Eco-Vintage Weddings

Showcase Wednesday: Guest Post – Wedding Party Shake-up!

Written by Sara on March 10, 2010 – 9:00 am -

Hello readers! I’ve asked my dear friend Luke (film blogger extraordinaire) to write a post about his upcoming nuptials, and how uniformity within a wedding party is seriously overrated. Enjoy!

Luke here from Journalistic Skepticism. The lovely Sara asked me to write a little bit about my own tumultuous wedding planning experience. But I exaggerate – it’s actually been a relatively eye-opening learning experience. And before you become too confuddled, let me clear things up – yes, it is possible for a male to plan a wedding.  (Well, just barely at least.)

We’ve set a date for August 14, 2010 (based almost entirely on the economic sensibility of a late-summer wedding), and it will take place in Minneapolis, so hopefully the snow will have disappeared by then.  Though we’re currently living in Sioux Falls and plan to move out to the East Coast in June, we chose a location like Minneapolis to centralize our guests, who range from mostly Midwesterners to some out-of-staters.  Though neither of us are originally from Minneapolis, it’s a major city with more options in terms of site choices, and it’s a familiar, easy-to-get-to locale for our guests in neighboring states.

For our wedding my fiancé and I found ourselves in a predicament.  Though we were ready to name several people to be a part of our wedding party, when it came to traditionalism we faced a problem – our subset of friends included far more females than males.  In fact, our final tally of attendants includes two men and – count ‘em – 10 women.  When choosing our party, we opted for a mix of mostly college friends, siblings, and high school friends.  And with such a large core wedding party, it became easy to bestow some of the other ceremony functions on others, though we haven’t entirely filled every other role.  One of our as-yet-undecided bits is whether or not to have ushers.  Our ceremony count is around 100, so I ask you: are ushers really necessary?

But I digress. In lieu of the boy-girl pairs of the typical wedding, we opted for mix-and-match gender aisle-walking companions.  This shake-up also involved coining some new terms for our crew – groomsmaids and best women, since our best men ended up being some lady friends of ours.  And in order to break up the uniformity of having the many groomsmaids dressing identically, we opted for a single color scheme with three different dress options, a feature that I know many of the wedding party members greatly appreciated.  Because, let’s face it – everyone is built differently, so not every design is going to be suitable.  So to come to terms with the fact that these ladies were buying the dresses for keeps, why not opt for something they actually enjoy?

When planning a wedding, perhaps seamless traditionalism is your number-one concern.  But for the sake of picking the best possible wedding party, there’s something to be said for being a little gender-blind and breaking just a couple rules.

A big thank you to Luke for shedding some insight on how to beautifully break down the Wedding Industrial Complex’s so-called “rules.” I can’t wait to see the fruits of your efforts, Luke!

[Image credit: David's Bridal]

Tags: best women, David's Bridal, groomsmaids, Journalistic Skepticism, Minneapolis, mix-and-match bridesmaid dresses, ushers, Wedding Industrial Complex
Posted in Fashion, Inspiration & Insight, Weddings | Comments Off

Bridesmaid Brainstorming

Written by Sara on October 14, 2009 – 10:10 am -

Happy Wednesday, all! I’m feeling great today, because tonight I’m headed back to David’s Bridal with my Mom and Kristen, my maid of honor, to try on more gowns! Expect a full report in the coming days, but for now, a few things are a-brewing in terms of my bridal party!

Check out the updates I’ve made to the “Our Wedding Party” page; I am so honored that three of my closest friends (and some of my most favorite people) have agreed to stand up for me as J and I recite our vows! Some of J’s best guys have also signed on – it’s wonderful to have such supportive friends!

This week I spent time with my bridesmaid Serena and her Mom Teresa, who was really like my second Mom in high school – I spent SO MUCH TIME playing board games, eating fruit snacks and homemade popcorn, and cuddling up under Teresa’s homemade quilts at Serena’s house in high school. Anyway, the purpose of my time at the Schweitzer home was two-fold: 1) I missed my friend! It had been a month or so since I’d seen Serena, and I really wanted to catch up; and 2) Serena casually mentioned over text message last week that Teresa, who is a wonderful seamstress, has made three bridal gowns and at least one set of bridesmaid dresses before!

You all may not know how much I’ve been struggling with selecting a bridesmaid dress, but let me tell you:  it’s been difficult. Selecting the vintage-inspired theme wedding is probably the best and the worst idea I’ve ever had, and one of the reasons it’s the worst is the utter lack of vintage-inspired bridesmaid dresses. Also, my bridesmaids are all beautiful in their diverse shapes and sizes, and I would never, ever want them to feel uncomfortable in their own skin by choosing an unflattering dress. Last, I have a HUGE problem asking my girls to purchase a dress for $150-$250, and then ask them to buy shoes, pay to get their hair done, etc. As I former bridesmaid myself, I literally would have died if I had to shell out that kind of funds.

So, I spent a few hours talking with Serena and Teresa to gauge Teresa’s interest in making my bridesmaid dresses. After a little chit-chat in the kitchen, we moved to their office and logged on to the web site for McCalls dress patterns. Little did I know that this web site would (hopefully) hold the answer to my bridesmaid dress woes!

Here’s the first pattern that we liked:

I loved the lace details on the neckline and skirt of the v-neck dress, on the skirt of the boatneck gown and the waist of the scoop-neck gown. I especially loved the rosette on the scoop-neck dress (Teresa’s made rosettes before, and they’re beautiful!). Teresa also mentioned that my girls could each wear one of the four dresses, or they could all wear the same one, depending on which dress I liked best.

The second set of patterns, however, is my absolute favorite, simply because of the picture on the far right:

How AMAZING does the woman on the right side look with her little wrap, secured with a brooch!? I got SO excited when I saw this, I had to hustle home and show my Mom (who loved it, too). These pictures remind me of a dress I had in high school that I called my “Pearl Harbor” dress…it was a black dress with cap sleeves and pink tulle peeking out from underneath the skirt. I loved that dress. While I wouldn’t necessarily put my girls in a print (even though the dress on the right side is FREAKING GORGEOUS), that’s exactly how I want my girls to look at the wedding.

I plan to check in with Teresa and Serena next week to gauge Teresa’s feelings again about making dresses for my girls (I wanted to give her time to think about whether she’s interested or not), but in the meantime, I couldn’t help but share!

[Photos from McCalls.com]

Tags: David's Bridal, McCalls
Posted in DIY, Fashion, Our Wedding | Comments Off

Recent Happenings: Part II

Written by Sara on October 13, 2009 – 10:01 am -

Hello everyone!

I believe that I am reaching the stage in my wedding planning when I don’t want to be overwhelmed by wedding inspiration. I know this because I’m actually getting sick of clicking every day on the (count ‘em) THIRTEEN wedding blogs I frequent. I’m actually proud of myself for reaching this point, because to me, my frustration over centerpieces only involving flowers means that I know I don’t want to throw money at using large amounts of flowers that will simply die one week later. In other words, the frustrations I feel when I look at wedding blogs is simply me pushing back against the “do-it-yourself” wedding arena. It’s me saying, “Yes, I will do-it-myself, but I’ll do it my own way, thank you very much.” It feels good!

Now, to update you all on the issue of my wedding dress: I’m in the process of coming to terms with my love for all-satin gown. Just because I didn’t expect to fall in love with it doesn’t make it wrong that I did; it simply makes the very act surprising, which, to tell you the truth, is a lot like how I fell in love with J. I didn’t expect to fall in love with him, and I could never have imagined how he makes me feel every day, but here we are, getting ready to celebrate and formalize our love through marriage. Strange, isn’t it!

So, my plan:  there’s a possibility that the Pronovias gown that I love will be on sale in the month of January (trunk sales are a wonderful thing!). However, it needs to be significantly on sale for me to open my heart (and my wallet) fully to the gown, so in the meantime, I’m going back to ever-faithful David’s Bridal to try on their selection of all-satin gowns (a selection I avoided in favor of lace my first time there). I fully expect this experience to feel painful and to feel like I’m chasing after a gown that I can’t afford, but at the same time, I hope to find a simple, suitable (and beautiful) gown to serve as a back-up for the Pronovias gown.

Secondly, the issue of the venue has been weighing heavily on my heart. J and I really loved Vintage, and we’re very sad that we couldn’t use it for our wedding reception. However, I’ve gone back over the initial research I did on venues in Sioux Falls, and I toured two possible venues last week. The first was the banquet room in the basement of Cherry Creek Grill, a restaurant on the east side of Sioux Falls. While the size is right (150 people) and the room rental is exactly the right price ($150 total!), the overall look of the room (and, ahem, the smell: smoky) left a lot to be desired. However, they are available on our date, and, if my gut feeling is correct, will probably remain available for some time, as it’s a relatively unknown space.

The second venue, however, surprised me much like the Pronovias gown. I have placed a 30-day hold on the 3rd floor lobby space at the Washington Pavilion Museum of Arts & Science in Sioux Falls. The lobby is a grand space with columns, a huge maple stationary bar, and plenty of space to accomodate both our wedding guests and a dance floor. On top of that, rental of the space is $700, a steal as compared to what we’d have to spend for a similar location. We’re currently awaiting word from Leonardo’s Cafe, who would cater the event, on price quotes for food, and as long as the quotes are in line with our budget, I fully expect us to host our wedding reception here.

Tags: Cherry Creek, David's Bridal, Pronovias, Washington Pavilion
Posted in Budget Weddings, Fashion, Our Wedding, Venues | 1 Comment »

Wedding Dress Shopping – Day #1!

Written by Sara on September 19, 2009 – 6:47 pm -

ATTENTION JORDAN: DO NOT READ THIS POST, OR A GRUMPY FIANCE (AND, ACCORDING TO TRADITION, BAD LUCK)
WILL BE BESTOWED UPON YOU!!
(Just kidding…but seriously, don’t look!)

Happy weekend, everyone! I’ve had a WONDERFUL day, so let’s just get right to the good stuff – wedding gown shopping!

This afternoon, my Mom, my Maid of Honor Kristen and I headed to Sioux Falls’ David’s Bridal location. While at the bridal show, we stopped by their booth and signed up for a bridal appointment, so I have been anxiously awaiting this weekend!

I don’t want this to sound badly, but I had entirely different expectations of David’s Bridal before I walked in the doors of the bridal salon today. While I expected to encounter pushy saleswomen and lackluster gowns, I was seriously mistaken: Nikki and Sheri, the two consultants who were helping me, were both LOVELY ladies who were willing to bring me every gown in the shop if I asked. They made my first experience of wedding gown shopping an afternoon of fun, and I am SO grateful to them for that!

While I didn’t purchase a gown today (I plan to purchase my gown from Happily Ever After, a bridal shop in the Beresford/Sioux City area), today proved educational in what shapes work for my body and which styles don’t. Plus, my time today at David’s Bridal also identified the various ways that “vintage-inspired” can translate into our wedding.

Here’s a few photographs of the rejected dresses (I’ve decided not to show you the dresses we really liked, just in case I find something very similar at the other shop, but see the end of this post for a round-about description of them!):

While I LOVED the back of dress #1 (the first dress I tried on!), the front left a lot to be desired, so it went back on the rack. Plus, it also hugged my body (it was a sheath), which I quickly figured out that was a cut I wasn’t crazy about.

Dress #2 was A LOT of fun (the entire skirt is ruffles!), but man, that dress was HEAVY. More importantly, it didn’t illustrate “vintage” to me, so it too made its return to the rack.

This dress was definitely made for a vamp from the 1930s, but not for me; the dropped, embellished waistline did absolutely nothing for me, and this dress was just more evidence of how difficult it can be to contain a bigger chest!

Now here’s a dress I actually liked (more than the gowns above this photo, anyway!). The bottom of the dress is done in accordion pleats, and the main reason this dress didn’t make the cut was due to the embellishment on the bodice; I discovered that I appreciate very little beading or creative stitching, so this dress, as beautiful as it was, made its return to the racks, too.

This dress was one of the final styles of the day; while the all-over lace WOWED me, I was not crazy with the pick-up skirt, which is absolutely surprising – I thought I would love the bustled look. However, this dress made me feel boxy, so it was pushed aside as well.

Dresses that didn’t even warrant a photograph:  two lace gowns that looked like nightgowns (Sorry – I can’t seem to find them on David’s Bridal‘s web site!), two more lace gowns that just weren’t my thing (pictured here and here), one satin gown that made me feel silly for some unexplainable reason (pictured here), and two halter gowns that just weren’t right (pictured here and here). All in all, we estimated that I tried on about 15 gowns today – it was quite an afternoon!

I can tell you this, dear readers, about the three dresses I loved today: they surprised me, but in a way, they also were exactly what I expected. Even before I thought about entering a bridal salon, I knew that “vintage-inspired” to me meant lace, and lots of it, and there was not one, but two lace gowns that I loved today. I also walked in the salon and walked out absolutely in love with the look of a birdcage veil; I felt so chic the very second the consultant placed it on my head.

But the dress that surprised me (and I mean REALLY surprised me) had not one swatch of lace on it. But that dress, which was all satin and gorgeous and made my waist look absolutely tiny, made me feel like a different version of “vintage-inspired” – it made me feel like an Old Hollywood actress attending the Oscars. Just add finger waves and an embellished clutch, and I looked like I stepped out of the 1930s. Readers, it was so refreshing that I found a dress I liked outside my label of “vintage-inspired,” but it also scared me a little. Because J and I have been planning a more casual affair, and this dress is all glam, I felt drawn to the dress, but scared of it at the same time.

Thanks for sticking with me throughout this long post – it was so much fun to write, and to relive the day! Hopefully I’ll make it to Beresford/Sioux City in a few weeks (I’m shooting for mid-October) to find the gown of my dreams!

P.S. If you really want to see the three gowns that made me feel gorgeous today, email me and I’ll send links your way!

[Photos courtesy of my lovely MOH, Kristen]

Tags: David's Bridal, Happily Ever After
Posted in Beauty & Polish, Fashion, Our Wedding, Vintage Beauties | 1 Comment »