Samantha's Bridal Shower Bonanza!!

Ok, ladies. Finally! I'm ready to post about my bridal shower. Oh, what a wonderful bridal shower it was! I woke up early on Saturday morning and went to my first event of the day- a hair trial with the lovely Meg Ford, traveling hair stylist based out of Reston, VA. Laurie, one of my lovely maids, came with me- it was so fun to be pampered while chatting with these two wonderful women.

We returned to the house to begin the festivities for the "English Tea" themed shower, hosted by my lovely sister-in-law Abigail. She was the hostest with the mostest, thinking of every last detail, including gorgeous favors of pretty tea cups, bags of tea and biscotti. The spread was fantastic- tea sandwiches, fruit skewers, pesto crostini, chicken mango skewers and my favorite, lemon curd cupcakes from Lavender Moon cupcakery in Alexandria, VA! Oh, my people know me well.

Various relatives, future in-laws, bridesmaids and neighbors began to arrive as we all chit-chatted and milled around the champagne punch bowl. See this recipe for Orange Sherbert Champagne Punch- my favorite! Then came time for the present opening- who doesn't love presents? I must say though, I've never been the center of attention in that way- by the end of the day, I was exhausted, but ready for the next step!

We left Great Falls for downtown Washington, DC, where we had a fantasmo dinner at Jaleo's spanish tapas bar. We ordered a few glasses of sangria, ate yummy food and caught up with each other while getting excited for the night ahead.

After dinner, we headed to Allison's fantastic apartment, which was decked from ceiling to floor in 80s decor! Again, my people know me so well! So we broke out the champagne, some of the girls tried on their dresses and then it was time to get decked out in 80s gear. There was a lot of spandex.

After the getting ready fest, they all bestowed their lingerie gifts upon me. Oh, what fun! Everything received was very pretty, but I was particularly and especially amused by an interesting gift for Brad, inspired by The Full Monty. Thanks, Heidi's bf!

After the lingerie opening, copious pictures and more celebratory champagne drinking, we were off to DC! That's where I'll end my tale...oh, what a night!

V: Bling for the brigade

Whoa, you guys. There is a 'you guys'! I just met a REAL HUMAN who reads this blog! We are employed by the same major university. I guess that means I need to write entries on this blog.

Anyway, the big stuff is largely taken care of. That means it's time to accessorize!

We knew we wanted Mr. B and the guys to wear a narrow tie. And his only other requests included a shade of yellow that doesn't make him look sickly, and a non-shiny material.

Guess how many ties fit that bill? Right, zero.

So the ties are being made by MeAndMatila, from a mustard cotton fabric we purchased 359 yards of.

A real wedding on Brooklyn Bride, featuring MeAndMatila ties

I'm hoping [expecting] there will be plenty of left over fabric to create matching sashes to jazz up the bridal brigade's simple grey H&M dresses.

Perhaps something funky? Like this gorgeous ribbon belt featured in a tutorial found on 100 Layer Cake? Def pos.

Brigade: Shoes or Jacket/Cardigans?

The bridal brigade jacket finally came in all the way from Thailand in yellow from Etsy seller Ananya. Trying it on with the totally rad H&M bridesmaid dresses, we discovered that it really needs to be lined since the grey shows through, making the jacket look kind of greenish. Ananya is getting ready to have a baby, and can't find the same fabric, which pretty much rules out this option.

Luckily, I think our favorite mustard yellow is going to be featured in stores this fall. Check out these peep toe flats from Gap. $40, holler! 

Or, we could keep looking for a cardigan/jacket to keep away the October night chill. I'm thinking we could maybe find a local seamstress to recreate Ananya's jacket a fabric of our choosing, but I have no idea how pricey this would get.

What would you do? Shoes or shoulder coverings? Or give it up in favor of taking a freakin chill pill?

Wicked Wedding Weekend Extravaganza

OH EM GEE. Last weekend was so rad. Mr. B and I really do have the very best friends on the planet. 

My future brother and sister-in-law flew out from California to help celebrate our upcoming wedding [yep, the one that's in EXACTLY four months.] The men folk shipped out to the "wilds" of North Carolina for a weekend of rafting and Gentleman Jack. I use the term "wilds" loosely, seeing as their cabin had wireless internet, flat panel tvs and a hot tub.

Alternatively, the ladies hit the town of ATL and showered me with love and delicious eats:)

Here is my awesome future sister-in-law, who will be birthing our nephew right around the time of the wedding. Sadly, this means she won't be able to attend the festivities, so we were thrilled to have her around this weekend!! What a great sport at five months pregnant!

Headed to the Sun Dial's revolving roof top bar on Friday night. And yes, my sister naturally looks that way.

Saturday was off to a great start after a SURPRISE massage at the awesome Key Lime Pie spa down the street. Literally, my sister dropped me off at the door and pushed me in, I had no idea what was going on. Devine. Little did I realize they kicked me out of my own home to set up the most incredible, beautiful lingerie shower.

My bridesmaids were the Hostesses with the Mostesses. Literally, that's where they got the inspiration! The brilliant circles and the lemon+baby's breath bowl will likely be stolen/reused at the wedding. I mean, how freakin awesome??

The best surprise was from Mr. B. Though not present, he contributed nine pictures and nine reasons for loving me. Typical, he was touching, hilarious and adorable.

Laurie was apparently trying to out do the shower we hosted for her wedding last year. She made me a "bride to be" sash from scratch! On the right, the amazing chef of the weekend & real sis hangs with beautiful sis-in-law.

Whoa! Fellow bride Caitee from NC wasn't supposed to be there! I was complete shocked!

LOVE these ladies.

The panties are unwrapped! Let's just say Mr. B was very excited about this shower concept. Does this mean I have to get rid of my beloved granny panties?

And much, much later on, Sissy and I throughly enjoyed El Bar, a local institution.

All-in-all, the best freakin weekend ever. As evidenced by Mr. B's bruised outside and in [mainly in the liver region]. 

I have friends!

It's quite exciting to know that someone out there likes me enough to come visit from thousands of miles away! Woohoo! My wonderful friend and bridesmaid extraordinaire Anne came this past week and we had a blast. We kayaked out to some islands of the beach near my house, hiked a rainforest waterfall trail, went on a sunset cruise in Honolulu, toured some art galleries late night in Chinatown, went for dinner at my favorite pupu bar, saw the Pearl Harbor memorial, enjoyed rum drinks in pineapples, went to Palm Sunday service (we provided our own palms- it's Hawaii) and in our grand tradition, made a cherry pie.
In the spirit of I hate planning my wedding and others, Anne gave me the book One Perfect Day: The Selling of the American Wedding. This book essentially talks about everything that is wrong with the wedding industry, how much it all costs and tries to get to the root of the hysteria. Has anoyone read it? I've just started and I think it may be the perfect book for when I am feeling in a "if I have to write out one more address of one more distant relative, I'm going to shrivel into the fetal position" kind of mood. Any other bitter bride stuff out there?

Bridal Event #1: It pays to complement fellow brides

Last Wednesday the Piedmont Park weddings cartel [cute southern ladies who rule the most coveted Atlanta wedding locations with an iron fist] held an exclusive event for couples getting married at a Park venue. Really, we're just holding our ceremony there, so no need for a caterer. Thus, Mr. B and I reverted to our college roots and decided to go for the free food. 

But lo and behold, there was a lovely tall blonde wearing a gorgeous grey dress! So after working up the courage, I approached her to get its make and model with the bridal brigade in mind. "Oh, you're in luck," she said. "Just got it at H&M!"

So I popped over there this past weekend to see if it was true, not expecting to find it buried among the cheap & uber trendy. But it does exist!

Behold: The Holy Grail of Bridesmaids' Dresses!

Buttons, sash, pocket, Oh my!

At $40, these dresses are a mega steal! When I proposed my original idea to have the lovely bridal brigade supply their own dresses and top it off with the same jacket, most voiced that they would need to get a gray dress anyway.

Matching the dress would in theory make the jacket idea optional. But could be nice to have in the potentially cool late October weather. We'll figure it out if we can actually get five of these dresses in the right size, which I'm not entirely sure we'll be able to pull off.

Our long-awaited in-town H&M location only had a few sizes. I'm actively trying to track down the rest. The four Atlanta "area" stores [how on earth is the Mall of GA in the Atlanta area?] get shipments every single day and are likely to get more of these dresses at some point. Guess what that means? Calling four stores a day like a crazy lady. Yes, it's worth it.

And yeah, I bought one in my size for me to keep. This way I get a fantastic dress I like, and one of the bridal brigade ladies can just borrow it instead of purchasing. Win-win if you ask me.

Members only?

Here's a new idea: achieve a not-overly-match-y bridal party with jackets. I don't think I've ever seen it done before.

Inspired by this fun evening many moons ago with three lovely Y&BB ladies, plus Ms. Livalittle! We all wore black blazers to dinner, and called ourselves the Black Blazer Brigade. Bonus points if you can spot the theme here . . .

So, imagine this. The five bridal brigade members are invited to wear their own grey dresses. Any style, as long as it matches the beautiful [recession-friendly] custom made jackets in mustard yellow. Courtesy of the fantastic Esty seller Ananya.

Thoughts?

More dress ideas for the bridesmaid brigade

Liking the tights idea! I think, however, that I would do the tights in a lighter color than the dress. Perhaps light grey with a charcoal shift dress? Or-- GASP!-- light grey with mimosa short dresses? Could be cool! Your maids would be a walking version of your color scheme! Wouldn't it be pretty if they carried white/ivory flowers? mmmm.
Speaking of bridesmaid dresses, I came across the following book yesterday in the Kailua Public Library-- You Can Wear It Again: A Celebration of Bridesmaid Dresses. Fairly hilarious. It basically features some pretty hein frocks of the past few decades. I would recommend bringing the book along before unveiling your bmaid dress...just for some comic relief. It might also help them to remember that even if they don't love it, it could be A LOT worse.

Tights?

A funky way to break from traditional bridesmaid attire AND keep your dear friends legs warm.

This outfit wouldn't have half the impact without them. Dress by Simple Silhouettes. I can think of bridesmaid get-ups with shawls, clutches, skirts and more, but never tights. Thoughts?

The name game

Let's all agree to drop the 'bridal party' or the 'wedding party'.

We're going to be the Youth & Beauty Brigade. 

Partly because I'm a huge Decemberists fan and will be traveling with some of the Y&BB to BONNAROO in June to see them. It will be an incredible all-girl camping music hippy fun fest. Awesome.

Also partly because of this and this. It's great to see people customizing tradition and expectations to meet their own needs, and I highly respect their arrangement. I LOVE the idea of handing out a paint chip and giving the Y&BB free reign to pick out their dress.

And also partly because, like Juno, I am dealing with things far beyond my maturity level. Honest to blog! It's weird to think that in some of the geographies of my life, people my age are settled with a house and kids, and in others, the idea of marriage this young is laughable. It's a crazy world, and I'd like to remember that I'm only 23 once and a while.