Wedding Bridesmaid Dresses

So after wedding colors, wedding invitations and your wedding dress, the next logical thing to talk about is your bridesmaids!! Depending on your venue or how you've pictured them or your girls' suggestions, you might already know what style dress you want. Or, you could be like me and have absolutely no idea!!! So, here are some tips to help narrow down your choices to help you get decide what to put your best-gals in!

1) Color
Do you want every girl to be in the same exact shade? Do you want them to be in slightly random shades of the same color? Or how about an ombre look? Or even let each girl have a completely different color? Choosing your color palette first will help immensely!! Not every dress will be available in every color and every girl won't love/be flattered by every color. Some designers don't make every dress in every color so knowing that you want emerald green or rosy pink or midnight blue will help make sure that you don't find THE perfect dress only to find out it isn't available in your color.

2) Length
First consider your venue and time of year! Will you be outside in the summer or winter? Even a 'short' ceremony can be unbearable in a dress that isn't weather appropriate! Of course, if you are getting married in a more traditional church/venue you need to make sure to keep those rules in line while you shop.

3) Cut
Knowing if you want every girl's dress to be the same, have just the maid of honor's dress stand out or have every girl's dress be different will make the process a lot easier. Each girl will have her own opinion about what looks best on her body type but believe it or not there are some cuts that flatter multiple body types that hopefully your girls will be flexible. Of course this doesn't mean that you have the right to ignore their concerns - say a super self-conscious girl not wanting to wear a strapless or form fitting dress. They are there to be a part of your day, let them enjoy it too!

So without further ado - here are some of my favorite bridesmaid dresses!

(Long Flutter Sleeve Bridesmaid Dress)

(Short Layered Chiffon Bridesmaid Dress)

(Long V-neck Bridesmaid Dress)

(Short A-line Accented Waist Bridesmaid Dress)

Wedding Dress

Y'all got a glimpse of my wedding on Sunday's post but today's post is all about the wedding dress! I absolutely LOVE these photo's that my family friend took for us the morning of our day (she is a photography hobbyist or else I would totally recommend her to anyone in the North Dallas area!!).

Any-who, back to the dress - my story is rather short. My then fiance and I were still in college at Oklahoma State University (Go Pokes!!) and had gotten engaged over winter break 2007-2008. I found a venue really quickly which led to us picking a date and so since we knew when and where I asked my mom if we could go dress browsing.

I honestly had no intention on buying the first day! We ended up going to a David's Bridal near Oklahoma City and the consultant I happened to get was wonderful. I pulled 3 dresses and she came with me and helped me try on the first two with semi-disappointing results. I was looking for a strapless and fitted top with a little bit of a flare but the first 2 of the 3 that I tried on just weren't special enough.

(My Dress and Flowers, wearing my Grandmother's pearls)

I was about to try on the third one I had picked out but she had me wait a moment and less than 5 minutes later I was in the dress I knew was it!! The bodice was fitted with detail, the back had a wonderful row of buttons (it was actually zippered but it looked like they were functional!) and the bottom of the dress was flared without being too poofy. Of course, it was slightly over budget. I had purposefully told her about 2/3rds of my mom's budget and she ended up going maybe 10-15% over it instead.

(My sister and cousin helping me with my dress)

So, my suggestions for you finding your PERFECT dress are:

1) Be open minded!!! Even if you go in super prepared, the ideas you have may not work on your body type. Be flexible and be willing to step outside of what you've always pictured.

2) Find examples either before you go or at the store to show your consultant

3) Be clear about your basic guidelines - I had simplified my list of wants to 3 things 

     a) strapless 

     b) a-line 

     c) simple but detailed.

C may be open for interpretation but with the examples I showed my consultant she was able to sense my style quickly.

So, enough about me and my story!! Here are some GORGEOUS dresses for some eye-candy!!

(Alfred Angelo Disney Ariel Wedding Dress)

(David's Bridal Vera Wang Tulle Ball Gown Wedding Dress)

(Alfred Angleo Tea Length Wedding Dress)

(J.Crew Percy Gown Wedding Dress)

Paper Flowers

I showed y'all my pinterest craft flowers board a few days ago so I thought I'd share a few more of my favorites. This time I went with paper flowers! Enjoy!

(DIY Paper Anemone Flower)

(DIY Easy Paper Flower)

(DIY Simple Paper Flower)

(DIY Peony Paper Flower)

Wedding Invitations

The first impression your guest will have will be from your invitations! They should be able to get all the information they need from this one piece of mail.

The obvious?
Names
Date
Time
Place
RSVP card WITH postage stamp

The not so obvious?
Your desired dress code
If a meal that will be served
The choices they have for that meal
Music playlist requests
Wedding website address

The list of things you can include with your invitation could go on and on! Let's get to the fun part and see some inspirations for your invites!!

(Etsy Navy and Pink Invitation)

(Etsy Peacock Invitation)

(Orange Hearts Invitation)

(Etsy Lights at Night Invitation)

(Pink and Orange Invitation)

Wedding Inspirations

So what month of party ideas would be complete without wedding ideas?!? Today's post is where I personally started with my wedding - the colors! I had known for a LONG time that I wanted an outdoor wedding but I hadn't really put much thought into it past that. When my high school sweetheart proposed to me we were still juniors in college. For the first few weeks I looked at magazines and websites for ideas but once I settled on colors everything else just fell into place. I ended up having everything picked out in 3 months! My colors ended up being purple and pink for the bridesmaid dresses and purple and silver for the rest of the decor items.

(My Wedding)

So, since that is what worked for me, I'm going to share some color combinations that may inspire your wedding!

(Teal, Yellow and Grey Wedding Colors)

(Tulip Wedding Color Inspiration)

Use nature's colors to inspire your wedding! Take a look at your favorite flower (assuming it is in-season for your planned wedding date) and take your cues from those.

(Peacock Wedding Color Inspiration)

(Ombre Purple Wedding Color Inspiration)

(Blush Wedding Color Inspiration)