The DRESS

Okay so as the title states this is about the dress. But, what does “the” dress mean?

The dress is the first thing a girl sees when imagining her wedding. The dress is something that conveys the style and personality of the bride. The dress is one of the most important material things to do with a wedding…..

So how does a girl choose– (nay!) discover this dream dress?

Research! Tons and tons of time consuming, weeks on the computer scouring bridal sites, hours of trying on dresses in pastel colored bridal dressing rooms with strange sales ladies asking if they can come in to help them lace it up and see them half dressed… research.

Some girls search for days.               Some search for weeks,      months even!                        Some girls search for… five minutes??? Yep, I’m the last one. 🙂 (Sorry, I know that was kinda anticlimactic.)

Okay, so maybe I cheated… I used to be a bridal consultant. I worked with brides for a couple of years, and had an awesome boss. Mii, pronounced “my”, has been in the bridal business for many many years and really knows what she was doing. She has an amazing eye for fabric, color, style… and even has her own custom designs. What does this have to do with me, and why does this make me a cheater? Well, having a connection in the industry really helped out. I walked into the store. I told Mii that I was engaged. Mii told me she had my dress, and I started to look around until I realized what she said… wait, WHAT? No no no… I need to search for this; try on tons of dresses… stress out… this is supposed to take TIME! *cue in dramatic music*

*WARNING* If your name starts with Russell and ends with Miller, AVERT YOUR EYES!

In walks this… What’s this? Who is this sugary, ivory silk taffeta confection of simple, flowy, delicately placed lace, goodness? My dress, that’s who! Mii brought her out and it was love at first sight. The dress is so beautiful, timeless, perfect. I don’t need a lot of beads, embroidery, crystals and all of that. I love this dress. I feel beautiful in this dress. It is perfect. 🙂 I couldn’t imagine myself wearing anything else when I kiss my amazing husband for the first time, but this.

So maybe I’m a dress cheater? Nah, I’d like to think of it as beating the system. In that case, I don’t mind. It was absolutely worth it. 🙂 I didn’t think I would find anything the first time I looked, so I actually went alone. Convinced that it was too easy, I went with one of my bridesmaids to another dress store to check out that dress’ competition. While pretty…

Some just couldn’t measure up.

What to do?? Gather accomplices, that’s what!

ArtsyMom

ArtsyGrams & ArtsySis (Photo from previous shenanigans.)

… and POOF!!

The dress was ordered in all of this beatifully draped even on a plus sized girl glory!

Now the dress is in and I was lucky enough to have my first fitting with 2 bridesmaids and both of my moms! (Mine and FMIL)

I was feeling the love!

My $10 shoes matched perfectly! Don’t you just love how stuff like that works out?

And with my veil!! Now I just have to find a fascinator!!

How did you find your dream dress? Was it an easy experience, or was it more like a quest for a lost treasure?

The ACCESSORIES: Bridesmaid Edition

Hey everybody! I hope all of you are having a good week so far and if you’re planning a wedding I hope that is going smoothly for you!

As the title states, today’s blog is about bridesmaid accessories! You may or may not remember this image from my inspiration posts, but I absolutely love this look!

I’ll start with the shoes. If you remember my shoe post you will know that I have strict guidelines for shoes. They have to be super cute, but still affordable. When faced with the task of finding shoes for four girls the stakes were risen for one already picky bride!

The Criteria

The girls will all be wearing knee length black dresses, so I wanted the accessories to offer a pop of teal, my other color to break it up and add a little something extra.

So my first task was to find some teal shoes for my girls. I found out that Payless offers some dyable shoes now, but they cost more than I wanted my girls to spend, and I thought the dye jobs they did on them looked AWFUL so that was out. While at Payless to check out those dyable shoes, I found these pretties.

They are really cute peep toe mary jane wedges in the perfect teal/peacock blue color. I was a little hesitant because they were patent and I wasn’t sure if my bridesmaids would like it. I kept looking but my mind kept drifting back to those peep toed beauties back at Payless. They were a gorgeous color and at $24.99 they were the perfect price, so I picked up a pair for Muriel to try on and see if she liked them. I got a call that night and she loved them, so I knew at least one bridesmaid had shoes but I still wasn’t sure if everyone would like them. Welllll three more bridesmaids later, they ALL liked them! It just goes to show I shouldn’t discount something before asking my lovely bridesladies!

Nextly, while searching for a feather fascinator to go with my veil I found some beautiful fascinators that were very bridesmaid friendly, so I knew I had to get these for the ladies… but not after I originally thought they wouldn’t wear them and then got proven wrong when I showed them pics and they all loved the idea. 🙂 The one I found that I liked for them was $90, so that was out of the question, my next thought was to DIY it. I bought the feathers I could find but had trouble finding all the feathers I needed and in the process I stumbled upon these beauties at this lovely new boutique that I frequent; Targét.

I got 3 for the bridesmaids and found a slightly fancier one for the Maid of Honor at a convention of all places. I might add something to the 3 bridesmaid ones, I’m not sure yet, but I love both of the fascinators regardless!

Now I just have to find my fascinator! I would also like do do a cute necklace/bracelet or cocktail ring for the ladies too.

Next Up: The TUXES!

The SHOES

So, when it comes to shoes, I think I am quite possibly the weirdest, most picky girl around. I have a hard time spending over $30 for dress shoes and over $60 for tennis/running shoes. In a world where girls are dropping $1000 on a pair of shoes saying that they will last a long time or something to justify it is  beyond me. Even if a pair of $50 pumps only lasts a year, it will take TWELVE years to meet that $600 you just dropped on a pair of Christian Louboutins. Are you really going to wear the same pair of shoes for 12 years? No! So in the “in the long run” argument just isn’t going to fly with me. If you want to do that, then the more power to you, it’s just wayyy not me!

Comparison…

One of these is a $600 pair of designer shoes and the other is a $30 pair from Target. Is anyone REALLY going to notice the difference when they look at your outfit? Are the target ones any less sexy?

*Steps down from soapbox.*

So my point is, I have issues with the fashion industry. lol When I set out to find my shoes for the big day, my thoughts were no different. I looked at Target, Wal-mart, Dillard’s, Macy’s JC Penney, Ross, etc. and there was no shortage of gorgeous shoes… just none to my specifications. They had to be under $100, yes I upped my amount for bridal shoes. They had to be 2.5″ tall or less, but not flat, and the heel couldn’t be squatty. They had to be comfortable enough for me to wear all day. They had to be open toed because in that huge dress the feet would be hot and I wasn’t gonna go there.

Nearing the point of defeat and about to order some that “would work” from a dyable shoe company, I got a $10 off coupon in the mail for DSW. DSW?!?! I forgot all about them! I went in and they were having a sale in which you got an additional percentage off of Sale items. This was music to my cheap, cheap ears. lol

I pranced on back to the sale racks, because of course I almost only see the full priced items to and from them on my trips to shoe stores lol. Right before I went into the sale area this little sparkley number caught my eye:

Originally about $60, at 35% off made them $37.20. Then they had an additional 50% off for the sale which made them $18.60, and then I had a coupon for $10 off as some sort of customer loyalty incentive thing… so with tax, these babies came out to $9.31!!

I feel like that Kohl’s commercial where the girls are in the hair salon and they’re like, “Did she get this and this and this for under $100?!?!? Great Scott! She shopped… she scored. A legend lives!” hehe

They’re crazy comfortable and match the color of my dress exactly. I couldn’t ask for more.

Did you get any killer deals on one of your bridal accessories?

The INSPIRATION TEASERS- Hair, Accessories & Make-Up

Why hello there! Fancy meeting you here! … or … yeah… nevermind. 🙂 So I put together some inspiration boards… or one big one. 😀 I am breaking it into 3 parts for your blogging pleasure!

Today is my hair, accessories & make-up inspiration. 

I love love love these photos.

For the hair inspiration, I tried to find hair that is the same length as mine. My main inspiration pic is the top left one. She has the same color/length of my hair and she is also wearing the same kind of veil I will be wearing. I found this picture while looking for a veil actually. While this GORGEOUS haute couture veil is way out of my price range, I would love to point you guys towards Castle Bride where I found it. By the way, that veil is also named Laura. Which for those of you who don’t know is my name. Let’s just say it’s fate that I would find that amazing little piece of bridal goodness! I will blog more on the veil soon so that you know what I did to get this veil though!

I love the teal peacock feathers in the middle of the board which are by portobello.   They are insanely out of my price range as well though but again, I will blog on that later! Wow, I didn’t realize how many teasers this would present. The beautiful shoe on there is my bridal shoe, and it has a lovely stunt double for the other foot, of course. The fans are to die for! I love the black dresses for the bridesmaids with the fans and teal shoes. *swoon* I plan on having some gorgeous bridesmaids, by the way! I love the clean, sexy make-up on these ladies… more glowy and less overdone. I like to play up my eyes, and I think there are some really great pics on here that I could go by! 

I found all of these lovely pictures online with the exception of a couple that I took myself, so I want to make it clear that I’m not trying to claim anyone’s photo skills or anything, these are just for idea purposes! 

What fashion inspires you for your wedding day look?

Next up: The FLOWERS

Inspiration Teasers 

Hair, Accessories & Make-Up

Flowers

Details & Decorations