06 January 2011

Pretty Inspired

Hi friends! Yes, you must be forewarned that my wedding planning will most likely be taking over a large portion of my blog over the next 8 months! I'm just too excited not to share, so thanks in advance for sticking with me...I promise to still keep you up to date on furniture redo's and other fun things as well.

Well, so far I have so many wedding ideas swirling around in my head - thanks to all the lovely wedding blogs like Style Me Pretty, Ruffled, OnceWed and DIYBride!

I was blown away by this simple, pretty look worn by the bride in a casual, at-home wedding on Once Wed.  Ever since I caught a glance, it's been my inspiration for my wedding look. Anyone who knows me knows I'm a comfy kind of gal. I'm tall so I'm always in flats and cardigans are my go-to cover-up almost every day!

{images via oncewed}

Isn's she sweet? I know it's a bit unconventional for some...but I really want to feel like myself on my wedding day (okay a spiffier, prettier version!). So for me - glam = a white dress, cute flats and a pretty cardigan. Our venue is rustic and casual as well, so I think they will suit each other! I happened to find the above dress on Etsy, it's waaaaay above my budget but it's definitely my starting inspiration point!

 {image via The English Dept}
 I'm also coveting this cardigan and flats from J.Crew...I'm pretty sure my wedding colours will be a soft teal blue (of course!) with soft tones of grey and cream and white. It's been so hard to hold myself back from clicking the 'buy' button!!








 
{images via jcrew}

How did you decide on your wedding look? I love to hear your bridal wisdom!

21 comments:

  1. i totally stumbled upon mine. had no clue what i wanted to look like! i heard about a sale at davids bridal in fargo from my sister in law, jumped in the car that weekend with my parents and cousin and just tried on any dress that appealed to me. the one i ended up buying was picked out by my cousin actually. i saw it, liked it and bought it. and never looked at dresses afterward. didn't want to second guess my decision!

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  2. I love your vision! It's going to be simple elegance.
    - My wedding plans all came together as I planned and I changed my mind lots throughout the process... including changing my entire flower order less than two weeks before the wedding. I loved all the little things and I would do it all over again in a second.

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  3. I just had an idea of the dress I wanted in my head. You can see it in my blog post in October titled '21 October 2001'. I didn't have a huge budget for the dress, by choice really, I just didn't see the point in spending thousands for one day. It was pretty simple but blingy enough at the same time, and all up cost $500 to have custom made. The bodice was overlaid in a tiny floral organza and each flower had a diamante stitched into the centre of it. The train/overskirt was plain white organza that had a bit of colour to it when it caught the light. The rest of the dress was a heavy-ish satin with a pile of covered buttons down the back. I did love the dress but the main hitch was my veil kept catching on the diamante claws on the back of the bodice! Didn't see that coming, lol. I really didn't want to remove my veil as I knew I'd never ever get to wear it again, but in the end I had to, and it was so much more comfortable :) 9 yrs later I still have the dress and joy of joys it still fits me! If I did it all over again (with the same guy of course!) I would probably choose something different but at this stage I don't look at my dress and photos and cringe, I look at them and smile at the memory of the best day of my life :)

    Have fun planning!
    xx Karen

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  5. My wedding dress was basically a longer, fancier (read: a few beads) version of my favorite halter-neck little black dress. That's a style I love and am comfortable in, and I was so glad I went in that direction.

    Our venue was elegant, but all black and gray, so I went with turquoise and hot pink for pops of color and a summery vibe. It turned out perfectly. (And my bridesmaid dresses came from J. Crew, actually!)

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  6. I am also way tall, and live in cardigans and flats. I love J crew, especially their wedding line, the dresses are to die for. Living in Winnipeg I knew it was going to be next to impossible to get the dress I wanted. But I have an amazing seamstress that has made numerous dresses for me now,(mostly J crew inspiried..haha..) and she is absolutly amazing. I was able to to get beautiful Italian lace at a killer price, and she completely made my dream a reality. Oh and did I mention she literally charged me beans for her work! She is a god sent!

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  7. Don't worry, I'm looking forward to your wedding posts! I love that dress, it's so pretty! Since teal is a bright colour but a deep at the same time, I think it's a great colour for a Sept wedding; it's still summer but not yet fall.
    I picked my colours (sage green and chocolate brown) because they suited the outdoor summer wedding we were planning.

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  8. i love that dress!!! i had an idea of what i wanted for mine, which was kind of like the style gwyneth paltrow wore in emma, but i couldn't find it anywhere. (or i should say in my budget anywhere). so i got a different dresser, and i don't think i really loved it. i would love to go back and do it all over just so i could pick another dress! i love that style- it suits you!

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  9. Oooh, I love hearing all your wedding dress tales! Thanks for sharing them with me!

    SarahC - I need that seamstress's contact info stat! One of my options is potentially getting the dress made...so if you know someone here in Winnipeg I would love it if you shared!

    XO
    Lenore

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  10. Go to Whispering Pines Catalog.com They have a rustic wedding blog. Their archives are pretty impressive. But, come on, you can wear a cardigan and flats anyday. Do something special for your wedding! Ann

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  11. I bought a simple pale pale pink, button down the front dress on the day I said "I DO!" as we eloped with only two witnesses in tow. BUT I was set on getting "wedding" pictures done...still to this day I don't know why. SO my BFF begged and borrowed her older sister's very beautiful lacy, flowy (is that a word)and silky wedding dress. It fit perfectly EXCEPT in the bust area...so throughout the picture taking session the photographer would make a weird hand motion and yell at me "Pull it down! Good! Smile! K Pull it down!" As the dress kept bubbbling up and distorting in that area. At one point my new husband behind me his chin resting on my shoulder sitting on the floor in the studio with the photographer again yelling "Kathy Pull it down again, K Good. GENE EYES UP HERE!"
    - Whatever you wear Lenore you will be beautiful...Your future Sister(& Favorite) Kath

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  12. I'm looking forward to your wedding posts, Lenore! Weddings are fun to plan! Your colors are very pretty. Mine were teal and cream. I had envisioned the dress that I wanted and then my mom and I set out to a number of stores where I tried on many different styles. Funny thing is that I ended up picking something completely opposite than what I had gone looking for. I just knew when I put this one dress on and looked in the mirror that this was the one! We did make a few changes to it to make it more "mine". Have fun with all of your planning! It'll be fun for us to follow along with you.

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  13. I love the dresses in the photos. I'm dreaming of having a knee-length a-line dress. Something very 1940s and vintage!
    - xo, Vanessa Elizabeth

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  14. don't warn us...i'm SO excited to read about your wedding plans, my dear!

    i really love the idea of feeling like yourself at your wedding. i used to be the instructor for a handmade wedding invitations class. it made me so sad when i came across brides who chose conventionality > being true to themselves. it's YOUR day!

    xo Alison

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  15. This is so you! I had the same experience, early on, just like that. Flipping through Instyle Weddings, a garden wedding image, it stuck in my head and was the inspiration from that day forward. Causal and intimate, little personal touches. My dress, the first one I tried on. The 'confidants' (as you helped name them) in different dresses of the same tone, their choice and style. Sadly I threw out that clipping :( and just spent two hours online looking for it. If anyone has 2007 Instyle wedding mags, I think it is in there...maybe it is Martha Stewart, sigh, so sad I lost that. So keep the photo, it is so nice to come back to and remember the process of planning for your wedding. You are going to have the most beautiful late summer wedding Lenore. Your style and and personality shining through. Love hearing about the journey...

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  16. LOVE LOVE LOVE. I *so* hope you can find someone to make you EXACTLY that dress. It's perfect. I'm so excited to watch your wedding plans come together. You have such a beautiful, distinct style - it's going to be gorgeous.

    I didn't get married in the dress I picked. We had a short engagement, so I went dress shopping within the first couple of weeks and found one that I really liked - an ultra-simple column-style dress with lace overlay and a brooch on the hip. I was in love. But I could not get it in time. Then I found one that was very similar and was available to order and placed an order on the spot. A few weeks later, I got a call that the manufacturer had a fire or something and the dress was no longer available. At that point, I needed to go to the store where I had originally purchased a dress and try on the samples they had in my size and pick the one that I liked the most. I cried a tear or two. And then I picked my favourite - not my dream wedding dress, but my favourite out of the bunch. I had to change my bridesmaids' dresses that day too, because the original dresses no longer really went together (and two of the three were out of the country when this happened, so they REALLY had to trust me!).

    To answer your question, we needed to go a little more formal because of the venue (we got married at the Millennium Centre here in Winnipeg) and went with whites + ivories + black and added in a mix of different black and white patterns and a few light icy blue accents.

    You know what? It was perfect. Not because it was 'perfect' but because it was our wedding - and at the end of it, we were MARRIED (which was kind of the whole point). And I still get compliments on all the photos of my 'third choice' dress... :)

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  17. I think that's a lovely idea! Perfect dress!


    Camila F.

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  18. You are TOO cute- I am looking forward to all of your wedding inspirations-

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  19. We are coming up on our 7th anniversary next week - fun to reminisce. I had no idea what I wanted going in to the planning, I was not the kind of girl who grew up planning my wedding my entire life. I tried on a whole bunch of dresses and had that classic 'this is the one' moment, and that was that. If I did it over now I'd go with something completely different, mostly because styles have changed in the past 7 years. My colors were deep red and purple, the bridesmaids wore the deep red and our flowers had both colors. Oh, and I got married in Australia so winter was no consideration, it was one of the hottest days of that summer!
    Definitely supporting the idea of wearing flats, wearing uncomfortable shoes on your wedding day is the worst!

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  20. You probably already know this, but just in case you don't, Whippy Cake has a 15% off promo code up on their blog through the 13th. Might make a nice wedding accessory ;)

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Thanks so much for stopping by, I love reading all your comments! If you have a specific question, please email me at lhume1@mts.net. XO Lenore