I’m on a little bit of a Nordstrom kick. We FINALLY got one in Nashville, and I love it. The store is nice to be in, the sales people are super friendly, there’s a great collection of Size 10 and 11 shoes…what more can I ask for?
After visiting the store and their website, I’ve noticed some great finds for bridesmaids dresses (the previous post, below, has one) as well as dresses that could easily look great for a wedding. I saw this Tadashi Shoji dress (from their latest Spring 2012 collection) online and thought it was gorgeous. I also saw this Robert Rodriguez dress in the store tonight, and it’s way more gorgeous in person. If you’re looking for a more casual/daytime/even beachy dress, this would be perfect. Bonus? They’re both under $1,000 (even way under, in the case of the Rodriguez dress).
A friend of mine who is engaged recently started her search for the perfect wedding dress, and asked if I could send some ideas her way. As we all know, finding THE wedding dress is one of the hardest parts of planing a wedding (but admittedly, the most fun). Her request? “A ’20s-bohemian-style wedding dress with a simple silhouette but a hint of pizazz.” I thought I would start a search to see what kind of dresses I could find that fit the bill, and that came in under $2,000 (an ideal wedding dress budget, I think).
When looking for a vintage-style wedding dress, one of the first things you should do is decide which era you like best. For example, the 1920′s was all about straight-lines, knee and calf-lengths, dropped and free-flowing waists, and simple and more lightweight silhouettes. (the 1940′s, for example, was also a simple decade, but dresses had broader sleeves and more cinched waists.)
Granted, you can take cues from a past decade for your wedding dress, but you don’t necessarily have to find an exact replica. You can look for dresses that have a 1920′s vibe, without looking like you’re going to enter a costume contest!
Here’s some ideas I sent to her:
I am obsessed with Yolan Cris’s designs. They don’t sell in the U.S. yet, but they are great to use as inspiration, and to show bridal boutiques in your neighborhood to see if they can come up with any dresses with the same look. The Yolan Cris “Colección Revival Vintage” is GORGEOUS.
The Vintage Wedding Dress Company, which sells only out of its London store, is another great place to find inspiration. Their vintage dress recreations (broken down by decade) are beautiful, and a great excuse to suddenly plan a London vacation!
Claire Pettibone is a really great designer doing vintage-style wedding dresses, with lace and simple silhouettes. She has a good selection of dresses under $2,000.
Google is your friend. A search for “vintage 1920′s wedding dresses” will pull up a lot of junk, but it will also pull up a couple winners. If you’re looking for a less formal dress that can be worn again and again, something like this 1920′s-style dress from LeLuxe would be great.
As some of you may know, I’ve been having some problems getting the whole wedding planning process started. Even though I got engaged in November, up until this past Friday I had no venue. While some of this can be blamed on the fact that I didn’t even know what city I wanted to get married in, the main reason we’re so behind is because the one venue we finally decided on in April fell through. Without getting into the boring details, the venue was basically holding out giving us a contract because they were waiting for a bigger event to come through. When we told them we had to have an answer so I could start doing things that involved actual planning (like sending save the dates) for our fall wedding, they told us we’d be better off finding another place. Lovely, eh? That news meant that if I didn’t find another venue within the next two weeks, we would have to postpone the wedding to next year.
After some major brainstorming by my mom and I, we found a place that seemed to be under our noses the entire time. We reached out to them, told them our time constaint, and the negotiations began. When it started looking like this wedding might actually happen, I decided to fly down to my hometown for 10 days to meet the caterers, see the venue, and sign the contract.
Because I don’t plan on coming down again until a month before the wedding (for the shower), I’ve decided to essentially plan the majority of the wedding in the 10 days I’m down here. With 4 months to go until the wedding, I’m definitely on a tight schedule. So far I’ve been down here 5 days, which means I have 5 more days left.
As soon as I got here, I toured the venue and met with the caterers, who run the venue. After two days of negotiations, we were able to work out the food, alcohol, and price details, along with the date. As soon as that was finalized, I was able to jump in and start the bulk of the planning. Here’s a recap of what I’ve done so far.
Order Save the Dates
Luckily, I had already selected a great Etsy designer a few months ago when I thought we had the other venue booked. I sent her my ideas, and we finalized a design within a few weeks. She knew my details were pending, so I tried to stay in touch with any updates. After finalizing today using the WeddingWindow.com guest manager, I calculated how many we would need and gave her the go ahead to print them and overnight them to me. I went to Office Depot today to buy address labels for them, and hope to have those printed out by tomorrow.
Buy a wedding dress
I went to NYC in March and went with two of my girlfriends to try on what felt like 1,000 wedding dresses. While I found one or two I liked, I still wasn’t sure what I wanted. Plus, I wanted to wait until I had a venue booked so I could have an idea of what kind of dress would work well in it. I found a local wedding store that sold a few designers I liked, and we made an appointment to go in last Friday. Without thinking we would actually find one that day, I picked out several dresses that were part of a leftover Memorial Day sale, and fell in love with a gorgeous Atelier Aimée 2008 dress, and instantly knew it was the one. My mom and I looked at each other, agreed that nothing could compare to it, and bought it for half price, along with a veil. We couldn’t believe it.
With a lot of online research and several referrals, I have reached out to several potential photographers, hair/makeup artists, and entertainment companies that handles bands and DJ’s. So far I’ve scheduled an appointment with a photographer on Tuesday, and hope to have a meeting with several musicians this week. I just started getting price quotes from hair/makeup artists, and when I find one that doesn’t seem outrageous (no luck yet), I’ll try to set up that meeting for later this week. My main worry right now is being able to find a band/dj I like, and hope that my research will lead me to some good people.
Find bridesmaid dresses
I had formally asked two of my friends to be my bridesmaids a month ago, but wanted to wait until I saw my sister and two sister-in-laws in person to ask them. I also decided to include my oldest friend a couple weeks ago, and asked her over brunch today. With everybody in the know and a wedding date booked, the quest for bridesmaid dresses has begun. I’ve been to SO many online stores looking through various designers (Amsale, Nicole Miller, BCBG, Jenny Woo, BCBG, Ann Taylor, etc.) and haven’t found anything that knocked my socks off. I’m sure EVERY bride says this, but I really want to get something that’s a) under $200, and b) something that the girls will actually want to wear again. It’s not easy. So far the only dress I’ve found that I somewhat like is a Melissa Sweet dress, and I hope to check that out on Tuesday at a local salon here.
So far, that’s it. Phew! There’s lots more to do, so I’ll post updates as they come!
As a newly engaged writer, I had a hard time finding the practical information I needed to plan my wedding. While the wedding books, magazines, and websites I read had pretty pictures, they seemed to just skim the surface when it came to providing helpful ways for me to create the wedding of my dreams. Now that I'm married, I hope this blog serves as a resource for all you other bride-to-be's, with unique ideas for wedding venues, wedding decorations, wedding dresses, and more!
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