Photo Source: Forage

Two things I love: colorful-modern and diagonal stripes. I’ve found a little bit of both in these adorable bow ties hand crafted by Shauna and Stephen of Something’s Hiding in Here.  These would be adorable on your groom and groomsmen for a whimsical or more casual wedding, and are a cute and thoughtful way to incorporate your wedding colors into even the smallest details!

bridal shower invitation with pink cupcakes and pink pretzels

My brother-in-law is getting married in August! Yay! I have the wonderful privilege to be a part of their wedding as a bridesmaid. As some of you may already know, I love weddings and what I love most about weddings are the paper goods. For the bridal shower, the bride picked out a cute invitation from weddingpaperdivas, who were a pleasure to work with. The turnaround for the proof and the actual invites was so quick and seamless.

recipe card

For the shower, the bridesmaids wanted to do a recipe box for the bride. Since I was in charge of sending out the invites, I wanted to send these cards with the invitation so that the guests would be able to fill them out before the shower. First, I scanned the invite pattern to create the cards (with Adobe photoshop), so that it would match the invitation. I found a cute recipe box from Hallmark so that it would be convenient for the bride to take home.

Hallmark recipe box

Other than sending out the invitations, I was also put in charge of some of the games. For one of the games, I took the same invite pattern and made blank cards for the “who am I?” game. When the guests arrived, they were instructed to write out a memory they have shared with the bride without including their name. Later on, we had the bride read the cards aloud and guess who each was written by. Imagine the nostalgic atmosphere it created. The cards made a lovely keepsake for the bride.

cards for "who am I?"

Another game we played was the buzz word game. To begin, choose a “buzz word” such as bride, groom, wedding, etc. To go along with the invitation pattern, I made flowers out of felt and put them on bobby pins to use for this game. When each guests comes into the party, we handed them each with a felt flower. Then, if someone hears another person saying any of the “buzz words,” they get to take that person’s flower. The person with the most flowers at the end of the party wins.

handmade felt flowers

This is also posted on madebymelis.

Source: Angela Sanchez USA

Lots of people give advice about wedding dress shopping but it’s also good to hear from the wedding vendors. Gabriella from Gabriella New York Bridal Salon gives advice about wedding dress shopping in this video.

Source: Sara Gabriel

And if you’ve already bought your dress, here’s a tutorial on how to shop for a matching veil. Earlier, Caitlin also shared about her veil shopping experience with her friend.

Have you come across other wedding dress shopping tips from a bridal salon?

Source: Oh Hello Friend

On the hunt for adorable bridesmaids’ gifts or accessories? Oh Hello Friend has a great selection of jewelry that is as affordable as they are pretty. As a great way to add a little more character to standard bridesmaid dresses or just a simple way to say thank you, there’s a sweet little something for everyone at an affordable price!  Prices range from $6-$30.

Source: Jennifer Behr

I always love headpieces….I think whatever headpiece the bride chooses often reflects her personality. I came across this vendor, Jennifer Behr, and admired the bands. I like the contrast of the bands against dark hair. You can find bands or wraps with a tie or with elastic.

I remember for my day, I wanted something in my hair, but I didn’t want a tiara. So I chose these twisty jewelry things…..I have no idea what they’re called, but you can see the picture above. I thought about a band, but when I workout,  I often have to fix my hairband (I must have a funny-shaped head), so I didn’t want to worry about having to fix a band or tiara on my wedding day.

Source: Style Hair Magazine

Flowers are also a great idea for the hair. Of course, you need to consider a flower that can keep its look for the entire day. Consult with your florist if you’re considering a flower. It would be sad to see a frail and dead flower in your hair at the end of the night. :O(

Source: Twigs and Honey

If you’re really worried about a wilting flower, you could use a silk flower. This came from my friend’s favorite blog, Twigs and Honey. Click on the picture or link to find other modern hairpiece options using silk flowers.

What did you add for your hair/headpiece? Did your friend do something that you would consider for yourself?

Source: J. Crew

We all knew that J. Crew has had their hand in the wedding industry for a couple of years now. They usually have a couple wedding gowns and then several options for bridesmaids dresses. Well, they have decided to open their own bridal boutique in NYC on Madison Ave at 66th Street. There’s no exact date but they say “early summer.” If you think you’ll go, make sure you sign up for their sweepstakes for a chance to win a trip to NYC and $2500 towards your wedding dress!

Source: Bella Fiore Floral Design

Today, April 22, 2010, is the official Earth Day. What does your wedding have to do with Earth Day? Well, you might have noticed that at most weddings, we consume a lot of resources (energy, food, water, etc). It’s good to be aware of what you could do to reduce your carbon footprint at your wedding. The Green Bride Guide has many suggestions but one thing I realized is, it’s all relative. You could stress about the products you and your vendors are using and how producing them was harmful for the environment. But why would you add stress to your wedding planning? It’s a good idea to think of green ways. I was talking about this with another friend and came across this website for eco jewely website, called greenkarat, that sells recycled jewelry and other alternatives. They don’t try to completely end consumerism of precious metals, but they are trying to influence consumer buying decisions.

I didn’t do anything green on purpose for my wedding but I was unknowing of how much the wedding industry has an effect on the environment. Of course, I tried to minimize waste but that was more driven by my desire to be cost-effective rather than environmentally-focused. If I knew back then what I know today, I would have incorporated more ideas.

What cool green ideas have you seen for weddings? Are you intentionally planning on doing something green for your wedding?

But my engagement ring offered a matching wedding band that would be at least another $300 more than my original idea. Needless to say, I was in a conundrum…

SO I rushed to this fabulous jeweler called “Unique Fine Jewelry” in the Metropolitan D.C. area in order to try on the ring with the wedding set. It took my breath away.

This made my decision even harder! I decided to go to Kay’s Jeweler to see what it would look like with the two thin bands. Wow. So glad I went and tried it cause my gorgeous engagement ring ended up looking like a men’s ring .

So we were set, we’d go with the wedding set for my engagement ring and wedding band… [[which put the budget $300 over]]

But for my fiance’s wedding band, he wanted it to look like this: It’s a 5mm Milgrain wedding band… simple yet elegant to match the milgrain on my band

Anyhow, once place was offering it for $318 (super cheap right??). BUT we are enrolled in their rewards program because Mr. Mercy bought my engagement ring from them… so minus $50 from the price= $268. Then I started thinking… duh! this company does PRICE MATCHING… so I searched on google for the exact same description band… and voila! I found it for as low as $260. I quickly wrote an e-mail to the company and they responded within about 15 minutes via e-mail– THEY AGREED TO PRICE MATCH! so it will be $260- $50 (rewards program) =$210!!!!($100 saved!)

Lesson of the day? ALWAYS ask if a company will price match– 99% of the time they well and you will save money if you do your research!

I don't know where I got this picture from... I saved it a long time ago when I was joking around with my bridesmaids about their dresses... eek!

So my goal was to make my bridesmaids dress no more than $60 each. I’ll be having 6 bridesmaids and my colors are chocolate brown and some shade of pink (haven’t fully decided that yet!) The first store I looked at? My favorite: TARGET!!!

I ended up finding 2 different dresses for $14 each! I decided to order one of each for myself, try them on , and take photos. Target has a great 90 day return policy, so if I hated both, I knew I could return them and get my money back. Here we go with the results though:

#1–> Merona Collection Petites Party Dress with Sash

#2–> Merona Collection Party Dress with Sash (Satin)

Ultimately I liked #2 better, but the sizes offered were pretty limited and because my bridesmaids are all thin beautiful gorgeous ladies, they would basically need to alter the dresses down 4-8 sizes (aka very expensive). So we went with #1 since the material did not draw attention to back fat, the v neck is flattering to all people, and last but not least… it’s $14.00!!! The only issue is that the V in the back is pretty low cut and you can see a snippet of the bra. For that reason I’ll be asking my bridesmaids to sow their bras onto their dresses just for the day… they can snip off the string later and detach their bras.

My lovely ladies will be wearing this chocolate brown dress… and I’ll be finding them a pink sash to accent it. I was thinking of this DIY Ruffly Belt by Rachel from Heart of Light. She gives you step-by-step instruction and it looked really cool… but for 6 bridesmaids it might be a pain in the butt to make…

Source: Heart of Light (Etsy Seller)

But I ended up with going to G Street Fabrics, which was having a 25% off ribbon sale when I walked in… how awesome is that??? After toiling with great customer service… below are the colors I chose: Dusty Rose & Petal Peach… I think one of them will work, and the other we’ll use for centerpieces…  I bought the flowers from Forever21 and I bought the alligator clips from Michaels and sewed them on. Total cost for the sashes then? roughly $6.

And the end product looks something like this!

As for shoes, I’ve informed my bridesmaids that I don’t care what shoes they wear as long as: 1) they are brown and 2) they have heels.

So my bridesmaids will be dishing about $20 a piece for my wedding= success!

Source: buy.com

I shake my fist in the air when I see things that we could have bought at cheaper prices. It’s nice to say that you’re wearing a platinum ring but titanium is cheaper and doesn’t scratch as much. A reader from the audience came across 5mm titanium wedding bands on buy.com and immediately sent a link to me.  Buy.com of course, is a reputable website and we’ve purchased items from them without any issues.  The groom will have to get fitted for size before purchasing something online. I know Scott doesn’t regret getting the ring he did, but if we were to do it over, I would lobby for a titanium ring.

What do you think? Platinum or titanium for the groom’s wedding ring? Got your reasons?