Over the past couple of weeks, I have been gearing up for a trip down to South Florida (where I will be getting married in April), to visit with vendors to button down details for my wedding.  Most of the decisions that Hydrangea Dude and I have had to decide have been fairly easy, with little road bumps.  One debate that we are in the midst of now is paying for my bridesmaids hair and makeup the day of the wedding.  Since I am having a wedding out of town and most of my bridesmaids live away from me, most of my events including the wedding, bridal shower, and bachelorette, will require them to travel to attend.  With the bridesmaid dress purchase as well, I am in the midst of debate on if I should pay for their hair and makeup.

PRO: It will help to aid some financial costs of your bridesmaids, it will be a fun way for you to bond the morning of your wedding, everyone will look beautiful in pictures, it’s the least I could do since I am making them travel

NEG: It costs A LOT to pay for all of my bridal party (with myself, my 8 bridesmaids, a flower girl and 2 mothers = 11 total), Bridesmaids will feel pressured into feeling like they have to get their hair and makeup done, makes the wedding feel more formal

After much debate with friends and my fiancé, I have decided to go forward and pay for all the ladies hair and makeup on that day.  I love the girls in my wedding so much and want them to understand how much I appreciate them being for me, not only on that day, but all the days that have lead up to it.  Also, I do think it will be a great way to have fun and relax before I walk down the aisle.  What did you do on your wedding day or what do you think you will do?

Save the Dates

It is about seven months away from our wedding, so this week we will be sending save-the-dates out to our friends and family.  Since our wedding is a destination wedding for most (we live in Atlanta and the wedding takes place in Fort Lauderdale, FL), we thought it was important to send save-the-dates out so that our guests have enough time to plan for the event.  There was a lot of planning that went into choosing the right save the date for us.  We were engaged nine months ago, so we have taken a look at every book of invitations ever made and perused every website there is imaginable to find one that we thought would best fit the two of us.

Choosing between traditional, modern or DIY save-the-dates is no easy task.  With so many choices, it is hard to pick one that meets all your needs.  Here are a few we found:

We ultimately decided to do the DIY route.  We used magnetstreetweddings.com to create our custom save-the-date postcard.  We used one of the images from our engagement session on front and provided all the information on the back.

What did you do for your save the dates?

Hydrangea Dude and I got engaged nine months ago and are excited about our upcoming wedding in April.  Once we got engaged, we knew that there were a few vendors we wanted to secure right away including the photographer.  In my opinion, a great photographer is very important in capturing what will be the best day of my life, so I wanted to make sure I did my research.  After a friend recommendation, we chose Emily Harris Photography, a photographer who works near where we will be married in South Florida.  After meeting Emily in person, we knew that she would be a perfect match for our personalities as well as capture beautiful moments.

One thing we debated right away was getting engagement pictures.  I don’t know about any of you future brides, but for some reason, I just couldn’t understand why we needed pictures of ourselves all lovey dovey and posed before our actual wedding.  In my head, I wanted to be different and not send out a photo as a save the date, so I just couldn’t see the reason why to do it.  So, we debated.  Should we get engagement pictures or have Emily come and take pictures at our rehearsal dinner as well?

Here the rest of our photos

In the end, we decided to go with the engagement photo shoot.  And to my complete surprise, I LOVED THE PICTURES.  It captured Hydrangea Dude and I’s personality perfectly and combined some great close-up pictures, but also great shots of us in our natural fun-loving environment.  We can’t wait to see what she has in store for our wedding.

What did you end up doing? Did you go with the engagement session or do something different?

Pretty much as soon as Hydrangea dude and I got engaged, the first order of business in regards to wedding planning was…choosing the venue.  As I am sure most brides-to-be can agree, choosing the venue is one of the first (and most likely) the hardest decision to make.  With wedding venues booking up more than a year in advance, I knew my fiancé and I had to get on the bandwagon and fast and choose where we wanted to hold our dream wedding.

The first step was choosing the actual city we wanted to get married in.  Since most of my extended family is in Illinois, I grew up in North Carolina, my parents live in Orlando and I currently live in Atlanta, it was no easy task choosing a location that was convenient for everyone.  We ended up deciding on a semi-destination wedding in Fort Lauderdale, FL, where Hydrangea dude is from.  Since most of my family and friends would be traveling in for the wedding, not matter what, we decided on Ft. Lauderdale, since it was one of our favorite places to go.  Not only is Fort Lauderdale beautiful in April (when we are getting hitched), but it also is close to beaches, the airport and a location that most of our guests would likely want to visit.

After choosing the city, next was the venue.  After what seemed like hours and hours of research and thousands of Google searches, I created an excel spreadsheet that compared all of my favorite locations in Fort Lauderdale.  Creating the document was very helpful because it helped choose what was very important to us by comparing prices, amenities and the overall feel and look.  We looked at every possible venue, from hotels to historical homes, from the beaches to the marina and even downtown.

After several long days looking at venues, Hydrangea dude and I decided on the Hilton Marina – Fort Lauderdale.  It was perfect for us because of its wonderful waterfront views, convience to restaurants and the airport, and its willingness to work with our budget.

If you are debating between choosing a hotel for your wedding, here are some great things we have found by choosing one for ours:

1. Choosing a hotel for your wedding location is great for those who have a lot of guests traveling from out of town.  Not only do they give you great discounted room rates for all of your guests, but it is very convenient and allows your guests to save money by not having to purchase a rental car.

2. Most hotels offer wonderful wedding packages that include pretty much everything you need for your wedding, from the ceremony to the reception to the catering.  We found that most hotels are also very negotiable, especially when you have guests staying at the hotel, and they have wonderful menu options and prices comparable to that of an outside vendor.

3. Most hotels include a wedding coordinator as a part of the package and if they are anything like mine, they are beyond what is expected.  The wedding coordinator (Gaylene) at our hotel is wonderful.  She is there every step of the way providing insight to vendors, helping to schedule the ultimate wedding itinerary and will be there for me during the rehearsal and day of the wedding.  This was perfect for me because now I don’t have to add the expense of hiring an outside wedding planner.

Have any of you had good experiences with a hotel as a wedding venue?

Hello Everyone! I am so excited to be joining the BridalBuds Team.  I look forward to going through the wedding planning process with all of you and hope that you will help provide feedback along the way.

Hydrangea Dude and I met almost three years ago through a mutual friend and started dating him 9 months later.  It is so refreshing to find someone who truly loves me for me (even with all my crazy dance moves and goofy nature).  I am excited to be marrying the love of my life and best friend in about eight months and am looking forward to all that wedding planning has to offer, from the flowers, to the menu to THE DRESS.

I am one of the first of my friends to get married, so I am relying a lot on advice from others, wedding magazines and of course a lot of google searches.

A little about my wedding – I live in Atlanta but am planning our wedding in Fort Lauderdale, FL, where Hydrangea Dude’s family lives.  My family is from all over so it was easier to plan our wedding in South Florida – and hey, who doesn’t love traveling to Florida for a wedding?  My wedding date is April 16, 2011, and I look forward to sharing all the fun, the journey to choosing vendors and hope you can provide me with some great tips along the way.

Rapdict

Personal Photo of MOH in her Wedding-Decked-Out-Wheelchair

But to me it’s sort of second nature. I have driven MOH around since I was 16 and could drive her minivan with Father approval. Because for obvious reasons, she couldn’t ride in my car!

Source

Ok it’s not that cool… it’s a forest green minivan with a somewhat-big-obnoxious ramp that takes forever to come down and honestly how can you make that look cool? Meh!

This brings me to my point…. Ladies if you have a member of your bridal party or a guest who happens to be in a wheelchair (power or otherwise) make sure to compile a list of handicapable questions! Here’s what I asked at each meeting:

Source + Edited in Paint by me

At the Venue:

Me: (As I stared at some stairs leading into the chapel- OMFG) There are stairs- how can we get people in wheelchairs into the Chapel?

Them: Oh, no worries, we can move the potted tree there- it blocks the ramp that comes directly up to the Chapel.

Me: (PHEW That was close)

Source + Edited in Paint by me

Me: (As I peered at a 5 inch step up to the altar in a VERY small Chapel) Um, do you have a ramp or something we can use for someone in the bridal party who is in a wheelchair?

Them: Unfortunately no, but I can give you the dimensions.

Me to FI: Ok, looks like we’re building a ramp!

At the Hotel:

Me: Now I like the Suites we’ll have as part of our “block” but are any handicap accessible and can I see it? (Tip for any brides dealing with handicap rooms- take a peek and make sure your friend in a power chair REALLY can get around).

Them: Sure! Let me show you this one…

Me: Perfect! Lots of room and it looks like a big bathroom that’s helpful!

Personal Photo

At the Florist:

What you didn’t think there would be wheelchair related questions here?!

Me: Ok, now my MOH happens to be in a wheelchair and she’s rather petite so I’d like a small bouquet so she can still “roll” up the aisle with one hand. And of course no bridesmaid bouquets can be bigger than hers.

Them: Done.

Phew that was a bit of a workout, but I wanted to compile a list of the BIG questions I asked. I hope this helps any brides in a similar situation. Any questions you asked that I didn’t? Does anyone else have a person who happens to be in a wheelchair in their bridal party or on their guest list?

That’s literally the way my MOH now addresses herself in email communications with me.

Now that you saw the beautiful outcome of our save the dates, let me tell you the story of our plans for wedding invitations and save the dates…

Personal Photo of MOH and her Hubby

You see my MOH, pictured above, has been my best friend since we were both extracted from the South and moved to the Frozen Tundra [read: Chicago, IL]. We know exactly how the other one thinks and sometimes that’s a bad thing.

Case in point, she was going to work on my invites and Save the Dates as part of her wedding gift to us… BUT  then all of a sudden she dropped off the face of the earth [read: interwebs and mobile phone]

zGeek

Oh yes my friends…. she disappeared and/or was hiding from me! Me her former MOH, ME the best friend forever… WHY?!?!?!

Game Spot

Personal Photo: That's really just here for hilarity's sake

The moral of this story is rely on your good friends. Because even when they think they’ve let you down and have proclaimed themselves “the worst MOH ever” (her words friends, not mine) they still end up brightening your day and turning it back into sunshine, rainbows and unicorns!

Judah Gabriel

And as you now know this story did have a happy ending, she was able to do our save the dates!

IMDB

First of all, we took a BILLION photos with FSIL (our wedding photographer). Because she’s an arteest and it has to be just so. BTW I’m glad she is, because these came out perfect! For most of the photo trials I was desperately trying not to laugh….

Personal Photos

Personal Photo edited by MOH

Oh my gosh! It was at this point I started getting the tingles… and it was also at this point MOH announced she had no fonts on her new computer… NOOOOOOOO! So I twiddled my thumbs while I waited… and waited… and waited [please note I am a Drama Queen and this was about  30minutes, not days].

Personal photo edited by MOH

Names have been concealed to protect the innocent.

Oh-my-god we’re getting so close to our save the date. But… the font isn’t right. The font isn’t right?!?!

Rendition #2

Oh my goodness, did you see the statue/silhouette of the bride and groom, adorable no? But alas the font is all wrong!

So close but…. wait… could it be….

Personal Photo

There you have it our save the date… how amazing! We printed these out using www.mypostcardprinter.com and they came out terrific!

P.S. for those of you wondering where the competitive streak comes out… we will have a blown up version of our save the date at our reception and whoever guesses the movie gets a Snuggie! Cheesey, but I love door prizes!

So what inspired your save the dates?

Throughout my intense wedding/bridal blog reading I have been unable to find a Save the Date that really “gets me.” UNTIL my fabulous, wondrous MOH sent out her Save the Dates. They were classy but funny, adorable with personality- everything I ever wanted. I was both happy and extremely upset with her. It was everything I wanted in a Save the Date…

Source: MOH

Source: MOH

… Down to the catchy “Two people enter, one couple leaves” line. My fiancé was talking about this Save the Date for weeks! And remember he’s been IN 7 weddings, and has I assume, seen much more than 7 Save the Dates. What could we possibly design that could be as cute and fun as that? Enter my Super MOH who confessed to me this was actually her #2 design idea, #1 involved a posed picture of her and her now husband. I was on cloud nine. MOH has the best design ideas on the planet. That is when she dropped this bombshell…

Cine Masterpieces

Due to my Bridal Zombie Flu, I have spent a lot of my time around and reading old wedding blogs. While pooling over older posts by 10,000 Only I found a link to a wonderful website that allows you to make Free puzzles! What a perfect addition to our informational packets or Kid’s Table Activities. Who doesn’t love a fun and free activity?

Puzzle Maker

And for our families (who happen to love the Sunday Crossword) we made a personalized crossword to include within our OOT bag informational folders.

Puzzle Maker

But what’s a Crossword without competition? You may remember that I’m a competitive person, so we will be offering a small prize for the first couple or family that completes the Crossword. What could we give them for knowing us so well? Well if they knew us well they’d know the prize would most likely be a white elephant/gag gift of course. Perhaps the Roll-A-Lotion we received from my the Future In Laws!

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After finding this online I had to make this work for the modern DIY wedding. Who didn’t love rainbow crayons as a kid? And who doesn’t love cheap, custom, and colorful kid’s favors?

Jas Family Fun

Funny Cat Pics

Then I found it! Inspiration on the Weddingbee Boards, shocking I know! I found the most beautiful wonderful idea and I wondered why others hadn’t jumped on this idea….

Custom Cake Supply

Unfortunately we couldn’t find the mini-wedding cake pans in any local stores. So whilst we waited for them to arrive in the mail we found a Christmas-related substitute. Enter a 64 pack of crayons and some spare time at Christmas with the 2 ring bearers and 1 flower girl. Well we needed activities… and I needed fodder for my blog. So child labor be damned!

Personal Photo

First the kids broke the crayons and put them into a silicone cupcake pan in the shape of pine trees. Then we baked them (as the directions above said).

The wax content and the type of pan you use will increase or decrease the bake time. With our $1 knock-off crayons the wax content is fairly high (much higher than a Crayola crayon) and our silicone pan the bake time increased to 25 minutes. At that time, I looked into the oven and noticed messy brownish/greyish colors in each tree.

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Thinking that I had burned them I sat down dejectedly and Cherry Dude tried to cheer me up by prying them out of their silicone shells. Much to my surprise they came out quite lovely…

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It seems that the brownish/greyish mess was actually the wax which had floated to the top during the baking process. So if this happens to you, DON’T PANIC!

Personal Photo

The trees would be great for stocking stuffers, Christmas-wedding favors, or even personalized Christmas Cards. We also made hearts and attempted the mini cakes… but that photo is deceiving and the cakes are actually quite large, I wouldn’t recommend them for this task.

Did you find any fun kid’s activities out there on the web? Share your favorite!

Ahhh wedding binders… how beautifully you lure us newly engaged women into you- thinking that a beautiful, odd-shaped binder really can work for us. How little we know…. but don’t think this blogger was immune to its siren song. I was most definitely not.

Barnes and Noble

Simple and stunning, sold! This was a great binder to work from when you are still in the very preliminary planning stages. However, I realized once I started paying vendors that it’s stunning-ness left much to be desired. And a very large, very messy pile of wedding-related papers on our office floor.

Personal Photo

So I bring you a not-as-pretty DIY wedding binder that will make your life easier, and a few tips as to what the brides today really need to put in there. First thing’s first start with the heavy hitters on the dividers things like Venue, Catering, The Dress, Florist, Photographer, and DJ/Musician.

Personal Photo

• Make sure to get everything in writing- aka that any verbal agreements are reflected in your contracts before signing.
• Copy of your contract with either your Paid in Full Status or copies of each receipt you’ve been given.
• If they don’t give you a receipt of each payment, make sure you get an email from the lead person at each facility stating that you have paid.
• Just for good measure- print out your credit card statement (highlighted with the charge) or a copy of your cashed check.

It’s a good idea to buy either a business card holder insert or to simply clip/staple them into place. Another great thing to add is a zipper pouch for you to store all your receipts (with notes of what you purchased and for what or whom). Especially if you blog – this is a great way to keep track of your budget in a low tech way, it also provides those of us who love spreadsheets a rudimentary “filing system”.

Great Company Store

You also want to put in any notes you may have not yet discussed with the vendor and then cross them off as you complete each task.

Personal Photo

As sung to the tune of the Beatles…. anyway! Let’s take a look take a look through time at my ever changing hair… and then discuss what the HECK I’m going to do with this mane for the wedding…

Personal Photos

85- Nothing I could really do about it at that point, but look at that amazing flip I’ve got going on…

86- When was my hair curly?!

90- Long with weird bangs and a bad smile.

Personal Photos

02- Yes I did think I was Josie ala Josie and the Pussycats. I remember going home at lunch to RE-CURL my hair…. oh yes I did.

05- A very cute bob with some rockin’ side bangs that really don’t do what they’re supposed to, ever.

06- Just for a change of pace can I see my jet black hair BLONDE?! What the heck was I thinking…

Personal Photos

Weddingbee: Mrs. Champagne

You may remember, in our last Cherry Bud installment, that we were looking for flower girl dresses? We did finally pick one and buy it online from a company called Girls Dress Line. See if you can recognize it! Just take a look at our Petal Sprinkler…

Beginning with the obligatory getting ready shots of the little Princess….

Personal Photo

Personal Photo

… Or Flower Girl if you prefer to call her that. You’ve met the Ring Bearers now meet the little Flower Girl. Here she is with her brother and cousin, who are considerably bigger than her then 2 year old self.

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Jenni Goldman Photography

Pink Princess- $57.99

Pink Princess- $51.99

Girls Dress Line- $32.95

Personal Photo

Originally I had planned on using these, but upon opening up An Intimate Guide for Women I just couldn’t part with this beauty…

Personal Photo

Personal Photo

Personal Photo

Not only is the texture amazing, and the picture of the catci appropriate, they continued that craftsmanship onto the sides! How wonderful! They’re exactly what we wanted in our book look. So moving on to the project…the Offbeat Bride recommends using an X-acto knife. Ha! My fiancé is first and foremost a mechanical engineer… so he went out to the table saw in our garage…

Personal Photo

… and in the darkness bind them… well wed them at least! I swear I’m done with Tolkien!  I may not have mentioned this buuuut we have not one but TWO ring bearers! That means these two handsome faces will be bringing our rings.

Ring Bearer #1

(Who looks exactly like Cherry Dude as a kid-  and is trying on his Barf/Mawg costume wig)

Ring Bearer #2

The quandary is how do I find two awesome ways for them to bring the rings that isn’t all matchy-matchy and doesn’t involve a pillow. I’m quite certain that these two soon to be 8-year-olds will need something less destructible and more boy-appropriate. As usual this brought me to Etsy… but Etsy only brought more ideas than decisions.

How about Moss? That seems like something little boys would love!

Etsy

Or wood, certainly an option.

Etsy

Or we could always spice up a more traditional bowl with a spider, something both boys love!

Etsy

Or Maybe a Ring Bearer Book?

Offbeat Bride

Since my FMIL is a librarian I think it would be both kitschy and cute to make those beautiful ring bearer books, plus it’s damn near indestructible. Not to mention we can tie it shut so no rings go rolling off. Now it’s off to garage sale some awesome looking vintage-y books. Hopefully, even with my DIY Fail-Skillz on the ring book, I will be able to make something that resembles a “ring bearer book”  with a little help from Offbeat Bride.

What are you doing for your ring bearer? Are you spicing up or going with the traditional and beautiful pillow?

So The E-Ring was on my 4th finger on my left hand… so the quest to cover His 4th left finger began! We first set off to Bailey, Banks, and Biddle to look at styles and get the Mister sized. We quickly discovered 2 things: he was a size 9 even, and he was also a picky Groom! So we were off… and we started our search at Etsy…

Etsy

We went through exactly 38 pages (I counted) of Etsy looking at widely different styles of Men’s Wedding Bands.  It felt like an elongated version of the Story of Goldilocks.   What we learned I will summarize for you in bullet point format…

• NO SHINEY
• Two Toned
• Exactly, EXACTLY 6mm because 7mm seemed “too fat”
• The Mister loves Titanium
• Beveled Edges are a MUST

So after this escapade we took a break… only to find it 2 weeks later… THE BAND!

Etsy Shop: Titanium Knights

But wait! It was listed as a 7mm wide ring…. was all hope lost?! No, thankfully the description said it could be fully customized to the correct ring size and preferred width. PHEW! Did you have a picky groom like Cherry Dude?

Now find out what happens next in One Ring to bring them all….

Yay we get to talk about rings, something I had no opinion on until we started the “Engagement Discussion” in June. All I knew when my fiancé brought this up was 1) NO BLOOD DIAMONDs 2) I like Platinum. My Fiance would bring quizzes for me- even when we were out to dinner! The first quiz looked something like this:

Blue Nile

When I decided I couldn’t possibly choose one, he said “Could you cross out the ones you don’t like then?” Well that was easy!

Princess- too trendy.

Emerald- would make my chubby fingers too fat.

Marquise- too 80s.

Oval- just not right.

Pear- is for eating.

Heart- is in my chest cavity.

So that left Round, Asscher, Radiant and Cushion. I wanted something timeless…

Polyvore

Personal Photo

Up Next: One Ring to Find Them… the quest for fiancé’s ring!

(For those of you that are interested: please note the title should be sung to the tune of “China Doll” by David Bowie)

When I first discussed China patterns with the fiancé I soon learned we had a full set… and Oh baby!, is what you would say when you looked at our China. Let me explain why the engaged-not-yet-married-couple has a full set of China, Crystal, and Silverware. You see the fiancé’s paternal grandparents are just a bit of hypochondriacs and really thought their time was up about 30ish years ago (please note they are in good health and still living). So they went out and bought all three of their grandchildren full 12 piece sets of China, silverware, and real lead Crystal. For the other two grandchildren this generous gift was given as their wedding present. For my fiancé, it was given as a housewarming gift as the paternal grandparents had given up on a wedding. This is a wonderful sentiment but the circa 1978 pattern is interesting to say the least….

Table Tops Etc.

That’s right we have a full 12 piece set of the above Noritake China in the Adagio 7237 pattern in pristine condition. It’s a wonderful and beautiful Victorian pattern that grows on you with time. Not quite what either of us would have registered for, but classy none the least. After some due diligence we found that the company was not only still around but is still a well respected name in China. What was even more exciting when we checked out the Crystal company we found it was Cristal d’Arques, a very well known name in lead based Crystal. We have a set of 12 High Ball and Long Champ glasses as well as a few others. But even though they were also bought circa 1978 they are still in production, and are quite timeless.

Cristal d'Arques

Cristal d'Arques

And to top it all off the fiance also pulled out a full set of REAL silverware… I’m talking the snazzy stuff…

Personal Photo

Personal Photo

Personal Photo

So this brings me to the real reason I am posting this… how do you thank someone for a ridiculously expensive (and complete 12 piece) China + Crystal + Silverware set,  that was bought before you were even in the picture?

To quote BNL…I’d be Rich! I’d also love to hire this guy…

Source

Source

Source

Source

Orchids, as previously discussed, are the leading actor in my floral presentation. And as a DIY, money conscious bride I could not contemplate spending around $40 dollars a pop for orchid corsages, which is what this one would cost:

Plus, there is the added trauma of paying for something that, while lovely, will wither in a few hours.

I found a step by step tutorial at mydiyweddingday.com on how to make your own flower hair clips, and I was enchanted. A few evenings and a couple of trips to hobby lobby later I had all I needed to make something like this:

The cost? Seven Dollars. Total.I can not wait to hand out the individualized orchid hair clips to my mother, the grandmothers, everybody. The image of all the lovely ladies who put so much in to raising orchid dude and I gracing our wedding with these blooms clipped softly in their hair or to a garment is just enchanting.

Just as a wonderful aside to how beautiful bridesmaid’s dresses really are, I made my Christmas Tree Skirt out of my last bridemaid’s dress and it looks wonderful! I seriously took it from this… to this!

Personal Photo

Neiman Marcus

… Well not quite, that beautiful tree skirt is from Neiman Marcus, but it’s similar to my Bridesmaid’s-Dress-Turned-Tree-Skirt. The point is that I don’t want my Bridesmaids to turn their dresses into something else, I hope they will actually like them. This is a tall order I know, but thankfully I have only 2 bridesmaids!

As you know by know I was inspired by the colors of the Sedona Red Rock when picking my color scheme. So I thought a pink coral would be most appropriate.

Sedona Red Rock Wedding

=

Alfred Angelo

But I quickly realized my bridesmaids probably wouldn’t want a Coral dress…. I mean really when would you wear that again? So I talked it out with MOH and solidified my ACTUAL Color Scheme, we decided that the burgundy was both a forever flattering and always in style color. Not to mention that to me it looked like FSU Garnet and to Bridesmaid J it looked like Wazzu Crimson. Perfection! That being said I give you my slightly more vintage and timeless attempt at Bridesmaid’s Dresses that won’t make my girls cringe!

J.Crew