A Little More Dress Shopping

Yep, that's right...another dress post. This one will be quick, mostly because there were not to many dresses for me to try on at this bridal outlet. The dresses are either Mori Lee or DaVinci, and they give a 10% discount off the suggested retail price.

Dress #1. This dress was OK, but I realized that I really don't like the lace applique on wedding dresses. I'm sure the real dress wouldn't have some coming off, but I'm just not to crazy about it.

The back was OK, but nothing on the train. I need a little bling back there


Dress #2. This was nice, I like the bling in the middle, but could use a little more on the bottom and the back. It also had pockets!  Notice the sales lady Monica holding me in in the back haha.



Dress #3. This next dress was pretty, but the beading on the top was a little scratchy.



Dress #4. I like the rouching and beading on this dress.  

And there you have it. We also lucked out and found a bunch of the bridesmaids dresses that my girls are considering, but I'll save that for another post.

Did you search around to see if your dress could be ordered for a cheaper price at another bridal store?

The only constant is change

That saying seems even truer in a long engagement, the extra time is giving me more time to see other inspiration and change my mind on projects. Oh how I hope this doesn’t affect me with every project :)

Case in point, save the dates. As you may remember back here, we were going with a basic card made from cardstock, with hotel information and a magnet inside. I’m not changing the inside because I like it just the way it is, but I was thinking that the front could use a little more “travel” inspiration to tie in with the theme. I played around with a couple ideas and ended up with a cute alternative to the simple square front.

Using MS word I took the “Save The Date” and our date and placed it into a luggage tag shape. I then made a faint grey text box for the words “Miss E and Mr. E are getting married!” and added blue and green suitcases (from clip art) to the bottom corner. Since I have already cut out green cardstock as matting for the front, I made sure the two pieces could be cut from that.

I glued the pieces together using my adhesive runner and here is the final product.




What do you think? Did you make a lot of changes during your engagement?

MOH!!

YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Kristen & I before PBL inductions

I can't tell you how excited I am!!! I'm going to be a Maid of Honor!!

In Vegas Spring Break senior year of college

My best friend, and maid of honor Kristen just got engaged yesterday! She called me right after it happened (just like I did when I got engaged) and asked me to be her maid of honor. I am so excited to help her plan and to share the joy of wedding planning with her!

On graduation day from Texas A&M

Since it just happened I don't know yet which one of us will actually be a Matron of Honor, but either way I am crazy excited for both weddings!!

Us at the rehearsal dinner for another friend's wedding.

Beer Pong Champs

Now just one bridesmaid left - hint hint Dave, put a ring on Corinne's finger ;)

Were any of your bridesmaids planning a wedding the same time as you were?

Check: DJ & Lighting

Another check off the wedding list, and this one includes one of my splurges!

After some extensive research, and debating on the added cost of pin spotting and uplighting we have booked a company to do our DJ & Lighting! Our planner Kathie gets the bonus points for this booking. We were ready to book with another DJ that would have had to outsource the lighting, and Kathie suggested one other company that could do both. Mom and I met with Blair of Party All The Time Productions and learned that since we're booking so early we could get a package for $850 less than what we were going to pay for the other vendor. That's $850 that I know we can use somewhere else in the budget!

I'm so excited to have another check off the wedding planning list and can not wait to enjoy a beautiful, romantic room with uplighting and pin spotting!!

Personal photo taken at a bridal event.

Were you able to fit any splurges into your budget?

Another Reason

Another good reason to hire a wedding planner?

Source

This past week we were notified that the event coordinator at our venue has resigned. I have heard of other instances when event coordinators have left a venue after a bride has booked her wedding, but I didn't think that it was going to happen to us. I'm sure that whoever replaces Erin will be great, but I will admit that I'm super happy that we have Kathie on our side. I know that she will have our vision nailed down, and will be able to instruct the newcomer to make sure that our wedding will be exactly what we're working so hard for.



Did your venue get a new coordinator between the time that you booked and your wedding? If so, how did things turn out?

A Bride For All Seasons

Mom and I recently attended a very nice bridal event in Dallas hosted by the Wedding Party Studio. The theme was "A Bride for All Seasons" and took place at the Magnolia hotel. For the first hour we sampled appetizers while meeting with various vendors such as a DJ, Photography & dessert makers.

Mom with a glass of wine reading through the BBJ Linens book

Shrimp Shooters

After we made our rounds we headed over to the Pegasus ballroom where there was a live band, more food (not so great for the diet), more drinks and a photobooth.

Mom really wants to add these as a signature cocktail for our reception

Our planner Kathie is a vendor with them and actually did the designs for all of the tablescapes (with the help of other vendors such as BBJ Linens and a couple of florists). Each table captured a different season.

Mom by the Summer table

The Spring table

Me by the Winter table with my Lemon Drop Martini

The Winter table again, how great is that pinspotting??

The Fall table, with the flash to see the table

The Fall table without the flash to showcase the pinspotting.

Kathie did an amazing job with these tablescapes, I can't wait to see what she puts together for our wedding!

Did you attend any bridal events to gain more inspiration for your wedding?

Travel themed programs

I’ve been a little all over the board when it came to programs. At first I wanted something simple and easy, probably similar to our save the dates in a square fashion with cardstock and paper.

Square program from the Knot

After immersing myself in the world of DIY I thought it would be great to add a little personal effort and make programs that could double as fans for the Texas heat (although I’m hoping for not that much heat in April).

Fan Program via Mrs. Mouse on Weddingbee

I was pretty set on the fan programs after finding an easy to follow template online so I pushed that thought aside and worked on other DIY mock ups. One weekend while reading Wedding bee archives I came across Mrs. Sushi’s Passport Save the Dates for her destination wedding and changed my mind once again on our programs.

Mrs. Sushi's Awesome Save the Dates

I was in LOVE with the passport idea and knew that it would be perfect for our travel themed reception.

I got the ball rolling by putting out an Alchemy request on Etsy for another custom stamp (my 3rd custom stamp for wedding related purposes). This stamp would be used on the cover of the passport since 1- I couldn’t justify purchasing a Gocco machine like Mrs. Sushi used, and 2- the cardstock that I am using for our other paper products and my printer do NOT get along.

While waiting for the stamp to come in I played around with the number of pages and layout of information for the content. I used a free template found online here for the sideways page, but all of the rest are my own layout.

Including the pages that are actually connected to the passport cover, we’ll have 10 pages of information. Don’t worry; there are no novels in there, so it’ll be a quick read for guests while they wait for the ceremony to start. When creating your own remember that certain pages need to be on the back of other pages. Here’s how my pages lined up:

- Page 1 & Page 10 (this page is stuck to the cardstock)

- Page 2 & Page 9 which is printed on the back of Page 3 & Page 8

- Page 4 & Page 7 is printed on the back of Page 5 & Page 6

Once the stamp arrived I followed these simple steps to complete my mock up.

1. Print out information on home printer

2. Use personal cutter to cut pages - I put a faint gray box around the pages so it was easier to know where to cut.

3. Trace & Cut out cover from cardstock. I could get 2 covers from each page of 12x12 paper

4. Attach the first/last page to the inside of your cover. I used my Xryon runner to glue the page.

5. Attach other pages by using a stapler. One single staple in the middle should do it for you.

6. Round the edges of the paper. I justified the purchase of a corner rounder since we’ll be using it on the table names as well as the escort cards.

7. Stamp the cover with embossing ink and cover with embossing powder. Use heat gun (or any other heat source you want) to heat the embossing powder. (more in-depth embossing instructions can be found here)

8. Let dry and there you go. Passport Programs! We'll be doing half in blue & silver and half in green & gold

Will your programs tie in with a theme? How many do you plan to make with your given guest list?

Travel themed programs, Part 1

I’ve been a little all over the board when it came to programs. At first I wanted something simple and easy, probably similar to our save the dates in a square fashion with cardstock and paper.

Square program from the Knot

After immersing myself in the world of DIY I thought it would be great to add a little personal effort and make programs that could double as fans for the Texas heat (although I’m hoping for not that much heat in April).

Fan Program via Mrs. Mouse on Weddingbee

I was pretty set on the fan programs after finding an easy to follow template online so I pushed that thought aside and worked on other DIY mock ups. One weekend while reading Wedding bee archives I came across Mrs. Sushi’s Passport Save the Dates for her destination wedding and changed my mind once again on our programs.

Mrs. Sushi's Awesome Save the Dates

I was in LOVE with the passport idea and knew that it would be perfect for our travel themed reception.


Here's a sneak peak of the mock up.

Stay tuned for the steps in the next post!

Did you change your mind several times before finally settling on one thing?