress that I've had since we've started planning the wedding and I'll just say that I my tastebuds aren't having it! Thankfully the other two dresses are in stock and Amy and Sarah seem to like them but I'll have to continue to search for a dress for Amanda. I hope we find something soon.

Having dresses that aren't through a bridal website or a place that sells bridesmaid dresses, we'll have a more difficult time making sure that the dresses coordinate and don't clash. The girls will also have to order their dresses sooner than later for two reasons:

1) we don't want our current situation to happen again and find out that a dress is out of stock

2) if for some reason something is wrong with the dress (it isn't what we thought it was going to be, the girls don't like the way they fit, etc.) we will have time to send back the dresses and search for replacements.

Wish us luck on our search,!  If you have any suggestions for a grey chiffon dress that will go with the other two we've already selected feel free to comment a link on this page.