Bridesmaid Dresses

Here were my 4 favorites from today (there might have been more, but I ran out of time):

• Vineyards (Priscilla of Boston) - 1608
  
• Dessy - 2792
• Amsale - G544T
• After Six - 6554

The pictures of me turned out terrible and I'm hesitant to post them because they really don't do the dresses any favors-- at all. Obviously, a professional photographer will be taking pictures from more flattering angles and this will not be an issue on the day of the wedding. I will post the one of me in the dress I liked the most. Disregard the weird skin discolorations on my shoulders- I was trying to photoshop my bra straps out to make it look nicer.

And on the model:


The problem with these two dresses is that the one on the left comes in a color I really like, but not what I had planned to have for the wedding and the one on the right- I'm not completely sold on the bow. If there were a way it could hang down and not be so obnoxious- I would really like it.

So, I saved the best two pictures for last. Hahahaha. The 6554 was waaaayyy too big for me, so trying it on really didn't help at all. I think the look on my face here is priceless. My other complaint about that one would be that I'm not too sure about the halter- it is flattering, but might not be fancy enough to go with my dress. The 2792 was also too big, which made it look pretty unflattering when I tried it on. My main reason for posting these two pictures is just to give an idea of how different some of these dresses are once you try them on....

Pink Style Board

I made this pink style board on the Dessy website. I think I'll try again later and pick a shade of pink that is a little closer to the one I want to have for the wedding. Today I have an appointment at 3:00 to look at bridesmaid dresses at Bella Bridesmaid. Will post pictures later!

Reception Cards

Here are the reception cards that are going to go inside the pocket of the invitations. Before I print all of them- any suggestions or anything I should change? Let me know!

Normandy Pics

Normandy at NightSilos Ballroom

Silos Garden (for outdoor ceremony)

On top of the Silos

Wedding Invitations - Take 2

After thinking it over, I realized the original invitations that I quickly designed just weren't going to cut it. I kept hearing "the invitations are the first glimpse of what your wedding will be like" and as much as I would love to ignore that stupid rule, I just couldn't. I really love most of the things I've put together for the wedding (out of town booklets, what I've started of the programs, the save the dates) so I just couldn't convince myself to settle thinking that the invites were just "okay". Needless to say, I've started a new idea and I really like it! It's an invitation that sits in the middle of it's own self-enclosed envelope, and has a little pocket on the left side to hold other information (RSVP info, etc.). So, here they are- what do you think??



I'm still trying to decide on the sticker I want to use to seal the invitation, but I'm using a silver heart sticker for now. I'm also considering using the bride/groom stamp I used from the save the dates. I was thinking I might stamp that on the back of the envelope in silver- not sure, but thought it might tie them together.

Vendor Update

We finally have just about all of our vendors. We only have one more that we need to find--- a florist. Anyway, here is the almost-final list of those we've chosen to help make our wedding day amazing :)

• Venue: Normandy Farm
  
• Photographer: Lorraine Daley
  
• DJ/Ceremony Music/Lighting: Magical Sight & Sound Productions
  
• Hair: Dar Clinton
  
• Make-up: Cheekadee
• Florist: ???
  

Lots of wedding crafts are on the agenda for this weekend- and tomorrow we have an appointment to look at wedding rings at Nelson Coleman Jeweler!

DIY Wedding Stuff - Part II

I saw personalized water bottles a while back and thought they were such a cute idea to include in the welcome bags. It would be ridiculously expensive to buy these and pretty annoying to have them sitting around the house for months, so I decided to do the labels myself and put them on plain water bottles. I was so excited when I saw that another bride made a template, which I found on a blog called "Ruffled". The template saved me soooo much time, and I was able to modify it to make it look the way I wanted. I printed the images on sticker paper so I could just stick them directly on the bottles. Here are the pictures of the finished product. Pay attention to the nutrition information section- how cute is that? (You can click on the images to see a larger view)

DIY Wedding Stuff - Part I

All of this snow has given me a chance to catch up on some of my wedding projects, so I have lots to post today. I'm breaking this up into 2 posts so it's not so mashed together. Anyway, I completed the out of town booklet and here is a picture of the final product. I used the ribbon with our names/wedding date to tie them together.


I also worked on the cover for the program. I made some stickers with our name and wedding date and plan to put them on the front. It is pretty basic, but I wanted to keep it simple since the stamped designs on the corners take some time. Here's what they will look like:

Decisions Decisions

I think that we have finally decided on a DJ (Magical Sight & Sound). The bonus is that this company also does lighting and offers ceremony music. I think we've decided on a trio for our ceremony music. If you are wondering what that sounds like, click here and listen. At first we weren't sure if we wanted a solo, duo, or trio- but we decided that if we used a DJ during cocktail hour (instead of live music), then we could afford to go with the trio for the ceremony.

We are also planning to have pink uplighting to add some personalization/elegance and deduct from the neutral paint that is kind of boring. In case you're not familiar with uplighting (I wasn't until a few months ago), here are some pictures:

Wedding at Normandy

I found a video of a couple who got married at Normandy Farm in the Silos Ballroom (where we're getting married). You can't see all that much, but I thought I'd mention it in case anyone was interested. This link takes you to a page of a bunch of videos, just scroll down until you find the one that says the reception was at Normandy. You might want to fast forward through the first half because the ceremony was not at Normandy.

Revisions to the Last Post

Well, my mom informed me of a few errors in my last post. Firstly, the suites run for $169 (I accidentally posted $159 in the last email). Secondly, the hospitality suite is not just for the night of the wedding. It will be available for the entire week (Wed - Sat) and stocked with drinks, snacks, etc.

Tasting

There actually isn't too much to say about the tasting- it was good, although there wasn't as much decor as I had anticipated. I was hoping to see more floral arrangements so I could decide if I'm going to use their in-house florist. At this point, I'm leaning toward no... We made some lodging decisions while we were there. There is the main hotel, with the standard rooms and there are also these "houses" outside of the main hotel, which house the suites. So, we reserved the entire "Carriage House", for the bridal party and parents of the bride/groom. So- when making your reservations, you will call Paul Junas (215)616-8506 directly and let him know which room # you will be reserving. We have a rough draft of which room will work best for whom, and will let you know your room #'s prior to booking. That way, we can all be in the same "house". The reason we're going to assign room #'s is because one room is going to be a hospitality room so everyone can have a place to hang out and get food/drinks/snacks/etc. after the wedding is over. Also, this room will be connected to my parents room, so we really had to map out who would be in what room to make sure that all of these plans fell into place. We got the suite rates knocked down to $159/nt (was $189/nt), so that's a nice bonus too! I'm going to post some pics of the rooms- although the quality is lacking on some because I took a few of them on my phone.

This isn't the Carriage House, but it is a picture of one of the "houses" where all the suites are located. This pic was actually taken to show that there's a nice little grassy area right outside our house if we ever wanted to hang out outside.

Bathroom in one of the downstairs rooms

I think this is the room we are planning to use as the hospitality room for those that want to hang out after the wedding:

Each room has a fridge and microwave:


Some of the upstairs rooms have the original beams exposed:


Although there aren't really any common areas in these houses, there is a cute little sitting area outside of the two rooms on the second floor: