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!

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!

Wedding Shoes!

Still debating doing the flip flop thing….but I don’t want to hear that actual “flip, flop” going down the aisle! So I’m looking into other options, including these which I found at Payless today for $14.99…

I know, not fancy, nothing special….but since I sprained an ankle and tore a ligament in my foot last year….I desperately need comfy shoes on my big day!

At at DSW, found these (in navy) for the Bridesmaids which are $34.99….

Or maybe these from Target- Had them in black for Kerri’s wedding, but I could only squeeze my poor foot in flip flops since I’d just gotten out of a cast 5 days before the wedding! ;o(  They’re only $16.99! Wow, I could bring my girls in under $100 for their whole outfit plus flowers!!

Here’s to more happy feet!!

Snow day!! = Extra wedding planning time!!

Don’t laugh if you’re from up north! This is a big deal here! Along with all the ice that comes with it!!

The view from my fiance’s truck is much more impressive!!

I thought today would just be another one of those days where no matter how hard I hope and pray that my school (where I teach Spanish!) would be out today….it just won’t happen!! In FIVE years of teaching, we’ve had ONE snow day……until today!!! )  No matter how much I know that we most likely won’t get out of school- a girl can still dream!! It’s like being a kid all over again!! And today, this girl’s dream came true!! Haha!! I didn’t believe it at first….and neither did my friend Jen who I sent a text message to when I saw she was out of school too (and good thing because she doesn’t have a TV in her new house!!). We know it’s a BIG deal when our two schools get out!! A HUGE deal!! It almost NEVER happens!!

So, I’m excited to have a day to do nothing at all….but of course, I’ll actually do lots!! Now that I have a place for the wedding, I can start searching for more details!!

Like these which I need to order….

And holy crap!! Just realized they discounted them even more!! These are $29.88- final sale from Ann Taylor Celebration’s Collection…They don’t have many sizes left, but I’ve already ordered one, along with sashes (which are $5.44 clearance!) and this color actually looks closer to this (navy sash, separate!).

They do have several sizes in this color……

Ann Taylor currently has some cute dresses in store….but I wasn’t a big fan of how the weird silk kind of made you look a little frumpy when you actually put it on! The designs are adorable though! In this pic, the material looks like the same silk as the ones above, but it isn’t! It’s actually made of silk dupioni- if that means anything to you!! It wouldn’t to me if I hadn’t seen it!

They also have tons of other dresses on clearance that you can see here.

Ok….time to step away and do some school work (so thankful for the snow day because I don’t know when I was going to find time to prepare lessons for March this week!!), and then maybe relax a bit….after I order the dresses, of course!! ) If they happen to not work out…..I can always cut them up to use another way!! ) You could make dresses this cheap!!

You might even see another post from me today!! )