Keeping everyone in the know

At about the 7 month mark, I freaked out! I couldn't believe that I was getting married in 7 months!! Mostly because it also signified the halfway point of my 14 month long engagement. The first 7 months flew by so fast that I was sure the next 7 would also be a blur.

In order to help me deal with all the upcoming stress, I started a "bridesmaids newsletter". Since none of my 'maids live in NYC, and I really want them to feel involved, I thought this would be a great resource for all involved! As a control freak, I also need to learn to delegate because I knew I'd need their help (and support) as we got closer to the big day.

So here it is:
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I really love all my bridesmaids and I'm so super excited about partying in Costa Rica together next year...um, I mean getting married :D I decided to try to do ONE newsletter a month and to just send them out as pdf files instead of hard copies. It's budget friendly, good for the environment and easy for my bridesmaids to store and use.

The sections I decided to include in every newsletter are:

• Countdown section with updates about the wedding planning progress
• Exciting story of the month
• Sob story of the month
• Vendor profiles (photographer, videographer, wedding planner... just so they know/recognize the people that will be buzzing around on the big day!)
  
• Who's Who? (The first month I did profiles on the BMs, second month Groomsmen... next I hope to do parents, and then even certain guests who I'm calling the MVPs)
• Helpful Websites (ie. our wedding website, our travel website, photogs blog, etc.)
  
• What do you think? In this section, I can ask my BMs questions about choosing shoes, flowers, food, etc. Most of them read my blog so it'll be much more specific than my blog posts :D

Has anyone else used the newsletter format? Was it helpful? What other information did you include?

Say Yes to the Bridesmaids Dress

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I, like many people, fell in love with the Two Birds Collection of infinity bridesmaids dresses. Unfortunately, the $270 price tag made this dress a definite no-go.

With this inspiration picture in tow, I started searching the web.

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I really wanted light pink dresses and dresses that provided my bridesmaid with coverage(and support) up top. (If you know what I mean). Tart also has a great collection of infinity dresses which are ALWAYS on sale on either Ideeli, Rue la la or Haute Look for between $49 - $99. Unfortunately, the Tart dresses don't come in pink and still don't provide any sort of coverage for "the ladies."

I was just about to give up and get the gray dresses when I stumbled across this gorgeous dress on ModCloth last week.
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I kind of fell in love with it. As you may remember, I decided awhile ago to let my bridesmaids pick their own dresses, but on whim, I decided we should try to get this one instead!

I recognize that the dress is pretty low cut in the front and pretty low in the back, but it's so super cute and all my bridesmaids could definitely pull it off. It has the same kind of feel as the infinity dress but has a padded cup which is definitely a plus. I also think it will look great on a beach with no shoes during the day and super cute with good jewelry and a pair of cute heels in the evening.

Well, I went ahead and ordered a few so they can try them on and we'll see how it goes! It's free returns and exchanges so I figure there is very little risk. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

Bridesmaids on a Budget

As I mentioned previously, I don't love the idea of traditional bridesmaids dresses. I've been on the hunt for a great dress for the last few weeks and here are my favorite stores:

RUCHE

If you haven't heard of Ruche, you should certainly check it out. I recently made my first purchase and can't wait until it gets here!! The best thing about Ruche is that it provides vintage inspired dresses at an affordable price.

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TOP SHOP

Top Shop is a UK-based online store with a great selection of budget beauties.

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1. Pinafore Dress by Love $60
2. Juliet Ruffle Dress by Yuki $110.00
3. Pleated Dress by Rare $76.00
4.Ruffle Dress by Love $76.00

LULU's

My wonderful, beautiful, highly intelligent baby sister (and bridesmaid) sent me a link to Lulu's a few days ago. Lulu's is another great online store that does budget conscious dresses. So I thought I'd do a general bridesmaids dress search... its so hard to know how good a dress will look (1)in a set of 5 or 6 and (2) next to my wedding dress... but here are the dresses I kind of like:

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1. Whole Lotta Punch Dress $52.00
2. Shock Me Like an Electric Eel $34.00
3. French Toast Tuesday Dress $38.00
4. Peaches and Creams Dress $87.00

{Source} 1. Luminous Lady Dress $37.00
2. Rabbit Run Strapless Dress $70.00
3. Daisy Ruffle Dress by Dick and Mo $62.00
4. Ballad of the Sea Dress $57.00
(This dress is also available on Ruche for $67.99!!)

Thanks sis!!

MOD CLOTH
Another great site for bridesmaid dresses, ModCloth is a vintage inspired online clothing, accessories, and decor retailer. Plus, shipping is only $7 on every order!

Here are some of my very favorites:
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1. You Were Mint for Me Dress ($49.99)
2. Jasmine Flowers Dress ($64.99)
3. Kennebunkport Dress in Wake ($62.99)
4. A Little Bit Indie Rock Dress ($69.99)

At this point my top three favorites (in no particular order) are: 1. You Were Mint for Me 2. Juliet Ruffle Dress 3. Ballad of the Sea Dress. Which ones do you love? What other stores am I missing?

Happy Shopping!

Will you be my maid?

Finally, my very first (completed) DIY project... It took almost 5 months to complete! To be fair I did it in three parts and I had to wait for all my bridesmaids to receive them before I could blog about them here. Without further ado here they are, my bridesmaids' invites:

PART I:


Supplies:
* 6 pink tank tops with lace detail from Forever 21 - $6.50 each
* 1 white tank top for ME!
* Fabric Puff Paint - Light Pink, Medium Pink and Silver - Free (a gift from my MOH)
* Templates (printed on my computer in two different fonts to see which one looked best)


Then we (my MOH) slid the template under the shirt and traced the text with the puff paint. Make sure you have good light!

We actually did a bunch of test runs and discovered that she was much more consistent than I was so "we" decided it would be best for her to do them :D There was actually a psuedo -bridezilla moment involved but it all worked out.


We just put them in the window to dry. It takes about four hours for puff paint to dry completely.


This is the bride one... light pink on white.

We did my MOH's in silver on pink. We were going to write "Maid of Honor" but decided that would be way too difficult. At that point "we" had already done 6 so "we" were also pretty burnt out.

Part II:


These are the flowers I posted about a while back... which I attached to the tanks!


This one is mine! The paint leaked into the shirt a little and I am not quite sure why. It didn't do it on any of the other shirts.

This is my fabulous Maid of Honor's!


Here are the bridesmaids'! I put the flowers in different places so that each one is a little unique.

PART III:


I printed these "will you be my bridesmaid" templates from Wedding Chicks on cardstock and cut them into little luggage tags.


Then I just wrapped and tagged each one! (I have to find better ribbon but you get the idea!)

DONE!

It just took 4.5 months... on to my next project!

Bridesmaids Dresses: To match or not to match...

I am so torn about bridesmaids dresses. I am having a fairly large bridal party because no one told me about the 50:1 (guests: bridesmaid) rule. Under this rule I should only have 1, possibly 2 bridesmaids. I have SIX! That being said I have no idea how to dress them for the big day. I kind of miss the days of mandatory matching bridesmaids dresses! There as SOOO many options.

1. The traditional matching dresses (I LOVE THESE!)

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2. The same style in different colors

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3. The same color but with a choice of 2 or 3 styles

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3. The same color family, no prints, but generally bridesmaid's choice.

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5. Color scheme but complete bridesmaids choice

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6. Matching Prints

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7. Mismatched Prints

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I am not sure what dresses to pick but I do have a few criteria:

• Cost less than $100
• Short and lightweight since it is a daytime beach wedding
• Light colored (in the pink, champagne, or blush family)
  
• Preferably not strapless

I really love the look of matching dresses but I love the idea of letting my bridesmaids pick their own dresses. I feel like if they pick their own dresses they are more likely to wear the dress again. Also my bridesmaids are all such different shapes and sizes that I wouldn't know how I could pick a dress that would look good on all of them. (I definitely want everyone to look A-MAZING on my big day, I am not one of those brides!hehe) On the other hand, because my bridesmaids look so different I kind of like the idea of having dresses that make them look more unified. I feel like that makes them more special.

Additionally, three of my bridesmaids have already said they hate pink and will need a lot of help finding a dress. They made it clear that they are more than happy to wear a pink dress for me, they just don't know how to pick a good pink dress. My sister basically laughed at me when I asked her if she would prefer to pick her own dress because she hasn't worn a dress in years and claims to have never worn pink!

It seems like my best bet would be to pick a 2 or 3 styles in the same color (family?) and let the bridesmaids choose the one they like best. I feel like this really addresses the majority of my concerns and my bridesmaids' concerns. The only problem is, where can I find 2 or 3 dresses in the same color that cost less than $100? I am under the impression, based on a very preliminary search, that I won't be able to find dresses under $100 at a bridal/bridesmaid dress store...ie David's Bridal, Dessy or J. Crew? Am I wrong?