Inspiration in Atlanta

I went to Atlanta last week for a conference and stayed at the Omni at the CNN Center downtown. I was surprised to find one of my potential wedding flowers in one of the lobbies - because it's not a common flower. {At least I didn't think so!} The flower is a pin-cushion protea, and as you can see it's quite tropical. What I like about it is that it's somewhere between orange and red. My florist is putting a sample bouquet together for me next week because I am having trouble picturing how all the flowers we've discussed are going to mesh. I will be sure to post photos of it.





I also saw pretty orchids in rectangular vases with ... AQUA marbles in the bottom. I thought they were cute and of course the right color!

Fun Photos

Here are some photos from the first days and minutes after Robbie & I got engaged. It's fun to look back on them. My only regret is that my hair was really short. My mom has always warned me not to cut my hair really short because it's not as flattering, but I continue to do it! Thankfully, it's grown out considerably now. Enjoy!

This was minutes after Robbie proposed. It was approx. 6:45 a.m. on Christmas Eve.



I obviously didn't get a photo of Zoe wearing the ring around her collar for the actual proposal, so I put it back on her to get some photos. Dad calls her "FedEx" now.

My ring. I painted my fingernails to make it show up better. :)

At Robbie's parents' house the next day, Christmas Day.

Lovely Lori London Flowers

I am using two silk flowers in the wedding. Well, in my wardrobe really. One is going in my hair, and the other is being added to my dress. The runner-up wedding dress had a flower on it, so I decided I would get the best of both worlds by adding a flower to my dress.

These flowers are by Lori London.

Hair flower. This is the actual one I am wearing.

In my hair. This is the sample from the bridal salon.

This is the actual flower to be added to the dress.

Me in my dress with a sample flower.

"I Do" Shoes!

If I ever find the magic wedding shoes, I know exactly what I want to do with them. Check out this photo.

Is this the coolest idea or what? I am totally stealing it. I will probably use blue (aqua) letters too!

This photo was taken by La Dolce Vita Studio.

Not a Winning Shoe

The good news is my aqua Nine West shoes arrived in the mail. The bad news is, I don't think they are THE wedding shoes. I like them, and I like the color, but I think they look a little too much like "going out" shoes. Since they were fairly inexpensive, I am planning to keep them to wear for something else. I'll probably take them on the honeymoon too.

Do you agree?

So the search continues!

A Turquoise & Red Wedding in Destin

I was recently looking at my bridal salon's blog and saw a few photos of a recent wedding that had a turquoise & red scheme. I looked a little closer at the bride and realized I knew her. She is a friend of one of my bridesmaids. I did some searching to find more photos from the wedding because I enjoy looking at photos from other weddings with similar color schemes. I found them on the blog of Pure 7 Studios.

I like the use of the paper lanterns at the end of each aisle below. {This wedding was in Destin.}

A Sneak Peek at the Bridesmaid Dresses

Picking out bridesmaid dresses turned out to be harder than I expected. Deciding on the color, aqua, was fairly easy; it was the style that I wasn't sure about. I had several people try on potential bridesmaid dresses: my bridal consultant, a bridesmaid, and even me! The biggest problem seemed to be that I would find a dress I liked, but it would come in the shade of blue I wanted. I had this color in my mind that I wanted, but it was hard to express or describe it. As my mom would say, growing up I would create something in my mind and ask her to find it. I wouldn't be able to explain it, but I would expect her to find it. (Sorry, Mom!) So needless to say, this perfect shade of aqua became rather elusive. The ladies at Solutions Bridal, specifically Tali, were amazing during all of this!

Another constraint was price. I couldn't in good faith ask my bridesmaids to spend $250 or $300 on a dress. So I decided to hit the Internet, as I often do, when I'm looking for something specific. It's just easier than physically going to a bunch of stores. I started searching J.Crew's Web site and ... voila! I some amazing dresses at a better price point and in a very neat shade of aqua. It's actually called "tropical aqua." (J.Crew has an amazing selection of wedding attire, by the way.)

My girls (five, possibly six) got to choose between two dress: a strapless and a halter. The idea was to hopefully have a few in each style, though. Thankfully, that's how it turned out! As of now, three are wearing the halter and two are wearing the strapless.

Here they are!







I am very happy with these dresses and can't wait to see them on everyone! If any of my bridesmaids want to agree to let me put the photos of them trying on their dresses on the blog, I would love to. But I won't do it without your permission. :)

The next decision that needs to be made is the shoe color. What do you think of silver? Or would a nude color be better?