Dance Fever!

Although my new hubby is NOT a fan of dancing and 3 dances was all I got out of him, it was more than I’d thought I’d get! Everyone else however, danced like crazy! The kids were hilarious! During every official dance and otherwise, kids were galloping and waltzing all over the dance floor! It was a blast!! I got in as much dancing as I could when I wasn’t otherwise distracted with pictures, talking with guests, trying to take it all in, etc! It was during the dancing that my the hubby disappeared quite a bit to avoid having to get out there!

Apparently there was even a lot of dancing going on before Ray and I even made it to the reception…I LOVE these pictures of my little girlies swirling around! My photographer had a great time with them! (and don’t their dresses look cute! Made by the two little twirlers wonderful mom!)

 

And now the wild boys! (video of the boys is much funnier than these pictures! Ray’s groomsman’s son, my cousin’s and nephews were dancing kings- and they knew it!)

Did you see the beads around the boys necks?? I had tons of stuff laid out on the kid’s tables, spilling out of sand buckets…games, jewelry, toys, lots of stuff to keep them entertained. Most of the beads, ended up on the BOYS – Mardi-gras style! I’m just hoping they didn’t steal them from the girls Mardi-gras style!! Ha!

My bro Craig and my good friend Josh were my DJ’s. Josh has known my family for years, so they did a great job picking out tunes! His wife was also my lovely coordinator! So of course, they picked out a very fitting song.

Their most obvious choice was “Stacey’s Mom.” Oh yes….it was a requirement and yes, my mom does have it goin’ on! The groomsmen dragged her out on the floor and they along with myself and my bridesmaids loudly serenaded her through the whole song! Now, my mom– is NOT a music listener! I don’t know that she’d ever even heard of the song before- except for the time I played it for her on my phone to show her it was her ring tone! They tried to get Ray to help serenade her out on the dance floor, but it didn’t happen!

It seemed like every time I tried to dance with my maids, I got pulled away, but we still had a blast!!

Betcha can’t guess what song we were dancin to here! I thoroughly protested against group dances, but for some reason they’re always requested at weddings! So, I just went with it! As long as the YMCA wasn’t on the playlist!

But….ummm….what exactly is going on here? Can’t say I remember this moment, but it kinda looks like the YMCA?? Or was it “Shout” and everyone is “throwing hands up?” Oh no!

However, I am ok with the dance line! It’s always funny!

My grams requested a special song for us to dance to…although I pretty much hate the song, I’ll do just about anything for her! After all she’s 85 and can still get down, so let her have her fun! She requested “Achy Breaky Heart.” Yes, you read that right. Supposedly in honor of a certain student I used to teach (since Grams is a little too old to actually know any of her songs, but knows her dad’s! Ugh!)

She grabbed me and a couple of my youth girls and created her own “line dance.”

And these pictures pretty much express how crazy things were all night!

 

Did you notice who was missing from all of these pictures?? He didn’t get back in the action until our last dance! Since he’d told me he wasn’t dancing after our first and the one with his mom, I didn’t pick out a last dance song.  No worries, plenty of people to pick that out for me….let’s just say a little Marvin Gaye was going on….and I’m glad that I was married because it would’ve been embarrassing dancing to THAT in front of my guests! Hehe!

Then it was time to take off for our bed and breakfast in our balloon filled car! The guys had to beg my dad for the keys to the rental so that they could do something! I know I’m particular, but I did NOT want to drive off in a car with dirty things written all over it, so that’s why we got a rental! That, and driving away in a Mustang convertible on your wedding night is just pretty darn amazing! Besides, I’ve already ridden with Ray in a car with filthy stuff and condoms hanging everywhere. Last year when my BFF got married they decorated BOTH their cars not knowing which they’d use and we had to drive her husband’s truck!

 

THE END!

(or at least, the end of what you get to know about!!) 

The Dress and the best place to get it!

I imagined for a long time what it would be like to finally pick out that beautiful white dress I’d wear down the aisle to meet my love. I did NOT imagine the way that I would find it turning out like it did!

Several years ago, I’d decided that I wanted my dress to have some blue in it. I found a picture in a magazine of a dress that I loved before I’d even met my hubby (yes, I know I’m one of *those* girls!), and I had even seen it in a store while looking for dresses with my sis-in-law, Lindsey. But that was a few years back, and it was on a discontinued rack, so I figured I’d be starting all over again.

My mom was on the hunt for the perfect dress for me not long after I got engaged and had me draw a sketch to get a better idea of what I wanted. She mentioned that visiting a nearby consignment store in Hermitage might be a good idea- just to look. I kind of brushed off the idea thinking I’d never get my dress there, but thought it couldn’t hurt to send her to look. She went off to that store, and my bridesmaid Kelley and I set off to visit several of the “elite” boutiques around the Nashville area,  where we ended up having  no luck! I was never helped by anyone, never able to try on a dress, and once we were even run out of a store for taking pictures (apparently it was posted that you couldn’t take pictures, we honestly never saw it, even after being told it was there!).

Dissapointed and getting nowhere, we heard from my mom that the consignment store had found my “perfect” dress. Still not believing it, I decided to go anyways, because if someone there had already picked out a dress for me, it had to be better than what I’d already experienced!

So we headed for Hermitage and Memories Consignment store.

The store, owned by Diane   Allmon, has been around for a long time. In fact, I remember visiting it in highschool looking for prom dresses, which was well over 10 years ago now! Some of my friends even sold their old dresses there later on. I never bought anything there, and my own memories of it were that, although there were some nice things, most of it was a bit older and outdated.  Last May, due to arson, the entire shop burnt to the ground leaving only the few dresses that Diane had in her car at the time. The man who set the shop on fire was eventually caught, but nothing survived the fire and Diane had to start it all over again. And she has with great success!!

Former site of Memories. The foundation and sign are still there, although the store itself moved a block or so down the road!

The store is FILLED with wedding dresses, bridesmaid dresses, mother’s dresses, and flower dresses. Even if you don’t BUY your dress here, it’s a great place to make some money SELLING it, and a great way to help a fantastic woman rebuild her store.

During busy times, any store gets a little chaotic, but things were still lookin good the day I returned to take photos, despite what Diane said about it being a mess!!

 

Working hard to provide for her children and grandchildren, Diane has done a great job rebuilding her store and making it a success! From the moment you walk in the door, you feel right at home and welcomed in by her southern charm. And when she says she has just the dress for you- believe it! She really just might! She is an amazing, encouraging, and down to earth woman. The kind of person that you can tell is willing to do whatever she can to help you. She doesn’t advertise, so she relies heavily on word-of-mouth to get her business out there!

As soon as I walked in that first time, I told her who I was, and she immediately went and pulled out the dress she had been holding just for me. I thought it looked nice, but still wasn’t convinced.  So I looked through all the dresses she had, picked out a few more, and headed in the back to try on a few dresses with Kelley’s help. I tried on her suggestion first- and loved it! But still thought I should try on a few more. Who buys the first wedding dress they’ve ever tried on??!

But, the first one, was THE one! I was sooooo thrilled to have something HUGE already taken care of, after only weeks of being engaged! Diane even showed me some veils and tiaras, and even her selection of tuxs that she rents! She just about has it all!

Although Diane offers alterations at a GREAT price- I got mine for free through a family friend (and mom of the cute jr. bm below!) who was also making some dresses and altering my bridesmaid’s dresses. If I didn’t have her, I probably would’ve gone with their alteration service.

Here is my dress….it is a David’s Bridal dress, but I never had to set a foot in David’s to get it (haha!!)

With my lovely Jr. BM, Olivia- modeling our dresses together! (I made it big so you can see details!)

Want to guess how much my dress cost?? Just take a guess!! Unfortunately, the dress was only available for rent, since it’s hard for Diane to keep dresses without trains on hand (I had never wanted a train on my dress), and they are often used for homecoming and occasions other than weddings. But really….will any of my future daughters want to wear my dress?? Probably not!  Plus, I could do literally anything I wanted to it! Shorten, add straps, add embelishments, whatever! Did you take a guess yet?? Was your guess under $100?? ) Who gets a wedding dress for $90?? Me! Who thought I would? Not me!!

I love being frugal and saving money wherever I can, and this was a GREAT place to do it! I got the dress of my dreams, and didn’t have to fork over half my wedding budget to do so! That really helped us have a much more elaborate reception that we originally thought we could have! If I’d kept the dress, it would’ve gone straight to a box  to be preserved after being drycleaned (which probably would’ve cost close to or more than what the dress cost me!), to be taken out someday by my daughter, only to have her say “Ehhh….not really my style…” (I did this with my mom’s!!), and then go back to the box unused and taking up space!

I loved that the dress was strapless, and thought it looked good- when I was standing still! (in the above picture its still too loose so it’s not up where it should be and you can kinda tell it doesn’t fit quite right!!) But I knew that I would be pulling at it all day, and be self consious if I ever bent over!  So I had straps made from material where the hem was taken up, had it taken in several inches (it was a big size-which was good for my chest area!!Hehe!), and had blue tulle added to where it V-ed in the front and already had white tulle.

 
In between alterations…it was done just enough to take it to the beach for “bridal portraits!” It was still a tad too big and the tulle blew away with the wind!

So after I got back from the beach, we took it in more and sewed the tulle down better for perfect results! Here are a few final pics the day of! I surprisingly couldn’t find a photo of just me in the dress, head on! But  I’m not very much a “take a picture of just me”- type person!

 
Love how you can see the blue in this one!

And I was thrilled with the results!! I was adamant about a dress with no train, because I didn’t want to be the bride who you have to back off from to be careful not to step on my dress! I wanted to be able to move around freely, dance freely, hug freely, and not have to worry about carrying it! Adding the straps to it definitely helped too!

I also rented a tiara from Diane, as I couldn’t find any in other stores that I liked for a decent price. They either looked too cheap, too elaborate or too expensive! It cost me around $10 to rent the tiara, which I loved a whole lot more than any other’s I’d seen, even in bridal boutiques!

And to complete the outfit…here are my shoes (and my toes with little flowers!) They are from New York & Company, one of my favorite stores! I also had a bright aqua blue pair I changed into for the reception! My feet didn’t hurt all day long!!

 

I couldn’t have done it without the help of Diane and Memories! If you are on the search for your perfect dress. Definitely check her store out! And if you’ve already found yours, keep it in mind for selling your dress after the big day! If you do go, tell her that Stacey sent you! See if she ever remembered to look for this entry I told her I’d be writing! )

 

Memories Consignment Shop
Diane Allmon
4983 Lebanon Pike
Old Hickory, TN 37138
391-4931

 

(all photos from my personal collection or Bledsoe Photography)

The dress day!

Ohhhhhh, I wish I could share pics of how beeeeaaaauuuuuttttiiiiifuuuuul my dress has turned out! However, there’s always the chance that the fiance with take a peek at it, so no taking chances here! ) He usually doesn’t read my blog, but he has on occasion!

I purchased my dress from a consignment store, which I promise I will share about at a later date! It was super cheap, and a beautiful dress, but to me, it was just a little ho-hum! I’ve ALWAYS wanted a dress with a little color- even before that became popular recently!! Of course, the color of choice has always been blue!

Yesterday, I took the dress out to the Lasaters, and had Chaundra Lasater help me re-do it! She is amazing! If you haven’t heard me rave about her yet- you will now! ) She’s altering 3 BM dresses and making 3 flower girl dresses and 3 junior bridesmaid dresses.

Oh by the way…..here is my beautiful model Olivia again- showing off her now finished junior bridesmaid dress!

and the back…

 

Back to my dress….I can’t even tell you how many times I put it on and took it off yesterday! But it was worth the finished product! She took the hem way up, then used some of that material to make straps for the dress (it looked fine without, but I feel less naked!!) And we added a fun blue element, which I will also keep a surprise!!

It was a lot of fun! Well for me at least! Probably not for Chaundra! In between trying the dress on and checking to make sure I liked all she was doing, I got to help bake a cake for the birthday girl/flower girl Gabby, and got to play and color a lot with all 3 of her girls (2 of my jr. BMs and 1 flower girl!) I also had to pretend that I was Paula Abdul quite a few times, and the girls were my kids or servants (when did Paula have kids! haha!)

Birthday girl….

We also took lots of silly pics and made “gymnastic” videos which were really cute and funny! You can see them on my myspace soon! )

Olivia can do more than model! She’s a pretty good gymnast too! Look closely and you’ll see Gabs in the mirror doing her own headstand! (and my arm!!)

Plus, along with all the fun, practically the whole family joined in on helping with my dress. The girls fetched pins, scissors, etc for their mom, and Aaron even ripped apart the hem of the dress after Chaundra chopped it off, so she could reuse the stuff at the bottom that helps hold the hem down! What a great fam!

Beach cupcakes!

If you’ve been reading my blog for any length of time, you already know how in love I am with these!

If you haven’t seen this before, this is one of the cupcakes from Cakes by Shara, which won a Martha Stewart cupcake contest!!

Anyways, I’ve tasted her cupcakes at a few wedding events and parties (including one DIVINE chocolate cupcake from the SATC party!), but still wanted to set up a tasting to choose the three flavors for my cupcakes at my dinner reception. I already knew for SURE that chocolate would be one guaranteed! )

These are the cuties that she made up for me!

And a close up of the big one so you can see the details of the adorable (and yummy!) shells!

All of the shells and the blue “waves” are made from fondant, and there is icing below the waves too. I’ve never been a huge fan of fondant, but apparently that was because I’d never tasted fondant done right. This…was amazing…and sparkly! Very yummy!!

The big one is chocolate, the white one front/left is strawberry, white one back/left is orange, and the back blue one is vanilla cake with amaretto icing….YUM!!!

I decided on the chocolate, strawberry and amaretto. I was going to do them all medium size and all with the blue, but after seeing how cute the other ones were (and maybe not everyone would like fondant), I decided to do some of the white too!

And we thought since all the little ones at the wedding might be snagging cupcakes left and right, we’d make minis like these she made for the Relish party. They’ll have blue icing with a smaller version of the shell on them.

I’m also getting a cupcake tree similar to this one! But with the center columns in navy!

So we’ll have about 60 mini’s and 60 medium cupcakes!! I can’t wait to see how cute they will look all together!!

If you are at ALL interested in getting cupcakes for your wedding in place of or even along with a cake (I’m having a cake too earlier in the day at a larger cake reception- made by Cake by Dake.)

Here’s some other adorable/beautiful cupcakes that Shara has made- all pics from her blog Cakes by Shara Lunn…

These monkeys are too super cute!!

 

Beautiful flowers and pearls!

Valentine’s Day!

 

 

And my fave, other than the one I’m getting! (hmmm, I wonder why I like it??!) If I’d done pink and aqua….guaranteed I’d want this beauty!!!

And a more close-up pic of the custom cupcake stands she makes!

Visit Cakes by Shara now and check out all her amazing cakes too!!

Junior Bridesmaids!!

Awhile ago, Chaundra, my good friend, seamstress, and mother of my fave kids in the world (other than my nieces/nephews!) helped me pick out material for the junior bridesmaids and flower girls. Two of her girls-Lauren and Olivia, and my niece Brittany are junior bridesmaids, and her youngest Gabriella and my niece Caylie and Ray’s niece Kaylee (yep, same name!) are flower girls. That’s a lot of kids to say in one sentence!! Yes, that means 3 jr. bridesmaids and 3 flower girls. It’s a lot, but there is no way I’d leave a single one of them out!!

On Sunday, two of my bridesmaids and I went over to Chaundra’s to get their dresses altered. Yes, not only is Chaundra making the 6 little girls dresses, she’s also altering 3 of my BM’s dresses and my dress- she is that fabulous!!  Obviously, because that morning she whipped up this dress for Olivia!

Doesn’t Olivia look like a little princess!! It will be a little shorter, so the girls can dance the night away without tripping all over themselves, and it will have a sash around it- a little thinner than this one that Chaundra just threw around Olivia to get the effect!

It will be exact opposite colors of the BM dresses!

The flower girls will have the same dresses in white with navy sashes!

I can’t wait to see all my beautiful ladies all dressed up!! ;o) 

My handsome men!

Last week, my mom and I did lots of searching for suits for the guys in the wedding! We decided to go with buying them, since renting can get close to the cost of buying them! Especially since we are going with navy!

The best deals that my mom found were at J.C. Penney’s. I rarely shop there, but I have heard other people say that they’ve found good deals on suits. She found a manager that is working with us, to get us the best, discounted price! And because we’re buying at least 8, he’s giving us a really good deal!

Here’s some pics of myself and my good looking men! Please excuse the fact that I didn’t fix my hair or put on make-up! I knew I was going to be a bridesmaid “stand-in”, but didn’t think about fixing myself up! ) And Ray was complaining that he didn’t fix his hair either, and you’ll notice his brown flip flops in a few pics- don’t worry, he’s not wearing those!! And the BM’s aren’t going barefoot like I am! ) They will look much prettier!

 Here’s myself with my handsome fiance- who reverted to his old picture taking ways with a goofy face! But hey, remember, these pics are about the clothes!! )

I absolutely love the tie that we picked out for him– from Dillard’s. It cost a bit, but the stripes in it match the dress and the groomsmen ties perfectly (see groomsman tie below on my dad!), and we’re going to keep looking for it to go on sale!

Here’s the Father of the Bride joining us…. He’s wearing one of the ties we got for the groomsmen and possibly for him too, from Ross. It is a light teal blue with some faint paisley outlines.

Tie up close on Father of the Bride…..

We had the guys in black shoes, but tried them out with brown as well…..ummmmm….we’ll go with black!!

And the three of us go for a stroll in the sun………..

We’re pretty set on these suits, just need to gather up the groomsmen and his dad’s sizes then off we’ll go to purchase them all! We might change his dad and my dad’s ties, but the groom is set and so are the groomsmen!  They also go lovely with my flowers as well, which I forgot to bring to the “photo-shoot” but here’s a pic to remind you!

 

I can’t wait to see it all put together in the end!!!

 

Weekend of fun and gettin stuff done!!

I’ll be writing more later this week about the details of my fabulous weekend, but here’s the highlights!

Trying on wedding gear with my handsome men! (of course, I’ll be wearing something a little different on that day!!)

SATC party with Ashley and Kelley! (best party ever!!)

 

Checkin out my beautiful Jr. Bridesmaid, Olivia, in the dress her mom whipped up that morning! (Also gettin my BM’s fitted in their dresses- the one you saw me in above with the guys!)

My first bridal shower- with my lovely ladies in red! The world’s greatest “bosses” and friends!

I also shopped for and ordered more flowers, ordered my wedding band, found someone to do my wedding programs, and not to mention- got to try out some of the new dresses I bought last week! )

I’m off to open up all the boxes my presents came in and set them up in my fiance’s (and our!) new place!

Tonight, I have a cake tasting for these beautiful babies with Cakes by Shara!!! (I’m quickly becoming addicted to her yummy goodies!!) More on all of the above later this week!!

 

 

Shoes, shoes, shoes!!

Myself and my girls have been searching for shoes to go with the bridesmaid dresses for awhile now! And it was my mom who came to the rescue!!

This isn’t the best pic, so get look at the ones below to get a better idea! They just about perfectly match the navy in the sashes the girls are wearing!

She found these shoes at Kohl’s- on sale for $19.99 – 50% off!! Plus for the last few days (and until Tues 5/20) if you use your credit card you get a scratch off card for a chance at another 15%, 20%, or 30% off!  (online they are only in gold and silver. In store, I didn’t even see gold and silver!!)

So during the yard sale, I tried them on, tested them out with the dress, and called/sent texts to all my girls to find out shoe sizes! Then my mom even called a couple different stores to check on who has what sizes!

Then after the yard sale, it was off to buy the shoes! Of course, in my crazy shopping past, I had a Kohl’s credit card! ) So once we got there, I reactivated it and used it to purchase the 3 more pairs we bought (my cuz is buying her own up in OH because her mom has a card!). So I don’t get myself in trouble again, we paid it off immediately with a check from my wedding account and I’ll need to destroy the new card as soon as it comes- for my own future sanity!

They also had these super cute styles, colors….

Love the red/white polka-dot ones!

Flower girl/Jr. Bridesmaid Gift Bags!

Ok, so you know I’m a big fan of anything cheap! I come by it honestly, it’s in my blood- from my Grams, to my mom, to me!

My mom found these adorable purses at The Dollar Tree a couple weeks ago, and I just recently had time to go look for them myself. She’d bought one of the navy ones above and one of these light blue/brown polkadot ones below….

At $1 a piece, I couldn’t make them that cheap!! I found the rest of the navy ones, and found enough for all 6 little girls in my wedding party (yes, SIX!!) and decided to just go with the navy/light blue, since they match better. The jr. bridesmaids are wearing navy dresses with teal sashes (opposite of my bridesmaids), and the flower girls are wearing white dresses with navy sashes. So these will match both sets of girls!

I decided to keep the light blue/brown one for myself because it’s just so cute and I’m always needing bags to throw stuff in to carry around! And again….it’s $1!!

I’m planning to fill them with fun stuff like lip gloss, candy, play jewelry, etc……anyone have any more ideas on how to fill my little girl’s gift bags??

I’m sure I’ll think of lots of things, but if you have any fantastic ideas, please share!!

If only boys/men were as easy as girls/women, I’ve already got nailed down for the most part what my girls are getting!! The males?? Who knows?? Not Mr. Fiance, that’s for sure!

More Signature Drinks!

(from patriciapiccinini.net)

I was reading through one of Gram’s Quick and Simple magazines she’d given me awhile back but had misplaced and never read- when I noticed a great article on “Bubblies, punches, mocktails and more….” Technically, they’re New Year’s drinks since it’s from their new year’s edition (yeah, I’m behind!), but they could work great as signature drinks!

I searched hard to find them on the website and no luck….so, I copied this from their December 25, 2007 issue……….

1. Cherry Classic
Crush up some ice and place in margarita glass. Drizzle in a few teaspoons of grenadine or the juice from a jar of maraschino cherries. Slowly pour in seltzer (look for vanilla  seltzer to create a cherry-vanilla flavor), and let the liquids combine into a pretty shade of pink. Top it off with a marachino cherry, or skewer a few on a swizzle stick.

2. Mango Bellini
Puree the flesh of 1 ripe mango in a blender until smooth (my note- mango’s can be tricky- use a veggie peeler to peel then slice the fruit until you feel resistance from the seed- those seeds are weird! You can rarely get it all off!)
For each reveler, mix 1 Tbsp. of the puree with prosecco (Italian sparkling wine) or a sparking white grape juice in a martini glass or champagne flute. Garnish the rim with fresh mango slices (we used a star-shaped cookie cutter to make it even more festive)

3. Choco-Bean Chiller
Make a pool of chocolate syrup on a small plate. Dip the top of a martini glass into the syrup for a chocolately rim. Add some crushed ice to the glass then carefully pour some store-bought eggnog and a shot of coffee liqueur (such as Kahlua) or espresso. (Not exactly the right season for this drink so keep it in mind for later!)

4. Faux-jito
In the bottom of a tall glass, use the handle of a long wooden spoon to mash several mint leaves with 1 tsp. sugar and a splash of lime juice. Add a few ice cubes, fill the glass with ginger ale and give it a stir. Garnish with a sprig of fresh mint.

5. Candied Apple Toddy (great for fall wedding!)
In a small saucepan, heat 2 cups of apple cider with a spoonful of cinnamon candies (such as Red Hots), stirring occasionally, until the cider is hot and the candy has melted. Pour into mugs and stir a small dab of butter into each. Spike it with rum, if you like.

6. Party Punch
In a large punch bowl, mix 1/2 cup frozen limeade concentrate (thawed) with a 64-oz. (1/2 gallon) container of grapefruit juice. Add plenty of ice, a cup or two of lemon-lime seltzer and some thin citrus slices. Ladle into cups and start sipping.

7. Nada Colada
In a blender, combine 3 parts pineapple juice with 1 part cream of coconut (not coconut milk), 1/2 tsp. almond extract and lots of crushed ice. Pulse until smooth and frosty. Pour into glasses, sprinkle with flaked coconut and garnish with a pineapple wedge. Add a little paper umbrella!

8. Ginger Beer
Fill a chilled mug or a tall glass with ginger beer (look for Goya or Reed’s brands at your supermarket). Scoop in some creamy vanilla ice creamand sprinkle chopped crystallized ginger on top. Serve with a spoon and a straw!

>q&s tip- To crush ice, place cubes in a resealable plastic bag, cover with a towel and pound with a rolling pin or heavy skillet

These would also be great party or shower drinks!! I’m also loving this recipe for Mimosas from my fellow bride blogger. Anna on her fantastic blog Southern Fancy!

Refer to my last post on signature cocktails for more ideas!