Little updates: bridesmaids and favours

The bridesmaid dresses arrive (super quickly!) and they are gorgeous! Only problem is, they don't fit. Fortunately, we were able to send them back to be replaced with the next size up so everything should be fine. The eBay seller that we ordered them from was so lovely and really helpful - and I really do think the dresses look lovely - even if they wouldn't fasten all the way up!

Excuse the slightly weird expressions on my sisters' faces - they did like the dresses, I promise!

I also bought the test tubes for our Damson Vodka Shot favours!

100 tubes, with caps for £15.99. Bargain!

I'm really excited about these - the plan is to make little cards to attach with ribbon, which will double as place cards. I think they're going to look really nice.

Spending money = eek!

There have been several wedding related updates since my last post - arguably the most important of which is that I finally ordered my dress! Hurray!

I'm so excited - I can't wait until it is ready and I can try it on!

I also ordered a simple bolero to wear with the dress, which I got off eBay for £15. I will try to remember to take a photograph of it at some point.

The second very exciting purchase this week was the bridesmaid dresses. You might remember the post where I revealed the bridesmaid dresses and how I mentioned that I wanted to order them soon in case they became unavailable. Well, guess what? When I checked again, I couldn't find them anywhere! Just my luck. But it all worked out okay, because while looking for the original dresses, I found some other dress that I loved!

This dress is very similar to the first dress I chose - it has the same halter neck, very similar bust and same flowing skirt. The only real difference is that this dress is chiffon instead of satin, but I think chiffon will be more comfortable in August anyway!

This dress is available from an eBay seller called Dresselicious for just over £40 each. I have ordered 4 of them, but 2 of them are pre-order because they didn't have the correct size left in stock, so they will take 6 to 8 weeks to make.

Just last night, I decided to buy the test tubes that we will be serving our Damson Vodka Favours in. I got 100 of the 20ml tubes, with caps for £15.99. Absolute bargain! And this past weekend, we got the hair extensions that I'll be wearing on the day.

It is really nice to actually be able to buy things for the wedding, as opposed to just looking, and bookmarking websites! I am really enjoying be able to choose things and not have people say "well, come back when it's a bit closer to the wedding".
However, it also feels a bit weird - to be actually spending the money in "the wedding fund" is a very strange feeling indeed!

One thing that is making me feel better however, is the quote from our venue. The final figure was less than I was expecting (not dramatically less, but pleasingly less!) and I feel like I can relax now, knowing exactly what money will be going where.

Anyway, we will have a busy wedding related weekend coming up - we're going to finalise the guy's suit choices on Saturday, then off to a wedding fayre at our venue on Sunday. I can't wait!

Of Bridesmaid Dresses and Wedding Licenses

I know, I know - I haven't updated for ages, but I have been crazy busy at work. Deepest apologies, and to make it up to you, I will show you  picture of the bridesmaid dress that we have finally decided on!

From the front

From the back

Pretty, right? They don't come with the belts, so I'm going to tell the bridesmaids that they if they want to wear a belt, they can choose their own black one. That way they all have the same dress, but there is a little bit of individuality coming through with the belts. They also don't come with the underskirt, but we are going to wait until the girls try them on to see if they actually need one. My mum says she could make the underskirts if we decide we want them (which we probably will).

I love this dress! I love the 50's style, the colour, the halter neck, sweetheart neckline, everything. I especially love the price! This dress is available from this eBay shop for only £34.99.

Now all we need to do is order them! I really want to order them now, because I'm impatient like that, but I know at least one of the bridesmaids wants to wait a few months because she is planning on losing weight. I might have to demand the dresses be ordered soon though, because I will constantly be worrying that the dresses will sell out and be unavailable by the time we get around the actually buying them!

I will be asking the girls to wear black shoes on the day, but I don't mind what kind, and they certainly don't need to match or anything. I will also need to speak to the girls about their hair, as I don't necessarily want them to have matching styles, but I'd like to either all have their hair up, or all have it down. 

The other very exciting thing that Karl and I did since the last post, was go down to the registry office to give notice of marriage! They will display the notice for 15 days, in which time anyone can raise objections, and then on the 16th day, our marriage license will be issued and be valid for a year. It's nice to get all the legal formalities out of the way, it makes everything feel a lot more real!
It was really simple to give notice, just lots of repeating our names and addresses, and confirming that neither of us had ever been married before. We had a few issues with the fact that Karl doesn't have a passport yet, so had to take his birth certificate and a parents birth certificate. However, the only parent he is on contact with (his dad) is not actually named on the birth certificate (long story!). Luckily, the registrar took pity on bus and let us off with just Karl's paperwork. Unfortunately, she didn't let us off the fee - £33.50 each!

The Veil!

So my very lovely big sister bought me my veil as a Christmas gift - isn't that nice of her? Anywho, it is a white, single tier, fingertip length with scattered crystals. And it is beautiful! It needs to be steamed, but I'll show you some pics anyway...

Closeup - you cant really see in this photo, but it has tiny crystals scattered all over it.

Me wearing the veil.

I'm so happy with my veil! I love that it's single tier, so it's very thin and delicate, and not at all poofy. And the scattered crystals give that extra something. It is a tiny bit longer than I expected it to be, but I actually love the length now. I think it's short enough that I wont trip over it or anything, but long enough to get some nice "veil blowing in the breeze" shots like this:

Source

 Isn't that gorgeous? Of course that will completely depend on there being a strong enough breeze, but I can dream anyway.

 In case you're interested, the veil was from Deity Bridal which is a website that offers a ton of different lengths, tiers, styles etc of veils for bargain prices. I have never understood why a single piece of netting attached to a comb would cost over £200 - but that's what I saw in some bridal shops! Crazy stuff!

I have not quite decided whether I'll be wearing the veil attached to the top or the back of my head - but I'm leaning towards thre back. I think it will work better with the hair style. At some point soon I'm going to get my hairdresser, Mark, to give me a hair trial using the veil and this headband that I bought a few days ago.

That's pretty, right? I'd been looking at headbands for ages and had been lusting after several on the Glitzy Secrets website. I particulary liked the ones with crystal flowers on the side, but they were about £40 each! As far as I'm concerned, that is a ridiculous amount to pay for a headband, especially since I hardly ever wear headbands, and would probably never wear that one again!
Then I was in town the other day and Mark (my hairdresser) found this lovely little headband in some random shop, for only....wait for it....£3! Bargain or what?! I love it, but i'm not sure if it will work with the hairstyle and/or veil. If it doesn't, it's not he end of the world as I've only spent £3 and it's small and simple enough to wear anywhere!

Pretty Parasols

Many, many months ago, I saw this picture, and I fell in love:

Source

I love the idea of a paper parasol for the wedding - I burn very easily and was not looking forward to re-applying sun tan lotion every 5 minutes during the wedding! When I saw this picture, I decided that I would have a parasol with a big K painted on it.

Later, I decided that instead of just a K, I would have our monogram painted on it instead:

And not long after that, I saw this parasol, and decided I should have "just married" instead:

Source

And now, I'm considering a plain, unpainted parasol so that I can use it again after the wedding. As you can tell, I change my mind a lot! My original plan was to buy parasols for the bridesmaids too, although not to walk down the aisle with, just for after. However, the cheapest I can find paper parasols is about £10 each, which would ean spending £50 on parasols alone. I'm not sure it is worht it, especially since there is no guarentee that it will actually be sunny! I did like the bright colours though- I imagined myself with a white parasol and the girls with purple or lime parasols. Possibly with their names or initials painted on.

Source

I don't want to carry the parasol down the aisle, and I don't want to hold it during the ceremony. It would basially be for the reception drinks after the ceremony and to have photos taken with.

I think I will definitely buy a parasol for myself, but I'm still undecided about what to paint on it. Part of me thinks I should leave it plain so I can use it after the wedding, but another part of me wants to have out monogram so that it ties in with the stationary etc. But is that a bit too matchy? I'm worried it might look a bit daft with our initials plastered all over everything? I love the "just married" parasols too, but that would mean that it would be useless after the wedding.

Here's some more parasol porn for you:

Source

Source. I love this photo so much!

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If I had lots of money, I would buy enough parasols for all of the female guests - since our wedding is outdoors, I don't want nayone fainting from heat stroke! Unfortunately, I don't have lots of money, so the guests will just have to fend for themselves!

I have to say - it had better be sunny and hot on our wedding day! All of our plans are centred around a sunny, outdoor wedding. If it rains, it wont half bugger up our plans!

Everyone keep your fingers crossed for sun - and please vote for what I should have my parasol decorated with!

What should I have on my parasol?

• Nothing
• Just Married
• Our monogram (initials)
• Other

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Bridesmaid Mood Board

Bridesmaid Mood Board by kaygray on Polyvore.com

I created this mood board on Polyvore, to show the general bridemaid look that I'm hoping for. 

What do you think?

Mum's wedding dress!

My mum got her bag of wedding stuff down from the loft today and in it was, amongst other things, her dress and veil! I thought I'd share them, just for fun:

My mum's dress

My little sister, modelling mum's veil

 My parents got married in April, 1982 and I was pleasently surprised that my mum's dress wasn't as horribly 80's as I'd expected. You can't see much of the detail in their wedding photo, except that my mum looked gorgeous in it, lol. 

Personally, I think the dress is actually quite nice. I love the high neck and the collar detail. The sleeves are a little bit too much for my tatses, but if you altered them slightly, I think you would basically have this dress:

A Modern Trousseau-Carin gown (via Wedding Bee)

I feel a litle bit sad that the dress is just sitting in the loft, all lonely, but my mum doesn't want to get rid of it, or destroy it by cutting it up and turning it into something else. 

Maybe if one of my sisters is small enough to fit into it when they get married, it will get another chance at life?

Bridesmaids fabric swatches

You may recall my post a while back about the bridesmaid dresses that each girl had designed on Style Shake. Well I asked them for some fabric swatches so that I could check the colour, and they arrived today.

I asked for a sample of the Violet Silk, the Purple Cotton and the Matt Silver Cotton. My plan was to have the dresses in purple cotton with silver sashes. However, when the samples came, I think I prefer the violet silk!

 

You can't really see the colours properly on this photo, but the violet silk is more of a bright, cadburys purple, which is what I wanted.  The purple cotton looks more like burgundy to me and the more I look at it, the more I don't like it! 

It's a shame, because I wanted the dresses to be cotton because it will probably be hot and I just thought that cotton would be more comfortable than silk. 

There is also the price to consider. The dresses in cotton were around £54 each, which I though was a pretty decent price. The dresses in silk are about £80. Now this might not be too bad in the (ridiculously overpriced) world of bridesmaid dresses, but to me, that is a lot of money for a dress. I have never spent £80 on a dress in my life. My wedding dress will not even cost double that! As much as I've prattled on about letting the girls design their own dress so that they have one they really love, at the end of the day, I am making them buy a dress in a certain colour, fabric and general style. The least I can do is let them save some money!

So at the moment I am unsure what we will be doing for bridesmaid dresses. :-(

I really want the Style Shake dresses (who wouldn't want to do business with a company that starts their letters with "Hellooooooooo" ?!)  so maybe I will have to discuss with the bridesmaids how much they are willing to spend. I will also keep an eye out for any high street dresses that fit the bill.

A-ha! Now he's interested!

My fiancé, Karl, can't be doing with all this wedding malarky apparently. Too many little details that I want his opinion on. His standard response to everything that I shove under his nose is "mmmm, that's nice".

He does perk up slightly when the food is mentioned, but because we won't be picking a final menu for a while yet, he quickly loses interest. He was also quite opinionated about the cake, but after saying "It has to be chocolate sponge!" and me saying "OK" , there's not really much more to do!

He is not in the least bit bothered which shade of purple the bridesmaid dresses are, or which border the invitation inserts have. He couldn't care less about the ratio of white roses to green in the bouquets, and I'm not entirely sure that he knows what favours even are. When I say "What do you think of this for the wedding..." and turn the laptop towards him, he gets this glazed look in his eyes.

Luckily, I have several other people that I can run to (or email) to say "look at this!" and they will respond in a suitably excited manner.

But yesterday, I got his attention! I was browsing the Internet when he walked into the room, and when I said "what do you think about these for the wedding day...?" and turned the laptop towards him, he sighed, his eyes glazed over and he prepared his standard response. Until he saw what it was....

Oh yes! Transformers cufflinks! All of a sudden, he was interested! Apparently, the key to getting him interested in the wedding plans is to stick Transformers on everything. I'm quite tempted, as I do love Transformers...

Anyway, he has decided that he definitely wants these and I've had a quick look on ebay, where you can get them from Hon Kong for only £3.99. Bargain.

Here were my other ideas for his cufflinks - I was trying to find things that we make him interested in the plans, lol

Cricket Cufflinks

Fries Cufflinks

Poker Cufflinks

Crisps and Beer Cufflinks

Coca Cola Cufflinks

Monopoly Cufflinks

"Scream" Cufflinks

Any of these cufflinks would be perfect for Karl - although he's already decided he might need more than one set. He'll probably end up with all of them!

So confused...?

Just a very quick post -

I mentioned before how I found the dress I want on a chinese website for £228.

Well today, I found the same dress on another chinese website for £138. Thats a saving of £90!

Well I was so impressed with myself, until I looked at the contact information for both sites, and they are exactly the same! Same phone number, same office block, same room number even!

Same company, 2 different websites with different prices?

I'm so confused. But also pleased that I didn't order the dress from the more expensive site already!

By the way, incase you forgot, here's my dress!

Now what should I spend the extra £90 on????

My bridesmaids have such good taste!

I am having 4 bridesmaids - my friend, Christine and my 3 sisters, Kim, Kat and Kara.

And yes, before you ask, my sisters and I all have names starting with K, and so does my fiancé.

Anyway, back to the point. I have 4 bridesmaids - Kara will be 14, Kat will be 21, Christine will be 24 and Kim will be 26. So when it comes to choosing dresses I needed something suitable for both the youngest and the oldest girls.

I always wanted knee length dress for the girls, because the wedding wont be formal enough for long dresses, and none of the girls are particularly blessed in the height department (sorry, but it's true!) so floor length dresses would not be the most flattering option for them.

So we started looking on the highstreet for purple, knee length dresses as we definitely did not want to pay the prices of proper bridesmaids dresses. No more than £100 a dress, and that was an absolute maximum if it was an amazing dress.

A couple of dresses that I liked:

Debenhams

Debenhams

Debenhams

Monsoon

ASOS

I figured it would be easy - purple seems to be everywhere on the highstreet at the moment, and I'd seen so many gorgeous dresses, the only difficult decision was going to be choosing which one!

Unfortunately, I didn't factor in my sisters and their very conflicting ideas about what the dresses should be like.

My older sister, Kim, is a curvy girl and basically refused to have a strapless dress, or spaghetti straps, or halter neck. And she didn't want anything too clingy or tight. Fair enough. But then there's my younger sister, Kat, who is a teeny tiny petite girl and would prefer something strapless, or halter neck ad preferably slinky. Right...

To be fair, my youngest sister Kara, and my other bridesmaid Christine have been very good, and seem perfectly happy to wear whatever I choose. But I'm very aware that Kara will only be 14, so I don't want her in a strapless dress or anything too grown up.

So all that left me with only one option: a different dress for each girl.

And I'm very happy with that - I don't need them to be all matchy with the dresses, I just need them to be comfortable and happy. However, I do want the dresses to all be the same colour. Exactly the same colour.

I'd heard about Styleshake.com, where you can design your own dress, so I thought I'd check it out.

You can choose to design a dress, top or skirt and you start by choosing the fabric. There is silk, poly-silk, cotton and jersey. You can get lots of different colours depending on which fabric you choose.

I went for purple cotton - because it was the right shade of purple, and because the silk looked too shiny for my liking.

I was pleasantly surprised at how simple it was. You get this lovely model in her underwear, and you choose each part of the dress, step by step. You start with the upper body, choosing the style, e.g. empire line, dropped waist, natural waist etc.

You just continue, choosing the neckline, sleeves, waist panel, skirt and trimmings. So simple, and there are just enough options to give you a wide choice without being too much.

So I let my bridesmaids loose on Style Shake, giving them the instructions that their dress had to be purple cotton and knee length, and if they wanted trimmings they could be purple or white.

I have to admit, I was a little bit worried that they might come back with something horrible, but I should have trusted them more. My bridesmaids have such good taste!

Kim's dress

Kat's dress

Christine's dress

Kara's dress

Gorgeous, right? I really love each dress and I think they look amazing together. Kat gets her slinky halter neck and Kim gets her sleeves and loose skirt. Kara originally chose a one-shoulder top, but we decided it was a bit too sexy for a 14 year old, so we compromised on a halter neck, and I added an extra panel to make the neckline a tiny bit higher.

My favourite thing about these dresses? The amazing price! Kara's and Kat's are £57 each and Kim's and Christine's are £54 each. I think that's a bargain for a custom made dress!

Plus, Style Shake give 10% off on orders for bridesmaids (3 or more dresses).

I just need to order a fabric swatch to make sure it's perfect. I probably wont decide to order the actual dresses until a bit closer to the wedding, to make sure they fit right (Kim, especially, is shrinking before my very eyes!).

But seriously, I'm so impressed with my bridesmaids and their excellent taste!

The Dress...maybe?

So I was just looking through pictures of wedding dresses, trying to find the perfect one for me, when I came across this picture:

 

I absolutely love this dress! I think it has quite a classic shape, but it's also a bit different. It is nice and simple, but also has some beading and detail to add interest. And aren't vertical stripes supposed to be slimming?

The more I look at it, the more I want it. There are just a couple of problems -

1. It's a zip up, not a lace up; Now this is not a major problem, but I'd always assumed that I would have a lace up dress for extra support/shape etc. I suppose I will just have to re-think underwear though...
2. I can't find anywhere to try it on; I can find the dress on the Bonny USA site, but not on the Bonny UK site. This makes me think that maybe it's not available in the UK, which means I can't try it on. But then it is from the new collection. Maybe if I wait a few weeks, it will be stocked. 

I have found this dress on a website that ships from China, and it costs £228. I know that's not a lot in wedding dress terms, but do I really want to spend that much on a dress that I have never tried on, or even seen in person??

It's a dilemma. But I love the dress so much...if I don't find another one that I love more in the next few weeks, I might just go for it!

To see the dress in all it's beautiful detail, go to The Bonny Website and scroll across the bottom to style 1021. You can click on the pictures to make them bigger and see more detail.

Shoes Shoes Shoes!

OK, so I might not have decided on a dress yet, but I have chosen my wedding day shoes! Surely they are more important anyway?

I love shoes - especially really pretty, really high heels. Unfortunately, I can't actually walk in them. I can stand still, looking fabulous, but if I actually need to move I'm buggered.

I knew I wanted purple shoes for my wedding day, and also knew that I would be in extreme pain if I went for the gorgeous 6 inch heels I was lusting after.

So i thought about going in the opposite direction and getting purple converse. What could be more comfotable than converse?

And then I got really excited because I found the converse website, where you can design your own shoes! I spent literally hours choosing the perfect colour combinations - purple converse with lime green stitching and "Mrs W" written down the heel. Amazing - until I realised that they don't ship them outside of America. Bugger.

The more I looked at flat wedding shoes, the more I realised that I wanted to wear heels - they would just have to be small heels. I did find some really lovely flat shoes though -

polyvore

Glitzy n Glamorous

Madaboutshoes.com

But still, my heart skipped a beat when I saw the skyscraper heels - even if my feet did hurt just from looking at them!

DKNY

Style Hive

iOffer

Very.co.uk

eBay

Irregular choice

And I know those last ones are not purple, but how amazing are they???

Anyway, I knew I wouldn't be able to even walk down the aisle in any of those, nevermind stand for photos and walk around all day. So I started looking for a smaller heel and thats when I found "the pair".

Remember the angels singing moment I talked about in the dress post? Well I definitely had that moment with these shoes -

Very.co.uk

Gorgeous, right? The heel is only 2 inches, which I think I'll be able to manage- and I love the T-bar, Mary-Jane style.

very.co.uk

These beauties are from very.co.uk for the bargain price of £39. And, I found a code that gives me £25 off your first order, providing its over £40. So I added the shoes and another cheap pair of trainers to my basket and entered the code to check that it worked. I didn't order them, because they didn't have my size shoe in stock - but the code worked and I got very excited about getting my wedding shoes for only £14.

The next day, my size was back in stock so I went to check out and....the code wouldnt work! Apparently this wasnt my first order! WTF? I'm not sure what happened, since I have never ordered anything from very.co.uk. Maybe just putting something in your basket counts as an order...?

Anyway, I'm not going to be denied my bargain shoes so my mum has offered to set up an account and order the shoes in her name, so that I can use the code.

Don't you just love a bargain?!