Always a bridesmaid...

Watters Dress

Now the time has come to decide what they should wear. I've searched online through many different styles of dresses, checked out department stores for fresh ideas and picked the brain of everyone around me that I can to come up with something that will work for my venues. Yes, I said venues. I'm still debating on having a small wedding in Belize at a Mayan temple. Time and finances will determine that outcome. However, my main focus right now is to find a dress that will suit my main venue, the local wedding. 

The dress needs to be light and summery. I do not want my girls to wear long dresses that will be heavy, hot and irritating to move around in. I have to take into consideration the fact that this will be partially outdoors and partially indoors. The facility has a lot of grass and dust, since it is an old west town. There will be the fact that it will probably be over 90 degrees outside, being that it's in September in Texas. I don't want to look back at my pictures to see a bunch of sweaty women who were miserable and uncomfortable. 

Sophi Tolli

So, back to the topic. This past weekend I ventured out to Fort Worth to give that rustic city a shot at what they had to offer. I rounded up three of the four bridesmaids and off we went, down to historic Camp Bowie blvd to find dresses. We ended up at a place called Ocones at the suggestion of one of the bridesmaids, Vanessa. She said she purchased her dress there and they were wonderful about it. 

The little lady who helped us was so sweet and cute, she reminded me of my grandmother. She suggested a fabric that was soft to match my dress. She pulled out a few that she thought would work, and after a few rounds of yea's and neigh's, we got closer to the concept. 

We finally narrowed the options down to two choices. One was a Watters/Wtoo dress and the other was a Sophia Tolli dress. The Watters dress is very light and flowing. It is a chiffon knee length dress with draped bodice, a sweetheart neckline and a sash at the waist. It looked very comfortable and comes in several different color choices. The link to the site where you can see the different colors on the dress is Here.

The Sophia Tolli dress has a different look, and honestly, looks more like it would fit in with the theme of the wedding. It is a strapless taffeta tea-length slim A-line dress with an elegant sweetheart neckline. It has a gathered bodice with a ribbon sash and ruffled hemline. It also has a corset back closure, which makes it slimming and better fitting. Here is a link to see this dress. The one shown is the slate/coffee colored dress, and I actually kind of like that color combination. 

Much Happier!

So I had Bonnie and Vanessa try on these dresses and though I didn't get a picture of them in everything I did capture one of Vanessa in this Sophia Tolli dress. I have to say, this dress actually made her smile, as opposed to some of the other dresses she's tried on with me. 

So you can see how happy
she is in this dress...
and who can blame her?

Vanessa modeled this dress for us and here's what she looked like in it. She was quite happy in this dress as you can see here, but this was not the case for other dresses she tried on in the past.  Let's take a look at some of the other dresses that didn't make the cut.

This first dress, though pretty on the rack, certainly was not the dress of the day. In fact I can say that it got a rousing "hell no" out of my bridesmaid. I did like the colors on the dress, but the point was made that the colors may clash with my own dress. 

So this dress was scrapped. I had my lovely bridesmaid try on another dress, that again, I thought was pretty. But it turns out that pretty only extended so far as the hanger it was held on. 

You can see in the following pictures how elegant the second dress is. It had beautiful bead work on the neckline and had a pretty corset back which flowed into two colors, but it was a little to formal and would over power the wedding dress and didn't fit the venue at all.

Although I do have to say, I did at least manage to get a smile out of Vanessa on that first one. It only took some coaxing. (And mostly showing her the picture again. That made her laugh!)

Location, Location, Location!

It's all about the location, right? Well in most cases yes. This is not an exception to that rule either. Back in August of 2010, Heath and I decided we wanted to have a destination wedding and we chose Belize as the place to be. It is beautiful, has so many options for scenery, and doesn't have to be decorated! And we wanted something very authentic and memorable. Belize offered all of this, and more. We wanted the ceremony held at a Mayan temple and the reception back at the hotel or on the beach. With Belize's beautiful canopy jungles and natural colorful flora, it would be the perfect spot to have a beautiful wedding/honeymoon all in one place. 

After some rather bad news though, regarding a very special family member who wouldn't be able to make the trip, we decided to circle the wagons and reconsider our options. Even though we were told not to change our plans, there was no way I wasn't going to have my step father present at my wedding. So, we put our heads together and came up with the only logical solution (which was pretty easy since we were getting one heck of a deal on the place) which was to have it at Storybook ranch, where we board the horses at!

This works out rather well since I've kind of always wanted to have horses involved in my wedding. I always though of just having a carriage or something, but actually having them standing by is way more fun! The place is located in Frisco, Texas and is next door to where we currently stable the horses. The owner is a friend of ours and a jovial person with a big heart. 

I wanted to share some of the pictures of the venue so you can get an idea of what we have in mind. It's an old historic western town motif. A lot of the buildings have been transported in from elsewhere to make up this "storybook" western town. 

There is a little white chapel where you can have an out door wedding in front of the steps of the quaint church. Or if you rather have a less traditional wedding, but still have the iconic representation of a wedding, you can have the ceremony in front of the pond which sits about 100 yards in front of the church. This picturesque setting places the church in the background of the ceremony and makes for beautiful pictures. 

For more of a natural setting without the embellishment of buildings in the background, you could have the ceremony in front of the waterfall feature. This area has a lot of room for guests and can accommodate a number of seating options. Or if you prefer, you can get even closer to nature and have the ceremony down by the sparkling creek with the limestone bed. This setting is picturesque for nature lovers.  

One wedding party  chose to have their ceremony in front of the historic town hotel. This created a unique and beautiful western setting for a wonderfully creative wedding. The bridesmaids greeted guests atop the hotel balcony as their guests were seated, and for the ceremony, the bridal party moved down in front of the hotel. There they met the bride and groom on the porch of the hotel entrance to say their vows. 

For the reception, they have two main halls and an outdoor gazebo setting to accommodate large groups. I particularly like the Opry house. It will hold up to 300 guests and has a rich wooden interior which paints the perfect setting for a western themed wedding.

The saloon style bar sets the mood for a night in the old west, back when Billy the Kid rode and Marshal Dillon ruled the streets. You can almost imagine a gun-slinger sliding up to the bar stools and ordering a shot of whiskey, while the pianist plays a lively tune. Decorations consist of a western motif, using lots of wood, saddlery and other natural designs. 

I have considered using this building for both the ceremony and reception as it also has a beautiful stage with two staircases leading from the upper balcony down to the dance floor, right in front of the stage. 

The ceremony could be held on the stage with enough room all around for guests to watch around the dance floor. After the ceremony, while pictures are being taken, the band can set up on stage and entertain the guests. Guests can also filter to the streets of the town and wander around and take their own memorable pictures while bridal party pictures are being taken.  

The town itself is a cut out representation of the west, with many unique buildings, such as a bank, general store, hotel, a livery (stable), blacksmith, saloon and a jail. Each building sets the romantic theme of the 1800's, virtually putting the visitor back at the OK Coral where they can practically see themselves standing next to Virgil and Wyatt Earp . With horses added to the mix, the guests can experience a unique old fashioned western wedding, where once whole towns gathered together in the square to dance and celebrate with their loved ones on these special occasions. I think this will be a fun and entertaining celebration that won't be forgotten.

Say YES to the dress!

I finally decided on a dress. It was the one that made me smile when I put it on even 7 months after trying it on the first time. I guess you could say I walked away from it and slept on it a while, and it still came up in my mind, so I know it is the right choice.

How did I decide on this dress you may wonder? Well, let me give you the back story. Back in August of 2010, when my mom, sister, one of my bridesmaid and I went to look at dresses one Saturday afternoon and happened into a bridal shop in Southlake to try on dresses. This was the first round of dress shopping that kicked off the 7 month procession of looking for "the dress". This particular shop was about the third one we had been to that day. 

It had more selection that the other two stores that day, so we thought it would be a good place to get some ideas of what styles work with my body type. So we searched the racks for several dresses and I tried on different types. I found two that really stuck with me, but of course time and other things came up between August and last Saturday, in which I forgot about the dresses. 

Fast forward to last Saturday, the 6th of March. I woke up thinking about dresses and remembered the shop in Southlake. I thought I'd give them a call and set an appointment to try on dresses again, and maybe look at those two again. I called and spoke to a girl named Sharon. I asked her when I had been in last and she reminded me that it had been in August. I asked her what dresses I looked at back then and she looked it up. She said one of them she had a name of and the other only a stock number. But the one with the stock number was discontinued and she only had two left, one of which was the color I liked that she had on her card. That one couldn't be ordered from the designer any more as they were discontinued.

She said the other one was also a last season dress, and though it hasn't been discontinued yet, the designer was going to stop making that design, and they were going to stop ordering it. It too was on the sale rack.So I asked her for the name and the stock number and looked them up online. I found one of them to be the Suzanne, which I liked a lot, but it wasn't the one I thought it was. The other one I couldn't find, which worried me because I thought this was the one she was talking about that had been discontinued. I asked her if I could come see the dresses that day and she said she had an opening at 1pm. 

All I had planned on was going up and looking at them to remind myself of which ones they were. When I got there, she had them pulled up and ready to go. I tried them both on and remembered why I liked the second one above the first one I looked at. Though they were really both very beautiful, I liked the lace one with the smaller train much better. I asked her which one was discontinued and it happened to be the "Suzanne" which I didn't like as much anyway. 

So, I took a few pictures in the one I liked and noticed how I was smiling in all of the photos with it on. I loved the color of the dress, the detail and design of the dress, how it flowed when I moved in it, and how light weight it was. It combined a lot of the things I liked and wanted. This was the perfect dress for me. I also remembered my mom and sister liking this dress a lot also when we first looked. 

This had to be fate, so I called my mom and said "I found the dress, and the best part is it's on sale." I think that made her day because when we first looked at these dresses they were around $1500. Now they were half that price.

So, the dress I ended up picking is one of the very first dresses I looked at with my mom and sister, which makes it that much more special since both have really not been able to be with me together to look at dresses since that day in August. Also, the day this dress is scheduled to "arrive" is July 25th, which is the day Heath asked me to marry him last year. 

Everything about this dress just points to being the dress for me. It's the perfect length in the train, the perfect color, the right kind of lace, easy to move and dance in, the right kind of cut, will fit both venues, will arrive on a special date, and was the one everyone looked at together.

So naturally, I had to say "Yes" to that dress!

Here they come, walking down the isle...

~Hey, Hey it's the bridesmaids, walking down the isle!~ Ok, so it's not the start of a Monkeys song, but it does make my point. So this past weekend my mom and I spent some time together and came up with some great ideas for what the bridesmaids will carry down the isle. 

We went to Michael's and found some great lanterns, and it so happens they were in the perfect colors with two of each color left on their clearance rack. We grabbed them up and a few other items to decorate them with and so began our collective creativity.

Instead of the traditional flowers, I want something different for me and my bridesmaids to carry. I still haven't figured out what I will carry, but at least I have the beginnings of what the girls will carry. With a lantern, an electric candle, some moss and grasses and some feathers, you can see the prototype of what we designed. 

 So from my original idea of having a hurricane lamp, which is apparently very hard to find, we came up with this idea from what we found on the shelves at Michael's. 

Not only is it unique and original, but it lights up! I love the way the candle light on the inside illuminates the little terrarium designed on the inside. It's hard to see in this photo, but it is very pretty with its soft glow.

Now this is not the final product, only the beginning stages of the idea. I am thinking it will have some moss on the outside at the base, and some dangling beads or ribbons or something on the side to balance out the feathers. 

There are two colors, green glass and brown glass. They will be opposite of each other and each girl will get one depending on their dress color.

After the ceremony, each lamp can be placed on a table as a center piece as well, serving multiple functions. Since the ceremony will be at dusk, these will be very pretty when they are lit up and on display. 

I'll post up the final image of them when they are done. Now to think about other decorations!