bridesmaid times two.

This summer I have the pleasure of standing in not one but two of my friends' weddings (both of them are standing in my wedding as well). I must admit, it's kind of fun to be planning our weddings at the same time. We are all in the same boat, and whenever everyone else is tired of hearing about the weddings, we have each other to talk to!

Dana's wedding is in October, so I'll have a month to recover after our wedding. We recently picked out our bridesmaids dresses. We had a great time trying to find the perfect one, stopping at a few Chicago establishments along the way of course. We selected strapless satin dresses from the Vineyard Collection in Pewter. I think they will look beautiful, don't you?
Dona's wedding is in May, and I am the maid of honor. You know what that means... yep, the speech. I feel like the maid of honor speech never quite measures up to the best man's for some reason. I'm struggling with what I'm going to say. I want it to be short, sweet, and to the point, with a little bit of humor thrown in as well. Easier said than done. And it's only two months away! I need to figure out what I'm going to say soon so I can practice, practice, practice because public speaking is not my forte. If anyone has any advice, I'm all ears! What was the most memorable wedding speech you've ever heard? If you've given a speech of your own, where did you turn for inspiration?

sweet dresses.

Now that Dana (one of my BMs) has the important decisions out of the way for her wedding (i.e. wedding date, ceremony and reception venue) it's onto the fun stuff! She mentioned to me today that she likes the bridesmaids dresses from Melissa Sweet, so I found some that might work well with the color scheme she is thinking of going with: slate blue/grey and gold. While I'd be happy wearing any of the gorgeous dresses from Melissa Sweet, these are some of my favorites.

Dresses by Melissa Sweet.

dress dilemma...solved!

I've finally solved the dilemma I posted about here, where I couldn't decide between using two or three colors for the bridesmaids dresses. I've decided that we'll be going with just two of the colors, teal and plum. The guys will be wearing moss/olive green ties. I think this is the best option for a few reasons:

1. I want everyone to have their first choice for color. It just so happens that the order happens to be teal, plum, teal, plum, teal, plum, teal. Ask and you shall receive!

2. I am anal and I like order. The order of the dresses when using three colors and not giving all of the girls their first choice in color is less than perfect.

3. With the girls having (most likely) green bouquets, I think the flowers with the green dresses would blend in a little more than I'd like.

4. I think the balance of the green bouquets and green ties will tie everything together enough that we won't need the green dresses. And my bridal party will look less like a rainbow. Hooray!

So it's been decided. I plan on calling all of my lovely bridesmaids this weekend to tell them the news and to let them order their dresses. They are going to look beautiful walking down the aisle in these pretty dresses! And the guys will be looking dapper as well in their pinstriped suits and green ties!

Photoshopped image from my MOH Dani.

dress dilemma.

I'm having trouble deciding which route to go with the bridesmaid's dresses. I had everyone pick their first and second color choices out of the three, and it ended up as alternating blue and purple. So I'm considering just using the 2 color dresses and then having the guys wear green ties. The other option is adding a couple green dresses in the mix and having the guys wear purple ties. I'd like to get the dresses ordered ASAP so I need help making this decision. Which do you prefer?

Photoshopped images by my lovely sister Dani, or "MOH" as she likes to call herself.

successful weekend.

This weekend, Dana (one of my bridesmaids) and I went to Minneapolis to visit Kiera and Dona (bridesmaid and matron of honor). It was Kiera's birthday, she is now a quarter century old! Happy birthday Kiki! Anyway, while I was there, we went to David's Bridal to try on the dresses that I am thinking they will wear for the wedding. The girls tried on two styles of dresses. The "bubble dress" as we are calling it, and another style made of the same material. They have decided that they are fine wearing either one. After the rest of the girls try on the dresses, we'll decide between the two. I think they are both cute, although the bubble dress is much more my style. If we are going with the multi-colored dresses, I definitely think we can only get one style dress. Otherwise I'm also fine with them wearing both styles in the same color. I think the different color effect would be kind of cool and a little more original, but either way is fine with me. What do you think?After trying on dresses, we went to a store called Francesca's Collections. While we were there, guess what I found!
Headbands! In the same exact colors as the dresses! Meant to be? I thought so!

All photos are my own.

bridesmaids dresses.

While we were at David's Bridal this weekend, we had some extra time to look at some bridesmaids dresses. Dani and Gaby found one that I think might have potential. And it comes in colors very close to my original color scheme.

Here are the dresses from the website. The purple one is much deeper color in person (more plum, less royal purple).Here are the dresses on my sisters. Keep in mind Gaby's dress is about 5 sizes too big. I think it looks better with the bows tied in the back rather than in the front.Here is a close-up of the colors. I think they're really rich and will look great since its a fall wedding, without being the standard reds, oranges, browns that most people use during the fall season.I was originally going to let you girls all choose a dress style that you liked the best in the same color/fabric. We can definitely still go about it that way if you prefer. If we went with these dresses, I think they would be flattering on all of you. I'm thinking it would be cool to do all three colors, and you guys could choose the color you prefer (as long as there was a mix of all of them or at least 2 of them). Here's an idea of what it might look like. Again the purple on here is much different.

What do you guys think? Do you like this dress? Please be honest! I want you guys to feel comfortable in what you wear that day. The dresses are pretty reasonably priced, at $135 each. Would you wear it again to a holiday party, new years, another wedding? Again be honest, I want your opinion!

Dresses and online photo by David's Bridal.

if only...

I'm not usually a fan of long dresses, but if I were wearing the Spanish dress and had unlimited funds I would buy this dress for my bridesmaids. I love the color and the texture of it.
Dress and photo from Monique Lhuillier RTW Spring 2009 via one of my favorite blogs: Something Old, Something New.