Kim's Dress

Just two days after the final dress selections were made, Kim ordered her dress from the Macy's website. The website said that it was only available in one color ('gunmetal' which was thankfully the color we needed) and in only one size (we were hoping that the dress wouldn't be too big for her).

Kim ordered the dress and apparently the website wasn't joking when it said that there was only one color and one size available. After Kim placed the order the page showed the dress as out of stock. She had ordered the very last one.

A few days later the dress arrived and I recieved a picture message from Miss Kimmie wearing it. Thankfully there was nothing wrong with the dress and it fit perfectly. I was definitely relieved to hear the good news. Kim looks fantastic in the dress. I can't wait to see how the girls look standing next to each other.

Amy's Dress; Grey....Or Pink?

I found out the good news about Scott and Amy's baby during the search for bridesmaid dresses. Though Amy won't be pregnant at the wedding we thought that it would be a good idea to get her a maternity style dress so that she would be comfortable post baby. Since she won't know what size she'll be come wedding time we figured that a looser fitting dress would be a better idea. We settled on this dress found on figure8maternity.com:

Amy's dress arrived pretty quickly and last week when she came over for another movie night, she brought the dress with her. Though the dress was a nice fabric there was a little problem with it....it was pink! The grey color on the website was a little deceiving, because in person the dress was indeed a dusty rose color. Not exactly the shade of grey we were hoping for. Unfortunately, the dress wasn't going to work out, and we were going to have to find another one.

Since I had already exhausted all options during my previous internet search for grey dresses, I went straight to the David's Bridal website and looked around for an inexpensive dress option that came in 'pewter' and would be comfortable for Amy. This short charmeuse dress with ruched waist and pocket seemed to fit the bill. Amy acutally had us wear this dress in her wedding last fall. I love the dress and Sarah, who was four months pregnant at the time, said that it was very comfortable.

I think the dress is much cuter than the original maternity dress I found for Amy so I'm actually happy about the change. I do however feel bad that she has to return the dress and go through the hassle of ordering a different one. At least she'll be happy with this new dress. :)

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).

{image}

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!

{image}

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.

{image}

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.

{image}

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.

{image}

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.

........................................................

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!

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.

Bridesmaid Dresses Part 2

As you might remember from this post, the bridesmaid dress situation was still being considered and I decided that it was best to wait until all of the girls were in the same place to choose the dresses that they would wear. This would give us a chance to see what dresses they liked, what dresses would look good together and next to my dress, and what colors were the best choices. The color decision (which you can read about here) was between a variety of yellows and a dark gray. I had some reservations about asking all of my blonde-y bridesmaids to dress in yellow. I was positive that it was not a color that frequented their wardrobe, but it was still worth trying out.

After looking through color swatches at David's Bridal, I found two shades of yellow (Canary and Sunbeam) and one dark gray color (Pewter):

Canary, Pewter, and Sunbeam

As you can see from the picture above, Canary is a much softer yellow while the Sunbeam color is a more vibrant shade. I decided to check out what the yellow colors looked like on a whole dress rather than just a small 2x3 color swatch.

Sunbeam

Canary

Pewter

The Sunbeam color was just a little bit bright for me. In person it definitely gets your attention, but I'm not sure it does in the best way. I could only imagine the look that Amanda would give me if I told her that I wanted her to wear this bright yellow dress! Although the color might make it's appearance in our decorations, there was no question that Sunbeam was out of the running when it came to the dresses. Instead, we would be looking for dresses in either Canary or Pewter.

So, two weeks ago when the girls and I went shopping for my wedding dress, we also chose their bridesmaid dresses. Since all of my bridesmaids were in the same place (something that might be difficult to accomplish later without some travel planning) it was the perfect time to take care of their dresses, too. While I was in the dressing room working my way into each dresss (the dress with the corset back took a while to tie up) Sarah, Amy, and Amanda walked through the bridesmaid dress section and picked some dresses to try on.

After I chose my dress the girls started trying on some dresses of their own. Before I changed back into my regular clothes, we thought that it would be a good idea to check the possible colors (Canary and Pewter) together to see how it looked. So the girl's all tried on a yellow dress and stood with me for a photo. *There will be no pictures of my dress until the big day so for now I'm a pixelated blob.*

Don't mistake those smiles for happiness....we were laughing at this image. The girls looked like baby chicks next to me. The all yellow dresses had an Easter-y look that just wasn't the look we were going for. It was clear that Pewter  was the way to go. The look of relief on Amanda's face was comical. It made me wish (just a little) that I had strung her along for a little while longer and made her believe that I loved the yellow color. :) Also, seeing all the girls next to each other in the same dress really confirmed for me that I wanted them to each wear a different dress. They each have their own personality and character and seeing them all in the same dress just didn't seem right. So with those two decisions made, the girls continued on with the dress search. In the end, these were the dresses they chose:

Sarah's Dress

Amanda's Dress

Amy's Dress

We were excited to have found the dresses however we had neglected to refer to the David's Bridal color chart during our search. Though David's Bridal offers 42 different shades, not all of their dresses are available in every shade. Some of the dresses are only available in 20 shades. Unfortunately, Sarah's dress was not available in Pewter.

This seemed like a bummer situation. It was such a pretty dress and it looked so great with the other dresses, so it would have been a shame if Sarah couldn't wear it. We looked through the racks of dresses to find another one for her to wear. While we did find some that were nice, they weren't the same fabric as the dresses that Amanda and Amy had chosen and consequently they didn't look as nice together. Double checking the dress color chart, we saw that the original dress that Sarah chose was available in Canary. Sarah said that she had no problem with wearing a yellow dress. Having one yellow dress next to two gray dresses eliminated that Easter-y look that we saw when the girls were all wearing a yellow dress.

So in the end we decided that Sarah would wear a dress in Canary while Amanda and Amy would be dressed in Pewter. Not only would both of the wedding colors be represented now but Sarah would also stand out a little which is fitting as she is Maid of Honor. It was a successful shopping day! I'm so glad that my girls were able to find dresses that they liked and I can't wait to have them by my side on the big day. :)

Blue and Yellow

Our engagement photo session with Van's Photography is only two weeks away. To prepare for the photos I've started hitting the gym hard again, begun tanning at Sunsational Tans, and am whitening my teeth.

I even got a hair cut:

Typing it out, it sounds like this will be a very vain couple of weeks but....well....whatever. (I weigh a little more than I did at this time last year so the work outs are necessary.... )

I was scheduled to work on the patio this afternoon but the overcast weather changed that and the managers called me off work. I took advantage of the day off of work by going to Forever 21 to look for a new outfit to wear in our engagement photos. At first I thought that I would just wear jeans and get a cute top but after talking it over, Zac made me realize that a cute dress was probably the better way to go. He plans to wear a light blue button up shirt and jeans and I think that a cute summer dress would go perfectly.

So today I went to our newly renovated Forever 21. After searching the three stories for over 2 hours and trying on (literally) 32 different dresses, I finally walked out of the store with two options. A yellow dress and a blue dress. I thought for sure that the navy blue dress would go nicely with Zac's light blue shirt. Still, I couldn't put down the yellow dress. I thought that it would be a good contrast against Zac's blue shirt. In addition, since our wedding colors are yellow and gray, I thought that it would be nice to have a little yellow in our engagement photos. We will be able to choose a few of our engagement photos to use as options for our save the dates, so adding in a little yellow might be nice to go along with the color scheme of our save the date stationary. In either case, I loved both of the dresses and whether or not I used the dresses for the photo shoot, I loved them enough to take them home and call them my own.

I tried both dresses on this evening to show Zac (as well as to see what they would look like next to his light blue shirt and dark blue jeans). We stood next to each other as I changed from the navy blue to the yellow and compared notes. In the end I think that we both agreed on which dress would look better in our photo session in two weeks. (I'll post the photos after we choose them.)

What do you think? Here are the two dress options. (Photos taken by my wonderful Zac :D)

Blue Dress

Yellow Dress



(*Don't mind the cocktail shaker and mango juice in the background of the yellow dress photo....it was mango martini time in the Banuelos/Chapman residence :D)

Bridesmaid Dresses

Since dress shopping is coming up pretty soon, I thought that it would be a good time to look through bridesmaid dresses as well. Sarah and Amanda live in Vegas so getting the girls all in the same place at the same time is going to take some planning this year. Everyone is going to be in town the weekend of my graduation (:D) so its the best time to get the girls in some dresses. We'll be making a trip to David's Bridal while all the girls are together, and we'll be able to see what the girls like and what dresses look good together. I would love for the girls to all wear different dresses. The color is still to be decided. I think that yellow dresses would be nice against the guys' suits. I've considered having them all wear different shades of yellow as well. In the end we'll just have to see what they all look like together and how the girls feel about them.

I've browsed through bridesmaid dresses on the David's Bridal website and sent a message to the girls telling them which dresses I like. I also sent them a few additional options. This way if they don't like the top three dresses, or if two of them like the same one, they have other dresses to choose from.

These are the top three dresses on my list:

Satin One Shoulder Dress with Ruched Waist Style 84333 

Short Pleated Satin Strapless Dress Style F14212

Short Satin Dress with Pleated Bust and Ruching Style F13277

Here are the other dresses that I liked, that the girls are welcome to choose from:

Y Neck Slim Satin Dress with Ruched Waistband Style F44319

Short Charmeuse Dress with Ruched Waist and Pocket Style 83707

Sleeveless Cotton Satin V-Neck with Pockets Style 639553

Hopefully the girls will all be able to find something that they like and will feel comfortable in. While all the dresses come in a shade of yellow, they don't all come in a shade of gray, so yellow might be the way to go. Of course the only way to know for sure what dresses we'll choose is to wait and see what they all look like in person. At least we have a selection of dresses narrowed down which is a great start.

"While wonderin' what dress to wear now...."

I couldn't help but indulge in this moment. Who doesn't love a little My Best Friend's Wedding to make their day better?! :P (I'm sure Zac just immediately raised his hand somewhere!) No this post is not going to talk about how much it would be great to have a sudden singing outburst in a restaurant. (After the flash mob post I can only imagine what thoughts might be going through people's mind.) Nope, sorry to disappoint, but I am not crazy...well at least not that crazy.

One thing that has been going through my mind lately is the dress. Senior-itis has officially set in and during moments when I should perhaps be concentrating on class work or school projects I find myself thinking about wedding details. Lately, the dress has been sticking out more than the other details.

I kind of know the look that I would like to have on the big day but I am definitely keeping an open mind. I know that liking a picture of a dress in no way guarantees that I will love the way the dress looks on me. I've also heard that often you go in with a particular look in mind and end up buying a dress with a completely different look and feel.

I plan to go dress shopping with my girls when they are all in town at the end of May. I am so happy that they will all be in town for graduation! The day before I receive my diploma we're all getting together along with my mother and Zac's mom to find me a wedding dress. I am so excited. From now until then I'll be looking at dresses to get an idea of what I would like.

This dress by Alfred Angelo has been my favorite so far. After a little research I've discovered that they have the dress at Luftenburg's downtown. Our dress shopping adventure is scheduled to take place at David's Bridal but I think I might have to take a trip to Luftenburg's to try on this dress.

I love the details on the flared skirt. I wouldn't want anything that is too full too high on the body because I am a short girl. The top of this dress will make my torso look longer and not make me look like a big, old school cake topper.

The Alfred Angelo dress is probably at the very top of my dress budget. As there are a bunch of other things to take care of for the wedding I'm definitely keeping my options open and seeing if I can find other dresss that are equally beautiful but for less money.

Since the girls and I will be heading to David's Bridal to check out dresses, I started looking up dresses on the David's Bridal website.

1. This dress has a very similar bottom detail as the Alfred Angelo dress. I just love the simplicity of the top mixed with the fun detail of the bottom. The only concern that I have with this dress is that the flare out starts up at the waist. The skirt might be too full for my frame.

2. I really like the top of this dress as well as the detail that the belt adds. I'm not a huge fan of the small pick ups on the bottom of the skirt. I think that I would prefer that if the skirt is plain that it be not be too fussy.

3. This one is a little more flowy than the other dresses. I don't know how much I will love the flowy skirt but I think that it would be worth trying on.

4. This dress is very elegant. I would definitely need to make sure that I am in crazy good shape for this dress. It fits so close to the body that there is no way of hiding any areas that I might be concerned with. It is very pretty though.

5. Vera Wang now has a line of dresses available at David's Bridal. This was not really the feel I originally thought that I would like but I love the way it looks. The one shoulder is an unexpected glamorous look. The belt is an extra special little touch.

6. I really like this dress. It's simple and elegant but has a little bit of glam with the beading detail on the top. It's closer to the body which shouldn't make me look too wide the way a big flare would. I'm not a super huge fan of the bow on the side of the dress but I might love it once it's on.

We'll see what happens when the dress shopping day finally rolls around. Maybe I'll try on these dresses and totally hate all of them, maybe I'll love one that I didn't expect to....however it happens I am just so excited to be trying on dresses. I'm sure I'll find the perfect dress to marry Zac in.