Bridesmaid Dress Shopping

This afternoon, my 4 in-town bridesmaids and I went to Bridal Extraordinaire to go dress shopping. I'm so proud of my girls, in just one hour they all picked out a favorite! We haven't made any purchases yet, but here are all of the favorites so far...

The picture on the left is from the designer's website, and the picture on the right is the actual dress they tried on- of course the pictures don't do justice to how gorgeous the girls looked!

Jessica (Maid of Honor)
Dress by Saison Blanche


Ashley (Bridesmaid)
Dress by Bill Levkoff

Shelley (Bridesmaid)

Dress by Landa Designs

Caitlin (Bridesmaid)

Dress by Saison Blanche

All of the dresses will of course be in a Chocolate Brown color, and we will find some sort of Coral accent to go with each one.

And in case you need a reminder...click here to see the post that shows the dress Jessie picked out.

Elaine, you're the last one...can't wait until you come in town so we can go shopping too!! :)

The dress is MINE!!!!!!

On Wednesday, while sitting on the couch feeling sorry for myself (after having my wisdom teeth surgery on Tuesday), I got the call I've anxiously been awaiting since August 16th. "This is Bridal Extraordinaire calling, we wanted to let you know that your dress has arrived." YAY!!!!! And you better believe I scheduled the very first fitting appointment they had, which was yesterday evening.

I cannot even begin to describe to you how AWESOME it felt to put on MY dress. It is so beautiful, and it's ALL MINE! (by the way, thanks mom ;) I didn't want to take it off. I drug out the picture taking, veil trying on, and oohing and aahing as long as possible. But finally, I had to give it back :( I know it will be in safe hands, but I really kind of wish I could have taken it home (that could have been dangerous, though...I would probably have had to put it on at least once a day...)

Once again, I don't want to risk Matt seeing the pictures on this blog (even though I'm starting to doubt that he'll ever look at it....) so I'll post a slideshow...click here.

I love love love this dress, and now all I need to do is decide on a veil (you'll see in the pictures, I tried on a few veils, but we didn't like any of them) and shoes, and accessories, and I'm sure there's a million more things I haven't thought of yet....


Oh, and just a warning...the in-town bridesmaids and I are going shopping tomorrow afternoon...so be on the lookout for more pictures!!!!!!!!

DIY Centerpieces...attempt #1

Last week Sarah and I went to Old Time Pottery (which, by the way, is the COOLEST STORE EVER!) The plan was to find some cool vases and such for centerpiece inspiration. I did buy 1 vase...and a whole bunch of Christmas stuff...oops.

Then last weekend, while shopping with my family on Saturday, I picked up a few more DIY supplies - coffee beans, ribbon, a cute square votive holder, and the closest thing I could find to a coral colored candle. I had some silk Gerbers at home (yes, I'm obsessed with them...they're everywhere...) so I threw some of those in as well.

Here's my final product....what do ya think???

You'll have to ignore the fact that the large vase isn't entirely full of coffee beans...I didn't quite have enough. You'll also have to ignore the multi colored gerbers, and pink candle...these will all end up being coral. :)

I'm pretty happy with how they turned out... I just need to find some more multi-sized vases. I'm thinking big and square. And I need to find a place where I can find lots of coffee beans really cheap.

The DIY adventures continue...

Centerpiece Ideas

Since I plan to DIY all of my decorations and centerpieces, I've been trying to come up with a "vision" for these centerpieces, so that I can start buying things and trying things out. I think I found that vision...

Right now, here's what I'm thinking...

~Varying heights of the centerpieces (like a tall, medium and short)

~Some with candles, some with flowers (gerbers of course!)

~COFFEE BEANS inside of clear glass vases, like in the pictures. What a cheap and perfect solution for my color scheme!!!!

~Square vases...3 heights like I mentioned above.

I'm sure this will change a million times before I make a final decision, but I'm really excited to at least have SOME sort of idea to start with!!

P.S. Thanks again to the Realies for both of these inspiration pics!!!!!!! :)