bridesmaid dresses

Weddings. They're expensive.

Dresses. They're also expensive.

Weddings + dresses? HELLO expensive. I'm not talking wedding dresses, ya'll, because that's a #duh, but obviously worth every single penny (because I seriously felt like a princess!).  The dresses I'm talking about here? Bridesmaid dresses.

Have you seen a prettier group of girls? I didn't think so. 

Initially I wanted the girls to wear orange bridesmaids dresses. Then black and orange...then someone wisely pointed out that the church has a mauve-ish color carpet and that would clash horribly, so it was decided that black dresses were the way to go. Whew...glad I avoided that. Plus, black dresses, black heels and pearls - classic and beautiful.

So, the search was on for the dress. I knew I wanted them to wear something modest, I wanted something that would fit everyone well and comfortably, and I wanted Kiera to wear the same dress, or one very close to it.

After looking through a seemingly unending number of dresses online, Mag, Lori, Kristen and Kiera joined me for a trip to Alfred Angelo, who had every style you could want, and tried on dresses. Instantly a decision was made - illusion neckline.

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They all liked the dress (or at least acted like they did) - it was pretty, comfortable, modest, etc. - it met all the requirements. I wasn't a HUGE fan of the hi-lo hemline (I've never really liked them), but the dress looked nice, so I was willing to go with it. It wasn't as expensive as others we found online at least, so it would work. This dress wasn't available at the time (it's new).

And then I was let in on a secret.

Target has a "secret" bridesmaid dress line. Say what??? 

Yeah. It's true. I was shown this dress, which is half the price of the ones the girls tried on (and is even more on sale right now, if you're wedding planning!), AND I liked it more because it didn't have the funky hi-lo hemline! #winning. The girls all liked it, so it was ordered based on the size chart on the Target website, which was spot on. 

When it came in, we got a bonus: the dress has pockets. While some people *MaganAndLori* threatened to use them to store their phones to take selfies in the middle of the ceremony, that was avoided, and I think everyone loved the convenience of having pockets in their dress. And, you know how everyone says "you can even wear it again!" about their bridesmaids' dresses (or "you can shorten it and wear it again!")? The girls seriously have worn/can wear these again, because who doesn't need a new LBD? (Seriously, I have it on record!) They also come in gray, white and a whole array of fun colors, which would all be appropriate to wear outside of being a bridesmaid.

Now, Kiera wasn't going to fit in these dresses. She was 9, so there's no way one would be small enough to fit her. Enter my master seamstress Grandma Vickie. We found a similar pattern, and she made it happen. Proof:

Kiera's dress had the same chiffon top as the grown up girls, it was just cut higher, and the waistline and hem hit at the same spot. My grandma did an awesome job - I'm SO thankful she had time to make KFL's dress for me! The "junior" before "bridesmaid" meant nothing - she was a bridesmaid 100% and I wanted her to match :) 

The other dress to decide on was Julie's. I saw this dress online ages ago, and when we got engaged, I decided that would be Julie's dress. 

adorable, right?
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But, I couldn't commit. On the day I was measuring Julie to order it - basically the last day to ensure it would be here before I started getting too nervous - my mom and I got a crazy whim - let's stick her in my old pageant dress, just for fun. 

You see, I was Little Miss Tuttle in 1995, and in 1997, I passed on my title, wearing the most fabulous dress EVER. Granted, it was so totally 1997 (it has a butt bow, ya'll), but we were just trying it on... and seriously, it was fabulous, so even if we were entertaining the idea of having her wear it, it would be too crazy...right? 

Then she tried it on...and it fit. And it was adorable...and by the way she squealed into the mirror, there was no doubt that she loved it. She felt like a princess, and hello, isn't that the whole point of weddings? 

So it was decided - Julie would wear my very 1997 Little Miss Tuttle dress. But could she be any cuter?? Nope, it was absolutely perfect! (And, I just spoke with Brent, and he agreed. The 90's are back, baby,)

So, that's it - the story of my girls' dresses. 

Go read the rest of the stories from those linking up with Cassie! 

#MattAndShae: Printed "stuff"

I'll be back with more pictures tomorrow soon - let's be real, who knows if it'll be tomorrow or not! Today, I wanted to share our invitations and other printed "stuff."

One of my favorite parts about planning the wedding was getting to design everything. I am a designer in real life, so it was a real treat to make everything be exactly what I wanted. I love clean design and pretty and unique fonts, I am obsessed with monograms, and we were planning an OSU-ish wedding, so you'll see those themes come through in all our wedding designs!

We were engaged a couple of days before Christmas, and planning an early May wedding - there was no time for printed save the dates (we didn't even know if we would have time for engagement pictures! Thankfully, we did, and I love them!). So, living in 2014 as we do, we made a Facebook event page and invited people to it - with a formal invitation to follow, of course. We also made a wedding website so people could get more information.

Facebook event cover photo. Oh hey there #hashtag :)

One of the first things I had to take care of: asking the 'maids! I put together little "ring boxes" with bling and ring pops, and attached a note to "pop the question." I think they all loved them :)

Swiped this picture from Mag's instagram - I didn't get a picture of the actual boxes, but they're what she's holding in her hand :) Also, see those two adorable girls to the right? Yeah, that's us.

Magan and Lori soon started planning a girls' night to celebrate my last months of singleladyhood, and I got to design one of the invitations, which was fun because I could throw as much glitter at it as I wanted and no one could tell me no! My dear friend Brenna designed the invitations for the Bridal Brunch they hosted, and seriously, it is adorable. Go look!

For the invitations, again, I wanted something clean and simple and monogrammed. So, viola!

I wanted the entire wedding to have a cohesive feel, from the save the date to the invitations to the very last thing you saw (the rally towels, which used the same designs as everything else you see!). So, the first page of the guestbook (shown below) had our beautiful logo, and every page had a monogrammed watermark.

Of course, that means our programs were going to have the same feel, as well! Our logo & stripe-y border on the front, a watermark logo inside, and our three fonts and beautiful orange, black and gray colors.

Back and front of the program

left and right inside of the program

Again, it's 2014, so we knew people would likely be on their phones as some point during the day. Thankfully there were no dings of a text or rings of a call during the ceremony, and people used #MattAndShae on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook to let us see their view of the day - it was awesome! (especially considering in the madness of the week's injury and general busy-ness, I left the camera/tripod/remote shutter at home that went with the photobooth. No problem - that's what phones are for anyway!)

The candy bar kept our stripes & monogram feel. The "Love is sweet!" sign was framed on the table, the floats signs were on the floats, and the candy signs were like little tents, sitting in front of the candy. It was great!

Other wedding-related posts:

We're engaged!

We bought a house!

Bridal weekend

Wedding week!

#MattAndShae: The Details