Another Dress Chosen!

I can go into the Thanksgiving holiday breathing easy...another dress has been decided!

This morning, I was informed that Hilary has chosen the dress she wants to wear in the wedding. Instead of going with the one she orignally wanted, she has chosen the strapless little number you see here (left). Super cute and looked excellent on her, this dress will be a great compliment to the other dresses chosen to date.

So as of right now, we have five dresses chosen and three to go. So excited! Once all of the girls choose their dress, I will have to post them all together on here so we can examine what they will all look like together.

Now I should start taking inventory on the other things I want to get squared away before the holidays are upon us...things like hotel rooms, flowers and cake!

One final thought regarding bridesmaid attire...

The battle of the shoes:

As I mentioned before, I am trying to decide what color of shoes will go best with an emerald green dress. I have narrowed my choices to silver or nude.

Here two pictures I took on Sunday to get an idea of which shoe color looks best. The emerald dress in the photo is not exact, but it is pretty close to the dress color I chose. What color looks best to you? (Silver on left and nude on right)...

My way of thinking: the guys will be in gray, thus the silver shoes on the girls would match and provide an extra bit of pizzazz!

The nude shoes provide a more muted color scheme...and I like that it blends pretty well with skin (thus would not stick out too much), but I am not sure that nude would look better than silver.

I guess it honestly just depends on the theme I am trying to create for the day. Thoughts?? Suggestions??

Bridesmaid Dress Shopping: Take Two!

Yesterday, three of the bridesmaids (Crystal, Hilary and Anna) and myself ventured to Cincinnati to determine the dresses they want to wear next September. Having comandeered the Forever Yours line at Bridal and Formal, we snagged a corner of one of the dressing rooms so the girls could try on dresses...dozens of dresses!

After a short while, two of them determined what they want to wear. Crystal chose a cute strapless dress that has a slight sweetheart top. It was really slimming on her and looked great! (See image on left.)

Anna's dress is just as cute and is also strapless. When she got it on, we both knew it was the dress! She especially loves the sash that is on the back; though you cannot see it from this image. (See image on right).

Hilary is currently undecided. She is attempting to decide between two, one she fell in love with on the first shopping trip and another she came across on yesterday's outing. Both would look great on her; excited to see what she chooses! (Stay tuned!)

I love that though several of the girls expressed interest in some of the same dresses, there have been no duplicates chosen. I am especially looking forward to seeing all of the girls in their dresses at the same time! I really think it will look great.

So as of today, four of the bridesmaids have dresses chosen. (YAY!) One will decide this week and the other three over the course of the next month...next Cincinnati trip is coming up on December 20.

The next major discussion for the bridesmaids' attire: shoe color. Silver or nude? Hilary was wise enough to bring a pair of each color to try on with an emerald dress in the shop so we can get initial ideas...I will need to upload those photos so the discussion can continue.

Inspiration for my wedding "look"

When I contemplate my wedding "look," I am greatly inspired by the glamour of old Hollywood (see above).

This thought never occurred to me until I found my dress. Well, "the dress" is not officially mine yet, but I think I found it. Unfortunately, I cannot share it on here since I do not want Jacob to see it. BUT, I can tell you that its lines, design and look all scream old Hollywood.

That in mind, the decisions I make on my shoes, accessories (including jewelry, veil, headpiece) and hair/makeup will be inspired by the looks of old Hollywood.

I am definitely looking forward to pulling this idea together with the other aspects I have in mind to make our day extra special and very unique! I mean really, who else's wedding can say it has roots in old Hollywood, Irish tradition, and autumn/fall themes? It may sound random now, but it will all tie together on September 18, 2010.

Let them eat cake.

Wedding cakes. Like everything else in the wedding planning process, choosing the right cake takes a little research. There are a plethora of bakeries in the Lexington area catering to brides (and grooms) to-be. But so many of them want, at least, $4 per slice! And if we were to buy enough to have at least one slice per invited guest, we are looking at upwards of $900! Insanity (and highly unlikely!)!

Early on in our engagement, we went to a cake tasting at Brown’s Bakery, over on Main Street, right before it turns into Leestown Road. We chose this bakery at random as we have an inside joke where we call each other “Brown,” so we thought it would be a fun place to at least check out…

On the date of our tasting, we walk into the bakery and to our surprise, the owner (and baker) is James Brown! We knew him as Chef James when he worked in the Chef Shoppe at the Bellerive Kroger. So much fun! He and his wife opened the place a few years back. (They rock, check them out here: http://brownbakery.com/).

While catching up over a plate of several varieties of cake/icing combinations, we went over some ideas we had for our cake and what James could do to make these ideas reality. Though not official, we need to make final decisions so we may secure James and our cake! Here is what we do know:

• We want a chocolate icing wedding cake.
• There will be at least three layers (German Chocolate, yellow and a plain chocolate). The German chocolate layer will have an AMAZING filling of coconut and rich, creamy chocolate. Trying to determine if other layers will have fillings…
• We are not sure about the shape…oval seems like a neat idea, but we also like round or square. And I have seen where people choose square, but stack the layers on an angle and the effect is really cool.
• We want a simple cake design with little decoration, but with noticeable texture.
  

Inspiration for our wedding cake:
Love the simplicity of this one. Jacob digs the strawberries.

Photo from Weddingbee.com









Love this one! It is so different. Not sure what I think about the flowers…

Photo from Squidoo.com/specialdaycakes

This one is so clean and elegant! Very pretty.

Photo from Julie Elefante’s eHow article

Loving this one. Much like the strawberry one above.

Photo from Zoebakes.com

Lots of texture and chocolaty goodness! YUM!

Photo from Martha Stewart

ALSO: not only are James’ cakes (and other concoctions) delicious, they are considerably more affordable than other bakeries in Lexington! Score!

Will let you know once a cake is chosen and ordered!

Bridesmaids: two down, six to go

One of the first places I ever looked at wedding gowns and bridesmaids dresses was Bridal and Formal in Cincinnati, OH. It is a wonderful store with TONS of dresses and many lines. In short, I was spoiled with selection.

As you know, I am having each of my eight bridesmaids choose their own style of dress for the wedding. Awesome plan and I think it will look AWESOME, however, the time that goes into making this a reality is much more than I anticipated! Perhaps it would not be as difficult if there were shops in Lexington that sold more than a few dresses from the line I chose for the bridesmaids (Forever Yours).

Wanting these dresses ordered in January, and it being a rough time of year for scheduling (aka school, holidays, etc.), I have to have multiple trips to Cincy for the girls to browse and choose their dress. The first of such trips was yesterday. Erin, Katie and I headed up yesterday afternoon for a last minute shopping extravaganza. And within an hour, both had dresses chosen!! So exciting!

Katie's dress (left) is super cute and very different. I absolutely love the top of it! The weird length of the dress will be hemmed shorter - to the knee, and the dress will be in emerald green.

Erin's dress (right) is also super cute and is a halter! I love this dress and it is very classy looking. It will also be in emerald green.

Thinking that strappy silver shoes will look best with these dresses...especially next to the gray tuxes the guys will be wearing (and Jacob wants the guys to have a matching emerald green tie).

Both images are from http://www.foreverbridals.com/.

The next shopping trip is two weeks away. Anna, Crystal and Hilary will be choosing their dresses that day!

Cannot wait to see what everyone chooses.