Two down...one to go!

bridesmaid dresses that is :)  Wonderful BM Jessica went on a shopping marathon of her own one day and kept me updated via poor quality Iphone pics throughout!  I was sad I couldn't be with her, but it made for a fun afternoon at work, waiting for new image texts from Jess as she bounced from dressing room to dressing room.  Since we picked a dress (YAY!), I figured it was time to share her dress journey with you devoted readers.

Dress Numero Uno.  I think we both actually liked this one a lot!  Its hard to tell the exact color with that dressing room lighting, but I think we were a bit concerned it was too light.  The color combined with the style (a bit of a lacey look) made me a little nervous about how it would appear next to my own dress on the day of.  (Certainly not close enough to confuse our guests, 'which one is the bride?' but maybe a little too close for pictures, etc?)  Its been too long now, but I think there were some other reasons we decided Jess should leave it there and only come back for it if other options were not found.

Jessica's trip was timed impeccably because she was due in DC for a conference the following week, and therefore, planned to bring her finds with her to show me in person. (YAY!)  And she was successful at her other stops, cause she ended up bringing both of the following dresses to DC!

The one on the left: we really liked the blousy top.  It gave the dress that flowy quality that I talked about (making it feel romantic).  But the skirt was tighter and showed off wifey's hips and bum ;)  I was still a little concerned about the color, was it too light?

The one on the right: we also really liked.  The lacey pattern gave it the soft, romantic feel we wanted and, as you can tell, it was obviously a bit darker.

So, one night during her visit (after margaritas, a pitcher and some brew from churchkey...) Jess tried on the dresses for me and Javs.  We all agreed on the dress that should be 'the dress!'  It was pretty and romantic, but looked darn good on wifey.  (We felt like the other just didn't do much for her....and I'm always a fan of a dress that looks good when you're in it.)  Can you guess what we picked?

Here they are together, our two out of three BM dresses :)  (I chose the store pictures b/c I think they give you a better feel for the actual colors of the dresses.)  What do we think?  I'm not gonna lie, I've been somewhat worried about how my 'just find a dress on the 'brown' spectrum' was going to turn out, but I. am. pumped.  I think these are both beautiful dresses that my ladies completely rock. I love that they're different, but compliment each other and I can't wait to see what Isabel adds to the mix :)

One down! Two to go...

Kelsey has a dress for the wedding! YAY! After watching her try on all those dresses (and remember you guys only saw a portion of them!) I'm so happy that Kels found a dress that we both love love love! We have both been spending some time on Pinterest, pinning dresses we found online that we really like for possible bridesmaid dresses. (If you're not on pinterest yet, do it. Its awesome.) We both agreed after the last shopping/marathon that we were finding a lot more dresses that we liked online than in the stores. Of course, the issue with online shopping is that you can't try it on to see how it really looks. Harumph.

But after retrying on the dresses that Kels bought for the boys and letting everything sit for a few days, Kels suggested that she order a dress from Modcloth that we both really liked. The nice thing about Modcloth, was that she could return it if we didn't like the fit, but it would mean losing her shipping and handling costs. The dress price was reasonable and I think my always thoughtful sister was sensing my frustration with our lack of success on the maids' dresses front so she took a chance and ordered it!

















And I'm so happy she did! She looks fabulous :) I think the ruffles give the dress that romantic feel that I was talking about, but the pencil skirt and asymmetry make if a bit more modern and interesting. Its also a really nice warm brown color that we haven't found a lot in stores and looks beautiful next to her skin tone. (Most everything we find is either dark chocolate or cream/khaki.) Kels says its comfortable, but I think its still plenty fancy for the wedding. Its even plenty long for those legs of hers. Huge win! Win. Win. Winner.

The one where Kels tries to find a dress for the wedding (or alternate title: Kels completing her second marathon!)

Javs and I were concerned about getting out to VA that morning when we woke up. It was St Patty's Day in DC and the marathon runners were happily (okay maybe not totally happily) running around DC (blocking any reasonable escape into VA)! Little did we know, that would not be the only marathon encountered that day. . .

The Staples family + one Kelsey Bottoms set out towards Tysons to do some shopping. Mom's dress (previous post) was the priority since she was up in DC for a limited time, but we also had plans to look for Kels' dress for the wedding as well.

(If you don't remember, I have each of my maids picking their own dresses in the cream - brown spectrum for the wedding. Once they all have their dresses, I'll let you know how this works out!)

Mom ended up confirming her dress less than an hour in, at the second store we went to! (Great news!) Which marked our shift in focus to Kels' dress and queued the gun shot that announced the beginning of our marathon. . .

(despite kels' face I know this is early in the run because we're still taking pictures of both the front and back of dresses....)
We did finally find some good options at Macy's.
Look at all the pretty neutral toned dresses :)
I think this was about the time someone said how glad they were that the boys (Javs and Scottee) had decided not to join us.
Kels is a trooper, huh?


did I mention this was a marathon?

I know what you're thinking. . .and no we didn't take a picture of every dress, these were just the ones we thought were good enough to consider. (don't you love the random orange dress thrown in there - that was during my 'brown is too hard a color to find so we should switch the dresses to orange' panic)

I will be the first to admit that this was not my best day (if we're ranking days based on my level of bridezilla-ness). I was not a bridezilla in the reality TV show, demanding Kels try on certain dresses and crying when everyone isn't staring at me even though its my bridesmaid that's trying on the dress kind of way. . .more of a giving no real directions, but getting super frustrated that we weren't finding what I had decided I wanted in my head kind of way.

I really do want each of my girls to pick out their own dresses. Those of you who know me (which is everyone actually reading this blog) know that I have never been a fashionista. It was more than enough pressure picking out my own dress, no way I want to choose 3 others. And I think it would be ideal if the girls could wear their dresses again. (I know every bride says that, but I'm hoping since we're buying off the rack that it actually may be true in this case....we'll just see)

But this trip did help me realize that I do have a bit of a vision (for lack of a better word) as far as the style of dress I want the girls to wear. Seeing Kels try on all these dresses and even buy some (that's right, she bought more than one of them so we could show 'the boys' and we think she might end up keeping none of them. . .) made me realize that I probably need to provide more direction for my maids than a cream - brown dress, period. The truth is, I keep using the word 'romantic' when I try to describe the dresses I want them to wear. I want them to be pretty. We're getting married outside at a historic plantation and I want their dresses to 'go' with that (if that's even possible?) And while I really hope they can wear the dresses again, I think I'm realizing I want them to find a dress that fits the wedding (that maybe they could wear to NYE next year) not a perfect NYE dress that they could maybe make work for my wedding. Does that make sense?

Sooooooo we're still on the hunt (for Jess & Isabel too) so if you see a cream/beige/khaki/brown dress that seems pretty and maybe even romantic - please send it my way! Oh! and congratulate Kelsey on completely the less advertised, but maybe equally painful BM dress shopping marathon!

The one where everyone tries to find bridesmaids dresses - Episode One

It was a busy (but super fun) weekend - and I even did some wedding stuff :) Javs, Kels, Isabel and I braved a Bridal Expo at the Patriot Center on George Mason's campus on Sunday morning. I'll give you guys details on that in a bit - but afterwards (feeling inspired) we headed to Tysons to do some bridesmaid dress shopping!

I'm realizing at this point that I have not shared with you my "plan" for my maids' attire. (I put plan in little quotes there because I'm learning that its really a lack-of-plan that I have for the maids more than a plan...yikes!) When I asked the girls to be my maids I mentioned my only real idea for their dresses and that's what we've been going on ever since. Javs and I hadn't really talked colors (and still haven't) but a quick conversation with him early on suggested that we'd be going for warmer colors - specifically browns - wherever we wanted neutrals. (this is a palette I found on Pinterest that I have been keeping in mind, but only shared with javs this weekend so who knows if its really what we'll do...)

So I told the girls I wanted to give them a range to work with from the neutral spectrum- but each should buy their own dress in the design and style they felt most comfortable. Easy enough, right? Right? Well...we're still finding out.

So we set out - walking briskly through stores, scanning for anything in the cream/beige to camel/khaki to chocolate/brown family. We were in and out of a lot stores - quickly realizing that grey seems to be more 'in' this season, but not dissuaded.

After some strike outs we decided to head straight to Banana Republic where I had scoped out a tan dress I wanted the ladies to try on earlier in the week. Its hard to see in my IPhone pic but, it was a winner in some cases: loved the color, had the length we needed for these tall girls and didn't have the bridesmaid dress look. However, it was one of those dresses that looked better on the hanger than on a body - it was a 'no.'

We pressed on and decided to try on two dresses in Express that we didn't love, but fit the color bill. (I'll be honest, we - ok I- was starting to feel a bit desperate. Where were all the beige/camel/chocolate dresses?) Everyone else was concerned that the white polka-dots in Isabel's dress might be too close to white my dress (I did not think so and I think the pic proves that the dress overall looks much more tan than white) but everyone decided it was a 'no' as soon as she walked out so it didn't really matter. Kels' dress inspired a lot of doubt going in - but it really looked much better on her than on the hanger. I actually...kind of liked it. (YAY! some progress) We all agreed it was a 'fine,' if not 'maybe,' and moved on to Nordstroms where we were hoping to find some volume!

Nordstorms came through with a variety of cream/khaki/brown options for us to at least try on! I didn't take pics of them all, but you'll get an idea from these. This is one (pictured left) that Javs picked out (bless his heart). Actually - we didn't love it on the hanger, but thought it was definitely better on a body (isn't it funny how some dresses are like that?). This is another one (pictured right) that Javs grabbed for us. Kels liked it the most, but we all agreed that a more interesting/lower neckline would have drastically improved it. Both were a 'no. **Side Note** Our shopping trip proved to me (once again) that Javier is destined for sainthood. He was a trooper - offering opinions, making suggestions and holding dresses we wanted to try on as we walked around.

We did find one dress that we liked though! Isabel loved it actually :) It fit lots of requirements: brown, soft and feminine (but not too poofy of a skirt like a similar dress had that Isabel tried on and denied). It was long enough too! The one pictured is actually a size to big for her (we found one in the right size that was bright blue...you may see her holding it in the pic above.) so we ended up ordering it from Nordstrom in the right size and color! Its scheduled to be delivered to the Cabezas casa sometime soon so that she can try it on for Mrs Cabezas and decide. Nordstroms is wonderful (of course) and said it would be no trouble taking it back if they decide this isn't the one. Our biggest concern: the neckline. Its a sweetheart, but one of those deep sweethearts and we can't decide if its too deep. More discussion will commence when it arrives and I'll keep you folks posted! Either way - I'm counting the trip a victory because we proved that there are dresses out there (and even some that we don't hate!)

A party for the bride!

Javier and I are super lucky. We have a wealth of family and friends that have been so supportive since we got engaged (many of you readers included!).

Support is important during this process. There are a lot of decisions to be made and details to think out and its nice to have people that have your back; people that can help you keep your day a reflection of you; people that can have a reasonable, outside perspective when its needed and people you're close enough with to say 'I don't want your opinion right now' and know will still love you!

Enter bridal party.

That's right! In addition to some wedding dress shopping, I asked my bridesmaids to join in the celebration 'officially' this weekend!

ISABEL! Javier and I are so excited that Isabel has kindly agreed to be one of my bridesmaids! In the middle of finishing up her junior year, applying for colleges and starting her senior year, Isabel is going to help us plan a wedding :) I'm excited about the young, fresh, (okay, with-it) perspective that she is going to bring to my ideas. In addition to being my future sister-in-law, I think its great that someone who has known Javier even longer than I have will be involved with some of the girlie details. She'll help make sure they day is a reflection of both of us! She also has a good strong opinion that she is willing to share: As we got shopping, I pulled one of the first dresses from the wrack and asked 'Isabel, what do you think?' Her response: 'I think it looks trashy.' Let's just say I put that dress back...

JESSICA! Who better to ask to be in my wedding than my first (and only) wifey? In addition to sharing our childhood and college years, Jess and I had the unique opportunity of living together through those transformation years; from college student to 'real person.' It took a while (hell I'm still working on it) and it was ugly at times (i.e. melting plastic in the oven) but she was there through it all. Which means this whole wedding planning thing will be a cinch. She's also willing to challenge me when I need it and will let it go when I refuse her advice. She was an amazing support during our courtship and will help make the day a culmination of where Javier and I have come from and an extension to where we're going. So excited to have her standing up there with me!

KELSEY! My sister and Matron of Honor is none other than Mrs. Kelsey Bottoms. You all know that she is not only my sister, but my best friend. We really are lucky to have each other and to have had the chance to live so close. I had such a blast helping her out with her wedding a few years back. (She set some pretty tough, non-bridezilla shoes to fill.) Mostly, I value her opinion only slightly higher than Javier's ;) I kid, I kid, but she does have great tastes. My whole life she has been such an amazing big sister to me and so selfless when it came to my happiness. She also sets a great example for me by finding joy in every day. I have a tendency to get stressed and I hope I get to enjoy my wedding day without letting the stresses get in the way. I know she'll be a big part of ensuring that happens. Oh, and Javier loves her too.

The four of us went to a delicious brunch (I would highly recommend Fontaine's in Alexandria if anyone is looking for a good brunch spot!). I had made each of them a little card asking them to be a part of the wedding and explaining why I wanted them to be there not only on the day, but during the process. It wasn't fancy but I hope will be something each can keep a) to remember me by when we're no longer friends b/c the wedding planning ripped us apart or b) as a memento from that awesome Staples/Cabezas wedding they got to be a part of. They each also go at little pocket mirror (a gift idea I got from Javier's cousin, who gave me one that I use all the time!) to keep them as purdy on the outside as the in. Mostly I know that being a bridesmaid is a lot of work; time, money and strength (fighting that bridezilla) and wanted to show each that I really do appreciate them taking me...I mean the wedding on!

So, I have maids! Of the bridal variety anyway and look forward to working with each as we continue planning! Thanks again ladies for agreeing to be part of the day :)