Wedding Fashion - an industry in itself.

Well, I haven't posted in a while...I'd like to use the excuse that not a lot of wedding stuff has happened in the last month but actually the opposite is true. A TON of wedding stuff has happened but I have not had the time (or energy) to post about it. Though in all fairness some stuff was, and is still, not quite decided upon.

First things first...Do you remember in my last post how I said I'd found my wedding shoes?

Well I was wrong. While these shoes are gorgeous they have two drawbacks:

1). The back slips off if I walk too much (like from 1 side of my living room to the other). This *might* be fixable with ball of the foot pads to push my foot back a little but that's a gamble. And...

2). They're not these shoes:

These shoes may make their debut at Christmas. Stay Tuned.

The photo that I grabbed off of Nordstrom's website doesn't do them justice. They are purple Enzo Angiolini "Thaddea", 5'' (with a 1'' platform) peep-toes which are surprisingly comfortable and made of real leather. *Droooooool* Unfortunately, they were neither free nor cheap, but were actually exactly the budgeted price I had for wedding shoes - $110. Now, if you count the green reception shoes and the flip flops, that makes my total wedding shoe expenditure about $165. But hey, unlike a lot of other things about the wedding, the shoes are an investment for life. Most men and a lot of women still probably won't understand this, but those of you that do...you know. ;-) 

And y'all had thought I'd already found the perfect shoes....

My phone didn't capture the purple very well so I messed with the colors to make it look more vintage-y. 

Next, I'm happy to say that I have chosen bridesmaid dresses!  Some of the bridesmaids and I decided somewhat last minute to go to David's Bridal one day. I ended up choosing two styles because one of the styles was being discontinued and on sale for like $35.00 (Style B). Unfortunately, not everyone can wear that style because of certain future plans and living distance. So the second style (style A) is normal priced $90 (though the website says $99) or so but will still be able to be bought. The discontinued one is now only available in "honeydew" sizes 2, 4 and 20s - And now it's only $29.00.  But who wants to wear "honeydew" anyway?!

Unfortunately, both dresses didn't carry the purple that I wanted:

Style A in "Plum"

We briefly discussed using this purple for the girls on my side (7 of them, 1 out of town & one needing above style) and a green for the girls on Math's side (2 of them, both out of town). But I actually didn't like any of the green options that either style came in. Also I thought it would be a pretty unflattering color on anyone.

Style A in "Clover"

So I decided on black for both styles. Since the fabric is the same, the dresses will match nicely, though the above style will need to be shortened for sure. Another upside about black is that everyone will definitely be able to wear them again! Also since each dress is probably going to need to be altered since both styles are so fitted, that means that each girl will have a really sexy custom black dress. *ow ow* To add some color, my mom and I (and possibly one of my awesome bridesmaids) are going to make taffeta sashes in Plum and Chartreuse.

Style B. This color, "Pistachio", is the only color advertised on the site. Yuck.

Lastly, I went to a bridal show a few weeks ago and started talking to Al's Formal Wear people about Tuxedos.  I managed to get $50 off each tuxedo rental for a $10 deposit. That's 50x9 = $450 total off! Now we're not paying for the guys' rentals, just like we're not paying for the girls' dresses but still that's a significant savings for each dude. Plus, we get the groom's free with 5 rentals! That part definitely does save us money!

Al's has a cool tuxedo creator here: http://www.alsformalwear.com/byt-page.asp where I made these two lovely styles:

One word: TAILS!!! And Oxfords or whatever they're called...how awesome is that? I'm thinking...matching pocket squares? We're going to set up an appointment on Sunday to get Math measured and look more. Excited!!

Phew, fashion is fun but exhausting.