I Finally Picked Bridesmaid Dresses!

After much online-searching, bridesmaid-consulting and bridal store-visiting, I’ve finally decided on a dress for my bridesmaids! I’m pretty happy with my decision and I think my ladies are too.

You may recall that originally I was looking for floral dresses. Well after my mother talked some sense into me, I realized that plan wouldn’t work for several reasons:

  1. No bridesmaid designers are showing floral right now
  2. It’s winter, so no stores are either
  3. Floral would be too much next to my already  intricate wedding dress

Realizing my mother was right I decided to look for a dress that was simple without being boring. Something that would compliment my dress by having a romantic/vintagy feel.

Here’s what I ultimately decided on (the colors look a little weird because it’s not what the color the original photo was taken in, but you get the jist):

bridesmaid

The dress is from Dessy and is really flattering. It’s in a nu-georgette fabric, which is slightly stiffer than chiffon but still really flowy. The color is a really pretty bright “sunflower” yellow that looks good on both dark and light skinned girls. The floor-length ribbon will be in ivory.

Best of all, I was able to negotiate $90+ off to make the price around $180, which includes shipping. =) I am really glad this portion of wedding planning is over. I was beginning to think I was never going to find something right!

Next on our planning list is our save-the-dates, rehearsal dinner venue and florist. It never ends! Good thing I enjoy it so much.

Wedding Inspiration Boards

If you’re planning or have planned a wedding or large celebration , it’s likely that you’ve spent hours looking through magazines and websites for inspiration for your big day. I sure have!

A great way to compile all your favorite things into one place is to create an inspiration board. You can use the board to show your vendors what your vision is for your wedding including colors, textures and decorations. Here are a few examples I found on wedding blog greenweddingshoes.blogspot.com:

inspirationBoard_05

photo credits:http://greenweddingshoes.blogspot.com/2008/12/inspiration-board-5-romance-in-evening.html
top row: whitebox weddings, brides.com second row: jasmine star, theknot.com, pen carlson
third row: carly mccray, melissa jill, tec petaja bottom row: instyle weddings, jasmine star

inspirationBoard_16

photo credits:http://greenweddingshoes.blogspot.com/search/label/inspiration%20boards
top row: sylvie gil, the knot, elizabeth messina, shona henderson
middle row: w scott chester, j crew, michele m waite
bottom row: lisa lefkowitz, della fiora

Aren’t these pretty? I wanted to do something similar for my wedding, but did not want to spend hours cutting and pasting images. I recently came across this cool application on http://www.dessy.com/styleboard that lets you create your own board without any hassle.

All you have to do is upload pictures and/or choose from images already on Dessy!  In addition, wedding blog www.onewed.com is currently running a contest with Dessy to give $500 in accessories to the best board! But hurry, the contest is only running until Nov. 29!

Here’s the one I created for our wedding using some of my favorite stuff:

b_4780_snapshot

As you can see I’m going for bright yellow, pale green and ivory for my Spring wedding. I incorporated the Dessy accessories I’d wish to win in the contest, which would work perfectly since my bridesmaid dresses are from there (more on that later).

What would your inspiration board look like? If you make one on Dessy.com, leave me a link and I’ll feature them on the blog!

Oh and HAPPY THANKSGIVING! Stuff yourselves silly. :)