01.24.10
Nothing’s Perfect
This is a hard post to write, because it’s so personal, and because when you’re an engaged couple, there’s so much pressure to be perfect. But Mr. Junebug and I are the first to admit we’re not perfect.
This is the story of our wedding-that-almost-wasn’t:
We’ve been having communication/compatibility problems. Basically, if you’ve ever heard of the wonderful book Five Love Languages, we score completely opposite on the love language spectrum according to this book, a book that I think has quite a few things goin’ for it. According to these quiz’s, http://www.5lovelanguages.com/assessments/personal-profiles/ and http://www.afo.net/hftw-lovetest.asp, Mr. Junebug is a “Quality Time” and “Acts of Service” person–meaning he feels/shows love through one-on-one time and doing things like cooking/cleaning/taking out the trash, while I’m a “Gifts” and “Touch” person–meaning I feel/show love through little presents, surprises and lots of hugs and kisses. I scored near zero on Acts of Service, and he scored zilch on Gifts. So those are two areas we need to work on for each other, in order for us both to feel better loved, and better appreciated.
And while we acknowledged the things we needed to work on months ago, what with both our busy schedules (I earn the dough as a writer/journalist for eight to ten hours per day, plus have an intensive landscape architecture internship, and he is a full-time PhD student AND works the equivalent of a full-time job!) we let a lot of things slip by the wayside. I think BECAUSE we get along so well (we rarely fight, and when we do, we make up easily), and we DO have so much in common (a love of outdoor activities, senses of humor, love of literature and good conversation) we had put our relationship on autopilot, which is never a good thing to do. Relationships take a lot of nurturing, and we just weren’t giving it our all.
So, last week, in a heartbreaking discussion, Mr. Junebug told me he didn’t want to marry me in June–IF–we still had these issues. Instead, he wanted to postpone our marriage, and work out our issues. He wanted for me to cook dinner more than once per week, and to be less messy, and for him to remember to bring me flowers or take me on dates on occasion.
I felt my heart drop to my socks and back up to my esophagus when he uttered those words. I told him I would marry him tomorrow, and that I was happy. He said he would not marry me tomorrow if given the chance.
For a good two days straight, I felt like someone had died. I also felt like I was breaking up with my wedding–all the hard work down the tubes. To make a long story shorter, a couple of days later, Mr. Junebug took back what he said in a heated moment, and we are working on our problems–yes, with the wedding date still set. I couldn’t be happier, although a part of me is very sad we had such a blow up. However, I am incredibly proud and happy that Mr. Junebug came forward so candidly about how he felt.
I have learned, from our experience, and from many of my married friends, that it’s common for one or both of the couple to have cold feet in the months leading up to a wedding. It’s an incredibly stressful time.
One tidbit of advice for anyone who experiences something similar? Don’t hastily shoot off emails to vendors asking whether it’s possible to get deposit money back (as I did). However, in doing so, I was pleasantly surprised to learn how understanding our vendors could be, and how many of them were willing to give back the deposits. It was with happiness, and exceeding embarrassment, that I emailed them “nevermind, we’re still getting married!” just a short two days after my initial email. The only reason I did it, was because I had JUST mailed in several large deposits–and I wanted to see if they would hold off on cashing the checks until we’d worked things out.
When it comes down to it, the crux of our situation was this difference of opinion: I felt that our problems were fairly common relationship problems, and nothing that couldn’t be worked out. I wanted to try to “schedule” things for each other to ensure they’d happen: i.e. I would cook dinner on a couple of set nights per week, and clean the apartment on a scheduled day each week, and also do an “act of service” for Mr. Junebug once per week–such as making him breakfast in bed or something like that, that would really show him how much I love him. In turn, we would schedule a “date night” once per week when Mr. Junebug would surprise me with flowers, a gift, or a romantic gesture. But, Mr. Junebug, during the early stages of our discussion, was adamant against having to schedule these things. He felt they should come naturally. But after much discussion, we compromised and agreed that to jumpstart our plan, we’d try having a schedule.
Mr. Junebug and Miss Junebug working on improving communication.
So far, I’m happy to report it’s going really well. I’ve been cleaning the apartment every other day, and made him breakfast in bed. Last night he took me on a date to Thai, and then to the dollar theater where we saw Where the Wild Things Are, during which we both fell asleep! What?! It’s pretty exhausting to be a young engaged couple!!!
Today, while he is at work, I’m going to do one of his favorite things (that I used to do only about once every two weeks or so, but am now going to do twice per week): find a yummy-looking recipe in his Spanish cookbook and make it as a surprise for him when he gets home.
As I think of the areas I need to improve upon as a person and a future wife, I sometimes wish I could be more like my Mom, who never failed to make a home-cooked dinner and sit the whole family down for at least an hour each night. Who makes her bed with hospital corners each morning, who cleans the house and creates a warm home environment with so much routine.
As a feminist, I’m not necessarily for being a housewife, but I admire women who do it, especially those who manage to do it WITH their husbands’ help AND have their own meaningful career or passion. Sometimes I wish I could be more domestically talented rather than domestically disabled. In our relationship, Mr. Junebug is the more domestically-inclined, so I’m hoping he can help me along and we can do many of these things together.
Have you ever experienced a bump in the road in the days or months leading up to your marriage? Do you have any tricks to share that helped improve your relationship?
01.18.10
Feather Me Beautiful
The feather hair flower: the trend of the ’10’s (is that what you call the year/decade we’re in now?) I believe a hair flower–and I’m talking a normal-sized (nothin’ against the gimongous ones, they’re just not my thing), plain ivory, with or without a few feathers–will become the one trend of the early 2000’s to transcend all time and become a classic. I’m talking, Grace Kelly-chignon-classic. Audrey Hepburn’s-French-twist-and-tiny-bangs-classic. Don’t believe me? Take a gander (haha) at these feathery finds in an inspiration board I made:
Photo Credit: Brendas Bridal, Wedding Bee, Project Wedding
And even if they do date your pictures, who cares? I’m on the train to feather town and not lookin’ back! BUT. Why do they have to cost so much? $40 or more for a few feathers and scraps of ivory silk. Well, I can just do it myself! (Do you like to…do it yourself? *Rapid succession of suggestive eyebrow raising* 40-year-old-Virgin anyone?)
Mr. Junebug emulating the Ron Burgundy hairy eyeball
Sooo, I researched feather flowers, and learned the pretty, delicate feathers are roosters’ tails, otherwise known as “coque” feathers. I found them as cheap as $3.75 online for a pack of 60 dyed white. I’ve ordered them, and when they arrive, I’ll do a tutorial to show how I strip them (you have to strip the bottom section of feathers off to leave the delicate “tuft” at the very top), and create my hair feather flower. And I’m sorry if I’m being wordy calling it “hair feather flower”–it’s just that the word “facinator” bugs me.
Other than the feathers, I’ll just have to buy the clip to attach the flower to, because I plan on using a couple of ivory silk flowers taken off a J. Crew shirt I own. I never wear the shirt, so it’s a good way to repurpose the flowers. Stay tuned to see how it all turns out!
Have you made your own hair flower? Share a link to pictures, I want to see them!
Making Envelope Liners From a Pretty Fabric Print
Envelopes, liners, calligraphy. Topics every bride, or hostess, knows well. I chose a pale blue luxe envelope from Paper Source. It came unlined, and well before I even letterpress printed my own invitations, I had picked out an envelope liner print. Only thing was, it was a fabric. This fabric, to be precise:
Photo Credit: Serena & Lily
That’s right. A baby bedding fabric (yes, I’m guilty of looking at crib fabric and baby things at Layla Grayce) with a hefty price tag of $40/yard. I found out it was cheaper to just buy a twin sheet set of the stuff.
When I first saw this fabric, I knew I had to have it for our wedding. It’s so perfectly Spanish-mosaic-ish. And Spain is what we’re hoping to emulate in our wedding details, seeing as how Mr. Junebug is a Spanish professor and Ph.D. student. Plus, the colors are dead-on: pale aqua and deep melon/rose, which make up a part of our “color story” to quote the genius wedding planner Beth Helmstetter. I interpret color story as meaning simply use colors that look great together, rather than be matchy-matchy color nazis who restrict themselves to a two- or-three-color palette.
Anyway. I HAD to have this fabric. I popped into the nearby Bloomingdale’s and purchased a set; it was a plus they had it and that the store is just five minutes away–I saved on shipping and handling! I took it home and scanned the prettiness onto the computer, and then figured I really didn’t need to keep it, especially since the set cost $80 WITH a coupon. Still, I let the package linger for a couple weeks on my nightstand where I could stare at it and dream sweet dreams of baby crib bedding *ahem* I mean, elegant Spanish wedding design, but eventually reluctantly returned it to the store.
With my scan safely on my flash drive, I headed to Kinko’s, where I adjusted the color a bit in photoshop and printed out a test run. Advice: do NOT do this if you’re not familiar with photoshop. I had to have an employee teach me, and all the while the minutes ticked away, my credit card was being charged. Once I was satisfied that the color was as true-to-form as possible, I took my flash drive to a mom and pop printer, where I got a better deal–35 cents/page as compared to the 46 cents/page Kinko’s was charging.
I got a couple hundred printed, and went home to make a template. I just used one of the ruined envelopes (I had a few of those, since I had letterpress printed our monogram on them):
Monogram
Then I set to work tracing the liner shape in pencil on each. and. every. sheet. Next I cut them out with scissors. Years of cutting out literally thousands of paper dolls in my youth aided me greatly. (Just ask my mom or my MOH if you doubt this strange childhood obsession o’mine.)
Once they were all cut out, I stuck them in the envelopes, and used a bone folder to coax a perfect crease. Then I used minimal glue stick (I tried double-sided tape runner, but those ran out too quickly and were too expensive) to adhere the liners. Aaaannnd, voilà!
Cost of DIY liners:
~$70 to print paper 200 color pages (after calling 10 print shops to get a good deal of .35 cents/page)
$10 for double-sided tape runner (using Michaels’ 40 percent off coupons)
$4 for two glue sticks
Cost of having a completely custom liner based on a fabric (that I can hopefully incorporate into the wedding if I can afford it): Priceless (to the bride, anyway!)
Did you go to epic lengths to produce a perfectly-pretty envelope that matched your invitation suite and wedding style to the tee? Tell all!
01.17.10
DIY: Crystal and Pearl Hair Pins
I fell in love with this hair inspiration from Knottie Mrs. Pdxbride06 pretty early on in my wedding planning process:
I realized more than anything, I loved that hair clip! Turns out they’re custom-made hair pins from August Veils according to Mrs Pdx’s planning page, and I’m guessing they’re most likely based on the Donna style:
Hair pins by August Veils
But the price tag wasn’t so pretty, so I decided to pop online and find the cheapest beads and crystals I could. I really didn’t look around for very long, because it seemed like Beaded Impressions had what I was looking for and at the right cost. I ordered one strand of 4mm rose quarz beads, and 4mm preciosa crystals in light rose, capri blue in case I want a little somethin’ blue, and crystal (clear). I also ordered a strand of freshwater pears in natural, which are a mix of pinks, metallics and ivories, as nature intended. 
I had some fine-gauge wire already cut into two-inch long pieces from my paper pomander ball project. And I had a bunch of regular bobby pins I thought I’d use. Well, this weekend my beads arrived in the mail and they were everything I’d hoped they could be and more! With around 48 beads per strand, I’ll have enough to make my ‘maids presents, too! Not bad for $25.
My “workstation” aka the couch, for my wire and beads as I watched Sleepless in Seattle and twisted away:
I didn’t use any professional beading tools, just a pair of pliers. This is what I pulled off in about 10ish minutes:
Pearl and Crystal Hairpin
In person, it looks just like the August Veils’ photo hairpin. I am so happy with how they’re turning out! I think I’ll try to do five pins per Grey’s Anatomy night.
Tip: Do this project well ahead of your wedding, because it wreaks havoc on your fingernails.
01.16.10
How to Letterpress Print Your Own Invites
I letterpress printed my own invitation suite, in four colors, and I saved more than $10,000, no joke.
I spent a total of $650.
Let me explain briefly why I saved $10,000: A high-quality, one-color invitation alone costs about $700 for 100 invitations. Add on additional colors, and elements like save the dates, response cards and programs, and the price mounts exponentially. This is why most people have two-colors-or-fewer invitations. I did 20 total press runs for my save the dates, invites, programs and response cards. That means for each color, the invitation was hand-fed into the press about 130 times in my case (I allowed for spoilage…and man, was there a lot of it.
The entire process took one week, an exhausting yet exhilarating 50-plus hours with my new-found friend and mentor. I worked from 9 a.m until 7 or 8 p.m., often without taking breaks or eating. I was focused. I didn’t want to stop. I loved it. 
Here’s the tale of how it happened:
I started getting serious about the process eight months ago. But the story actually starts two years ago.
I began with a non-wedding related interest in the art of letterpress. I took four workshops that cost me $90.
I got engaged, and began dreaming of printing my own suite.
One year ago, I began learning up on letterpress printing by checking out books and online forums.
Seven months ago, I met and made “friends” with people in the letterpress forums. One of those people would become my mentor, and truly a great friend.
My mentor and I
We exchanged hundreds of emails. I learned everything about printing that you possibly could over email.
Six months ago, I found a design I LOVED on Style Me Pretty. I found out who the graphic designer was, and contacted her. She agreed to do the same design, with tweaks, for me, plus design an all-new save the date and response card for me. She ended up making a bee-eautiful monogram as well, free of charge as a wedding gift:
Monogram
Four months ago, I used a 20 percent off coupon at Paper Source to buy all the paper and envelopes I needed. I got an additional 40 percent off for buying a discontinued luxe white, and the ice-blue envelopes I coveted also had the same sale, so I lucked out and bought $400-plus worth of paper products for around $115.
I began working with Boxcar Press to create my poly plates I needed to letterpress the designs. I ended up being overcharged $40, because they spaced out my designs incorrectly–with huge amounts of white space on plates that are paid for by the inch.
Three months ago, Boxcar finally had the correct file format they needed, and they made and shipped my plates. Around the same time, I worked out my schedule with my best friend in the Bay Area with whom I would stay while printing, and my letterpress mentor, and set a date to go north and print.
Two months ago, I printed for five entire days.
The chase
The chase and make-ready
Printing away!
My trip up north and back, and daily commute to my mentors’ letterpress shop, equaled 21 hours of driving. My friend came to visit as I printed one day. She’s a journalist and a great photographer, and luckily she documented the process so I have a few pictures. At the end of the day, she, my mentor, his wife and I had a lovely dinner at his house filled with great conversation.
One month ago, with my suite printed and ready to go, I forgot about them for awhile (highly recommended!) and focused on writing (my profession), two internships (quarter life crisis=exploring new avenues) and celebrating the holidays with my fiance and our friends.
Three weeks ago, I went to Kinko’s and used their paper trimmer to achieve a perfect “bleed” of the letterpress design on the edge of my save the dates.
Then I began what I call the two weeks of utter envelope hell–collecting more than 100 addresses, cutting out envelope liners, gluing them in, then addressing my envelopes by hand. In calligraphy. Calligraphy I’ve never done before. And, might I mention, my natural hand writing resembles that of a serial-killers’. What? I can’t help it; I’m dyslexic!
A week ago, I began mailing out my save the dates. They’re all received by now; some people have had them several days. They were sent as close as one building down, to as far away as Japan.
Only a few people have told me whether they received them. And two have told me they were beautiful: my dear friend in the Bay Area, and my mom. My friend told me she’d keep it forever, and that made my heart swell.
Cost all told for design, paper and printing: $650. I’m not including the gas costs here, because I had planned to make the trip north anyway to go to my parents’ house and my hometown, where the wedding will be come June.
My mentor refused a small monetary donation in a moving speech that made me cry. I felt so, so eternally grateful. I am still so grateful.
Before I met my mentor, I had my graphic designer put his name on my program in a message of gratitude for his help. It’s that kind of faith–and his faith in me as I operated his antique platen press–that helped me have one of the best experiences of my life. People told me I couldn’t do it. Experts told me it couldn’t be pulled off by a beginner. And although most guests don’t know the time and effort put into their invitation, and indeed many will toss it out without a second thought, that doesn’t matter to me. Because I’ve learned a new craft, made a lifelong friend, and I’m personally gratified to have hand-made this important element of our wedding.
Please stay tuned for part II, a how-to on invitation calligraphy and envelope liners.
Invitation
Save The Date
Response card
12.27.09
I Want Candy! (Or, How to Style a Candy Buffet)
I used my Craigslist Cricut purchase ($100 for a perfectly good Cricut Create with a cartridge, yeaher!) to cut out little labels to decorate my apothecary jars for the candy buffet:
Photo by Miss Junebug
The shape of the labels mimic the shape of my invitations:
Photo Credit: Style Me Pretty
My candy labels DEFINITELY matchy-matchy the favor boxes I made:
But I think it’ll turn out OK despite the matchy-matchyness. Here’s an inspiration board I made using a cream, blue, pink and yellow color palette:
So, that’s basically what I’m goin’ for. I may even throw some chocolate (non-white) into the real thing. I’m not ‘fraid. I don’t NEED to do all pastels. We shall see once I order my candy! For the macaroons, I’m either going to DIY, or bite the bullet and pay $3 per macaroon at Bouchon Bakery:
Photo Credit: Bouchon Bakery by skinnyminhy.blogspot.com
I’m only going to have about 15 on a plate, so it wouldn’t be totally cost-prohibitive, depending on how well I do managing my budget toward the end of wedding-countdown-2010.
Finding inspiration for a candy spread has been one of the more challenging, yet fun, parts of wedding planning. What inspiration have you come across to help create a gorgeous and cohesive candy buffet color palette?
12.23.09
Blues, or Bluegrass? Finding and Booking the Band
Finding a band was something I originally told Mr. Junebug to do, but gradually, as summer turned to fall, and Mr. Junebug got wrapped up in his Ph.D. studies (um, so FREAKIN’ proud of him, I’m not about to mess with that!), I realized I may as well take on the task. And what a doozie of a task it ended up being!
I started looking into big band music. Too expensive all around. I didn’t reeeeally want a DJ…so, I turned to my favorite ‘Bee, Miss Cowboy Boot, for her bluegrass band inspiration!
I contacted her band, Elephant Revival, and their manager was very nice and said he’d ask the band if they’d want to go to California in the summer. To encourage them, I spent hours researching Bluegrass festivals where they could get gigs around my wedding, to make it worth it.
Sadly, I never did get a response back from the band manager. No matter! My brother, a musician, insisted that whatever talent Colorado had in bluegrass bands, California had in spades! All that research into festivals paid off in that I had contact numbers of a lot of festival managers. You know what else led me to bands really well? Hotels and their entertainment pages. Some hometown boutique B&B’s gave me some good leads, too.
I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if I spent around 50 hours researching and listening to bands. I primarily relied on Myspace music and bands’ websites to listen to their stuff. I contacted a LOT of bands.
One day, I found a positive review on Project Wedding of an affordable blues band, called Quinn DeVeaux and The Blue Beat Review. My interest piqued, I Googled away.
After emailing Quinn, I got a reply straight away that they’d love to play at our wedding despite the 2-hour drive, and they could meet my budget, too!
My best friend and one of my bridesmaids also approved of their music, and suggested we go see them live in S.F. the day before our planned get-together to go see the 49ers play the Jaguars.
They. Were. Phenomenal.
Hip, young, interesting. A “backwater blues” sound mixed with Ray Charles. Dressed to kill, the ladies, three backup singers called “The Quinntettes,” wore chic black sheath dresses and each wore a different jewel-colored pair of elbow-length gloves. The crowd was PACKED into the Revolution Cafe. They stopped letting people in, it got so crowded. People were dancing, and talking about how they loved this band.
Quinn DeVeaux and The Blue Beat Review
I hadn’t let Quinn know I would be there. I wanted to see them without them feeling a bit nervous that a potential client was in the audience (if that would even phase them, probably not). Anyway, I chatted with one of the singers after their set, and she introduced me to Quinn. I really liked him. We briefly discussed some more details, and he said he’d have his manager send me a contract.
I emailed him again, and was surprised when a whole month went by with no reply. A bit concerned, I emailed again asking what was up. They must have not gotten my other email, or let it slip, but I felt better when I got a few emails back right away from the band manager, and also got my contract. She was on top of it, writing my details into the contract perfectly, and so enthusiastically! You gotta love it when your vendors actually WANT your business. I’ve definitely had my fair share of vendors who didn’t seem to care and/or want my patronage.
All told, I’m reviewing the contract and scraping together the deposit, and super, super stoked for our backwater blues band to play at the wedding!
Listen to Quinn DeVeaux and The Blue Beat Review on YouTube: Lil 45 by Quinn DeVeaux
Was it a long ordeal (that ended up being worth it) to find and book your band? Tell me the details!
12.10.09
Making Favor Boxes
So call me frugal, but I made favor boxes that came out costing a grand total of 3 cents each! I took a favor box I got from a wedding and took it apart to use as a template. Then I drew out the design on a bunch of Michaels’ discounted sheets of 18″X18″ paper in one of our wedding colors. It took awhile, but Mr. Junebug helped.
My favor boxes in progress. A pattern drawn in pencil on a slightly-worse-for-wear sheet of paper.
You see from the above that one of my sheets got a little munched. That’s bound to happen when your work station looks like this:
My dining room table overfloweth with crafts. Yes, even unsent handmade Christmas cards.
The paper was ridiculously cheap. I already had a bone folder (insert Mr. Junebug saying “haha, you said bone”), glue sticks, a hole puncher and ribbon. I used scrap computer paper for the white eyelet trim at the top:
Testing out ribbon colors. I like both, so I'll probably end up using both.
I ordered the eyelet punch off eBay for $3. I tried using it on the thick paper of the box itself, and it broke, cutting the palm of my hand pretty badly *ouch* so Mr. Junebug fixed it by gluing plastic back together and reinforcing it with a row of old chopsticks. I promise to post a photo of this shortly.
So, I just traced the favor box pattern and scored the flaps with the bone folder, cut the patterns out with scissors and assembled my boxes, securing with gluestick. They’re pretty plain right now; no writing, no “thank you” or cutesy message like “sweet endings for sweet beginnings,” but I like ‘em plain:
With cute eyelet details:
At this point, they’re all cut out and hole punched. I’m currently working on scoring the folds and assembling them. I may even leave the assembling till the week before the wedding, to avoid crushing the boxes in transport.
We plan on placing them around our candy buffet, with cellophane bags inside the boxes, for people to fill up with candy.
Do you think they look nice plain, or should I try out a sweet little message stamped on the front?
12.05.09
Designing a Cohesive Flower Color Palette
Who else is computer-challenged and thus LOVING Style Me Pretty’s Style Circle inspiration board builder? I am! *Raises hand*
I was having some difficulty coming up with a cohesive color palette, but Style Circle came to the rescue! I found my own pictures I loved, and uploaded them to the feature, and whipped up a board. I am in love with it.
I had actually been wavering between doing all-white flowers for a cool, organic look like this one:
Photo Credit: Luxury & Lifestyle
Or doing a pinks, whites and pink-and-yellow palette like the one I came up with here on my board:
Flower Color Palette Inspiration Board By Miss Junebug
But, once I had merged all of my gathered photos into the collage you see above, I was sold! I needed some color. I figure it will tie in nicely with my pale pink bridesmaid dresses, don’t you think?
Now that winter is upon us, it’s nice to be dreaming of gorgeous blooms and sunny weather.
11.03.09
Bridesmaid Dresses FOUND…on Wedding Bee
So, if you read my last bridesmaid-dress-related post, you’ll know that for about four months, finding the right dress was the bane of my existence. I was trying to find something gorgeous, affordable, and flattering for all body types. My ladies range in size and one is currently pregnant!
Originally, I was dead-set on a lovely pale blue, much like this color:
Melissa Sweet Bridesmaid Dress
By the way, if you covet this dress like I did, let me save you some time and possibly a trip to the dressing room: the stiff faille fabric and babydoll design will unfortunately make ANY girl look six month preggers, just beware.
Anyway, so I had somewhat resigned myself to this color. That is, until I saw these bridesmaid gowns in a pale champagne pink:
Two Birds Bridesmaid Dresses in Rosewater
I saw them in a Wedding Bee classified ad. The bride wanted $175. I was in love with them–they are one of my wedding colors, it’s a more flattering color to wear than ice-blue, and it’s in an elegant, to-the-floor length. In a flattering jersey, it can be wrapped 15 ways (score for individuality!). Plus, they come in just two sizes, which are one-size-fits-all. Peeeerfect. Especially for my friend who will have a new baby, and wouldn’t know in time to order a specific dress size, what her post-baby size would be!
But I still needed one extra dress in a size B. I looked it up online. More than $300?!?! Yikes! Not all was lost, however. I had a thought: Maybe this bride will lower her price? I am, after all, gonna order four from her and give her a deposit to hold them for me. Then I can ask the bridesmaids if they’ll agree to all chip in for the fifth dress we need to order full-price to complete the set.
The bride indeed had no problem lowering the price to $155, and my ‘maids agreed wholeheartedly to pay $180 each so that the cost of the fifth dress was mostly covered. YES! And now we have the loveliest dresses scheduled to arrive in late March! I’m not really worried about this deal, because I got a written contract from the bride, sent a PayPal deposit, and she’ll throw in dry cleaning and shipping and send within two days after her wedding. Schweeeet!
My mom saw the picture and told me she’s jealous of the color–it’s one of “her” colors, since she’s a “summer” complexion-wise. Haha, I love my mom. I’ll have to get to work finding a pretty pink dress for her as well. Requirements? No waist (doesn’t want to draw attention to middle), so I’m thinking A-line, and maybe a more champagne than pink. We’ll see. Any ideas for pretty mother-of-the-bride dresses? How did you find a good deal for your bridesmaids’ dresses? Do tell!
