The Bridesmaid Dress Search Begins!

Since I was having a destination wedding I knew I would be looking for short cocktail length bridesmaid dresses.  I thought it would be as easy as going to JCrew and picking out a dress and a color, but of course it couldn't be that easy.  I was looking for a bright green or bright purplish pink color.  Adam and I both love the color green and I have a sweatshirt that is a purplish pink color that I absolutely love the way it looks on and in pictures.  Many people suggested that I find a color I like to wear and go from there.  JCrew had colors that were cute, but just not exactly what I was looking for.  Also, their dresses were quite expensive and I didn't want to ask my bridesmaids to spend that much, so the search online began.  I ended up finding a clearance JCrew dress and ordered a few sizes to have my girls try on.  When they came in I absolutely loved the color but they weren't very flattering on all of the girls so that idea was out the door.  Back to google searching.  I ended up finding this picture as I shuffled through the millions of images related to 'bridesmaid dresses' and I really liked the color of the dresses, it was similar to the JCrew one I ordered.  A few nights later I found some pictures of this same wedding party in a magazine and again, it really stood out to me.  When I read the article in the magazine, I found out this was a destination wedding in Mexico and the bride got her bridesmaid dresses from JCrew.  I brought the picture into JCrew but of course it was an old style and old color.  I just loved how the color popped so I decided this picture would be my inspiration!  My search continued....

My color inspiration

I looked at the hundreds of pantone colors in The Dessy Group, then looked at David's Bridal, After Six, Alfred Angelo, etc. etc. etc. but just couldn't find what I was looking for.   I ended up going to a few places to look and ended up finding the perfect dress at House of Brides in Chicago.  It was a Watters and Watters dress.  They had the perfect colors and I loved the style...but the price was too high.  I found an Alfred Angelo dress that I liked as well that was more in my budget but of course I didn't love the color.  I went back and forth about it for a long time and ended up calling The Wedding Shoppe in St. Paul, MN (where I bought my gown).  Carolyn was able to help me out and get the price of the Watters and Watters dress down a bit and since it was MN, we didn't have to pay sales tax!  Thank you Carolyn!!  I decided to go with the jewel color (bright purplish pink) and they turned out to be the perfect dresses.  My goal was to have the colors POP and they sure did!  Bridesmaid dresses....check!

My bridesmaid dresses

Will you be my bridesmaid?

Now it came the time to ask my bridesmaids.  I had thought about who I would ask for years now...probably starting in high school.  I always loved the discussions with friends about who we would have stand up for us someday....without even having a boyfriend at the time :)  Obviously, I would have my sister be my maid of honor.  Even though we have had our ups and downs as sisters, I love her so much and couldn't think of anyone else I would want to stand by my side on my wedding day.  Then comes Kristin, my sister-in-law....but basically you can erase the -in-law part as I feel as though she is a sister.  She has been with my brother for over 13 years so she has been around almost half of my life.  I decided to ask her to be my matron of honor so I could have both of my "sisters" stand with me.  For my bridesmaids, I asked Angie, Nikki, Britta, and Ashley.  Angie and Nikki are my best friends from high school and Britta and Ashley are my best friends from college.

So I wanted to ask them in somewhat of a fun way.  I took the "L" to Paper Source, which would end up being my sanctuary for idea searching throughout the wedding planning process.  And of course, they opened a new store on my street a few months later and the ladies knew me by name.  Anyways, I searched the store to find some fun or creative way that went with the destination wedding theme.  I ended up finding the perfect thing!  Rather than calling each person I decided to give them each a luggage tag with a quote and the question, 'Will you be my Bridesmaid?' on the back.  I decided to take the girls that lived in Chicago (Kristin, Nikki and Angie) to a Mexican restaurant to ask them and then mailed one to Alyssa and Britta.  I hand delivered it to my friend Ashley since I would be going to visit her the following weekend.  What a fun experience to ask my closest friends to stand with me on one of the most important days of my life.

The Quest for the Perfect Dress

So I didn't find my dress on the first day, although I had tried it on that day without knowing it until later.   After the first attempt, I spent hours on the computer looking up dresses and shuffling through magazines to find the perfect dress.  I also spent many hours with my sister-in-law and some of my friends looking at bridal stores throughout all of Chicagoland.  I found 3 dresses that I really liked but just couldn't decide and needed my mom and sisters opinion.

Finally, I decided to go back to Minnesota and go shopping with my mom and sister one more time.  We had another appointment filled day ahead of us and this time we were really on a mission.  My friend Britta met us at our first appointment at Bella Bridesmaid in Wayzata, MN.  I found a few that I really liked but wasn't quite sure, so we headed to the next appointment at the Wedding Shoppe in St. Paul, MN.  I walked up to the store and there was a beautiful dress in the window.  When I got closer, it looked a lot like another dress I had been trying on in Chicago so I knew it was one I needed to try on.  Since I had been there one other time, they looked up my name and they said they had written down my 2 favorite dresses from last time and would bring those to the dressing room.  I also asked for the dress in the window and later found out it was one of the ones I wrote down the first time I was there (when I had strep).  We got upstairs and trudged through the hundreds of white gowns but this time we had a much better idea of what I was looking for.  I tried on many dresses and then tried on the one in the window....I loved it!  When I saw my mom, sister's, and Britta's reaction, I knew that my decision was made.  This one was perfect!  I guess it took me weeks to dwell over in order to find the perfect dress which was actually right there in front of me the whole time.  I felt like I needed to add something to the dress so I decided to add a flower to it from another dress...this way I felt like I made it my own. :)  I ordered it right then and there and was so relieved the I had found my dress!  Bridal gown...check!

On to the next step...Wedding Gown!

Adam and I went back to Minnesota to visit my family and celebrate our engagement.  While I was home, I planned to go dress shopping for the first time with my mom, sister, and a few friends.  I flew in with my friend Nikki, who had also recently been engaged and in the process of planning a destination wedding.  We had a beer at the airport and she gave me a bridal magazine and the movie "Bride Wars" (which fit as we were 2 best friends about to get married).  Our flight was so much fun, looking at wedding magazines and discussing our upcoming weddings!  Near the end of our flight we found ourselves with our hands clenched together since it felt like someone had grabbed a hold of the plane and was tossing us through the air.  When we landed we were so relieved.  We met both of our families outside the airport and Nikki and I got to show off our new rings!!  Wow, we had waited many years to be able to do that.

Saturday morning - woke up with the most awful sore throat.  I tiredly tromped down the stairs to meet my ever so awake mother at 7 am that was all organized and ready for a day of bridal gown shopping. I decided to eat some breakfast and drink some coffee to see if it would make my throat feel better.  While I was eating, my mom gave me a mother-daughter figurine of a mom putting a necklace around the daughters neck on her wedding day.  Wow, was it a tear jerker.  Now I was picturing myself on my wedding day and it got so real.  That was such a special moment with my mom I will never forget.  I thought maybe I would forget about my sore throat with all of the excitement, but no it just kept getting worse. I got ready and went straight to the minute clinic to get a step test.  Within 2 minutes I had a positive test and was putting my prescription in.  Adam had just arrived in MN and so my dad and brother were picking him up from the airport when all of this was happening.  Our first appointment to try on wedding gowns was at David's Bridal at 11:00 am and it was 10:55 am.  My mom, sister, and I jumped in the van with the attitude 'David's Bridal or bust' while my dad, brother, and Adam drove to CVS to pick up my prescription.  It was a team effort :)  We ended up going to 4 different appointments and met up with 2 of my closest friends to try on dresses.  I had a fabulous day with my ladies even though I had white spots on my throat. :)

Later that night, we had friends come over to my parents house for a BBQ/Bonfire.  We had such a fun time celebrating our engagement with our friends!  I was a trooper and stayed up until 2:00 am playing a few raging games of bean bag toss and drinking beers by the fire.  Good times! 

Let the wedding planning begin!

So Adam and I had decided long ago that our plan was to have a Destination Wedding.  About 2 years before we got engaged, we had traveled to Costa Rica and that is where we were hoping to eventually get hitched.  While we were there, we met a man who gave us a business card with the name of a woman and her e-mail address that works for Tropical Occasions, a wedding planning company in Costa Rica.  He told us if we ever wanted to get married in the area to contact her.  After we got engaged, I looked around and found that business card that I had kept around...just in case :)  I contacted the woman and revved up my engines for starting the planning.  As we contacted multiple travel agents, we kept hearing the same thing, it's way over your budget.  We were wanting our guests to be able to fly to our destination and stay 4 nights in an all-inclusive hotel for around the $1000 ballpark.  Adam and I kept going back and forth with what to do.  Ultimately, we wanted to make sure our friends and family would be able to come and be with us on our day so we decided that Costa Rica was going to be a favorite travel location rather than the place we get married.  We worked with Carol, our travel agent from Cruise Holidays, and she did a fabulous job of helping us find a location and resort that would better suit our budget.  We finally came upon Secrets Silversands in Puerto Morelos, Mexico!  Adam and I looked at the pictures online and we knew that this was the place!  Finally, after weeks of pondering, lots of emotions, and hours on the phone with our travel agent, we got the first step accomplished....we booked out resort!