Friday's Musings

My dress.

Is nothing like this.

And, yet this is closer to it than anything else I can find out there. Now don't get your hopes up cause if you do you will be disappointed when you see it, not that I'm dissing on my dress (do people even say that word anymore?) but it has about 90% less of those awesome ruffley rows, and it has a completely different cut (shape) and it is lace.

But. I love this dress.

You can't find it on JCrew anymore which leads me to believe many a lady love this dress too. I'm sure it was in the $1-2,000 range. At least.

I wanted to share something on a food related issue ~

These photos are the reason I have the Little Red Bike Cafe blog on my reader list. But can you believe I haven't actually eaten there yet?  It is on my to-do list for sure.

Mmmmm....banana cake:

And Huevos Rancheros: Breakfast anyone?

We will be on Mt.Hood enjoying a night away and celebrating our one-year anniversary this weekend! Have a great one!

*Shrugs*

You may have seen this image around... it is Cori from August and After wearing a beautiful red silk bolero from Mary and Angelika on Etsy.

After seeing images of her wedding and gorgeousness I immediately sought out her shrug and decided I would buy it in blue. I showed Devin and he didn't like. Humph. But, like everything else in our wedding, things have changed since the planning begun and now I am in love with the knit sweater shrug!

Below are just examples of what I have found while perusing Etsy:

I've already asked a co-worker/friend if she would knit me a sweet cap-sleeve shrug for my wedding day and after (and maybe before?)

Here are some of her creations:

Heidi - you need your own Etsy!

And she wore a flower in her hair....

Okay, self portrait not-so-great, but I wanted to clip my flower in and wear it. I'm thinking that the feather comb/veil will be for the ceremony and then perhaps because I'll be afraid that it will fall out, or I won't want netting in my face that I'll switch to this flower. In the meantime I'm going to try to wear it everyday, cause hey, why not?

Feeling a little self-conscious about posting a close up of my face on here. For some reason I like some anonymity on blogs. Its like reading a book, I can imagine the characters myself, if you show me a picture it ruins it somehow.

DIY Veil

With my mom's convincing and a little bit of confidence and inspiration I have decided to make my birdcage veil myself (or rather have my mother make it for me!) There are instructions for veil making everywhere, but this one has some nice photos to go along with it. French or Russian veil netting is inexpensive and super cute - I bought a yard of both 9" and 18" wide yesterday so we can play with length and poof and have a little room to mess up if that so happens.

Mom and I met up at Anthropologie yesterday and I left with this in a taupe-ish gold color:

And this in white with some pink floral fabric pieces although the green really speaks to me. I'm avoiding shipping costs and the hassle of mailing returns if it doesn't really work out. crossing my fingers!

I will unveil (haha) the finished product when we're done! And if all fails, I have a few fun hair accessories to wear around town. If you aren't in the mood to make-your-own, but still want a cute, sassy, or dramatic hair plume check out Twigs and Honey and Smitten on etsy.

I'll leave you with a gorgeous photo courtesy of Smitten:

Happy Weekend everyone!

Dresses!

These are just a handful of dress options that I love.

As you can see I'm really into ruffles at the moment, which is nice because there happen to be ruffles everywhere! My dress even has lace ruffles on it.

The top row of dresses are Anthropologie and the bottom row are Jcrew.

Whew.....

I bought a dress. Yes, I did.
It very much gives me that feeling of "this is my dress."

Sure, there are gorgeous dresses out there, many I would never even consider trying on, and plenty I would love to wear but are two to twenty times my budget. After watching every episode of TLC's Say Yes to the Dress and browsing online thumbnails of wedding dresses I had narrowed down a few things I appreciated in a gown.

I recently found out about Brides Against Breast Cancer, a Making Memories organization that takes donated gowns from designers, bridal stores and brides and re-sells them. The profits go back to support the Breast Cancer Foundation, and dresses sold are at a very nice discount.

My mom and I and the girls got to the event held in an antique/christmas bazaar store right as it opened and began looking. After 20 or 30 minutes I had decided I wasn't going to find anything I was in to. But then I started looking at different sizes and came across a dress in ivory, ruffle and lace, with a sweetheart neckline and a slim cut and gasped a little bit. It fit perfectly, just a little too long, but easily hemmable. All it needs is a cute french bustle and a few rips in the lace repaired. It was a sample gown too, and just under my $500 dollar budget. I pondered a while but knew I couldn't let it get away. Besides, where and when am I really going to find a better dress in my budget? I just wasn't.

I tried on a $2200 dollar gown too, for fun. Mom loved it.

There was a sweet feeling of comraderie as the brides were all in a room together in our underwear trying on dresses and giving each other feedback

I can't find the dress online, and I don't really want to post a picture of me trying it on, so you'll have to wait.

Time to shop for a headpiece/veil/somethingorother!

I love LOVE this!

This is so cute:



Depending on what style of dress I get, if this cute little shrug goes, I am getting it for sure. You can find it here made by local Portland designer Holly Stadler. Of course, all her stuff is sure to make a woman feel beautiful!