Bridesmaid dress hunt

On Monday, I got the itch to be productive, wedding wise, and told myself the hunt for a bridesmaid dress must begin. I had looked online here and there but nothing compares to seeing it in person. My mom and sister joined me at Macy's in Herald Square. The vibe of the bridal salon there compared to one in Manhasset, where I got my wedding dress, was completely different. It's not that the Manhattan location didn't have a nice staff. They just seemed tired and like they didn't want to be there. Nonetheless, they were nice enough to take me without an appointment! We went with the notion of "just looking" but then I did actually see a dress I liked! So the lady was able to take care of us before her appointment arrived.

I didn't have her try on many, since like I said, we didn't have an appointment. She put on different colors. Here was one. If I were having a spring or summer wedding, I would have absolutely gone with a shade like that!

In this one she's holding the dress I wanted her to try on, lol.

All the different shades.

             

          

 Bill Levkoff 496 in navy blue

At first Robyn was not digging the navy blue on her. We were both not expecting to try anything on, so she didn't come with her hair done or makeup on (not that she needs it to look pretty but you know how girls are!) so I convinced her that navy blue did look good on her. 

Isn't she nuts? I thought she looked great! She didn't have the sleeves up for the picture. I thought maybe to make her stand out as maid-of-honor she could add something sparkly around her waist or something. The other colors provided for this dress don't really fit the color scheme. I'm going for a fall look, think blues, orange, white, gold. I would put her in gold but the only color close to that is canary yellow. Too bright! Unless I change the color scheme and add purple (as an accent color) to the blue. The options are endless, really!

Robyn had asked me, why this brand? I heard many good things about Bill Levkoff's line and had seen enough to know I liked it. Plus, if this story isn't endorsement enough, I don't know what is!

I saw these pictures in October of Danielle Fishel's wedding (ya know, Topanga from Boy Meets World) and the dresses looked gorgeous. I had saved them to my phone for inspiration and Gina (one of my bridesmaids) sent me a link to those pictures shortly after! Great minds think alike! When Danielle posted a link to her pictures, I asked where these dresses were from.

And she actually responded! And was very sweet, too.

The best part of our time spent at Macy's was that they had my dress in the store! So I got to try it on again, which was much appreciated since I was starting to forget what it looked like on me! As an added bonus, they let me take pictures in it, which I couldn't do in Manhasset. I really appreciate that because now I have a visual. As an added bonus, my mom got me the headpiece to wear the day of! (Thanks mom <3) It's pretty and sparkly and that's good enough for me! It should come in by next month. This will be good to have so I can take with me to a hair trial. Speaking of hair, this is the one thing that I am clueless about. As of today, I don't have a set person or set style in mind. I would love to use the woman who does my highlights but it's not just me getting my hair done and I don't think she does weddings in that capacity. I did find one girl based in Astoria whose work looks really nice so I will contact her. At least I know she won't have to travel far! 

So far, January is starting off on the right foot! Not only in terms of checking things off the to-do list but also because right before the New Year, Jonathan started a new job! A friend of his from grade school (who just so happened to witness Jonathan proposing the night of! Small world right?!) hooked him up. The company is based in the Empire State Building so his commute hasn't changed much; he used to work in Rockefeller Center. Not only that but from my house in Woodside, when walking to the train, you can see the Empire State Building, so it's like I get to "see" him, if I'm in the area while he's at work. This job couldn't have better timing! Thank the good Lord. Too bad nothing opened up in California! ;)

Hello, October

It's hard to believe it's already October. This time next year will be that eerie calm before the storm, since it's our wedding month. In fact, it's a wedding month for a lot of people. October seems to be the June of the fall wedding season! We have two weddings this month and I'm really looking forward to both. The first is this Saturday at Woodbury Country Club. We were actually going to visit it during the venue search, as it's right by Crest Hollow Country Club, which we did get to visit. However, we had gotten to CHCC so late that by the time it was over, WCC probably wasn't going to show anyone around. Not only that but we were all tired and hungry so we skipped out on it. Obviously no regrets there as shortly later we found Chateau Briand. But I am looking forward to seeing WCC. Not only that but I think the wedding planning was done by Fairy Tale Events, and I wanted to use some of their products, so I'm really curious how it turns out.

The second wedding is on the 18th at Sand Castle. Jonathan has known the groom for many years and I got to know Anthony and his soon-to-be-wife Bryn through him. They are a fun couple and so I know this wedding is going to be one heck of a night. Not only that but Sand Castle was a place I fell in love with during our search, so I like that we get to go to a wedding there and attend it as a guest and not as potential bride and groom.

Last night, we checked out a limo recommendation from two friends of ours who got married last year. We met with the owner and talked about what we would need; he ran some numbers and it all looked good. Jonathan's parents are generously taking care of the limo so we wanted to run it by them first before signing anything. The transportation was one of those things that I felt were hanging over our heads. I didn't want to wait too long to check 'limo' off the list of things to do, but even though we didn't sign any contracts, getting our information in their books was good enough for me, for now. The name of the company is Nowstar Limo and I'm definitely liking what they offer.

On Tuesday, Kim and I met up at the Michael's in the Upper West Side. I worked in the Upper East Side many years ago and can probably walk around blindfolded there and still get around. But when it comes to the Upper West Side, it's foreign territory. That's why I was nicely surprised to see a whole shopping area on Columbus Avenue between 97th and 100th streets. Will definitely have to go again. I'd like to say Michael's was a success! Check out the goodies I left with:

Prior to this visit, I didn't really know what color could accent the navy blue I wanted to use in the color scheme. I knew the flowers would have blues, whites, orange and maybe some yellow. The intention of the Michael's visit was to check out things to make the seating place cards with. (We ultimately decided not to go with the seating chart.) They didn't have a pumpkin paper puncher as I was hoping but they did have leaves. I decided maybe that was a good thing. I don't want to overdo the whole pumpkin thing. So once the leaves were decided on, we were trying to figure out what color. Then Kim suggested....what about gold? Brilliant! It's the perfect fall color. Sunny yellow would be too much and I didn't want that anyway. But gold complements blue nicely, especially a darker shade of blue like navy. I'm excited to test these out. 

The Tuesday before that, two of my bridesmaids decided to come with me to try on dresses, just to see what would look good on them. Alex (my aunt) came and took her two daughters, who are also playing flower girls for the wedding, as well as Tiffany (one of my oldest friends.) I have to say, they were great sports about trying on dress after dress! In Woodside, where my parents and aunt live, there is a David's Bridal within walking distance from the house. We didn't feel like sticking the kids in the car for a drive to Long Island so we decided to stay local. It was fun seeing them in dresses and you know what? They looked great in anything they tried on! Good problems to have, huh? I like David's Bridal but I know I don't want to use them. There were dresses though, that even if I didn't like, these girls made it look great! 

They didn't have many sample dresses in navy but this was style they mutually liked. Ayla saw her mommy change and wanted to get in on the action, lol. (Hence why she has no clothes on in this picture).

I looooved Tiffany in this dress! The sash is a dark purple and it compliments the pink so well. If I were doing a spring or summer wedding, I would have considered this color combo. 

It was an eventful afternoon and made me excited for picking out the dresses for real. Even Ayla was checking out dresses for herself!

I could only handle one kid running around so Eliza was in her stroller the entire time, hogging my phone :-P

Oh! And in the spirit of weddings...today is my parents' 28th wedding anniversary :) This was them at my mom's prom. The 'fros, the ruffles...yep, this was the 80s all right!