The big bridal stores vs. the private stores

As a bride I observed the big bridal stores vs. the much smaller, private ones and it was really interesting.

I had heard from many brides to avoid David's Bridal for my wedding gown - mainly to their dresses not accommodating tall girls well and being very expensive to alter to add length.

Therefore, I went to a much smaller bridal store south of where I live. It only had two dressing rooms, one being so small I actually didn't even know it was there until it was pointed out to me later. There weren't a huge selection - but they had enough where I got a good idea of what looked good on me, and what didn't.

Most of all, the customer service was exceptional - although it helped that I was the only bride in the store and you had to have an appointment. The lady that owned the store was the only one there at the time (she also had an assistant), and it was fabulous. My bridesmaid and I were definitely treated like royalty.

At that cute, little dress boutique I found my dream dress.

However, I could not imagine all my bridesmaids fitting into the little dress shop and there definitely weren't enough dresses for everyone to try on.

Therefore, for the bridesmaids dresses we ventured to two places: David's Bridal and a popular local boutique. The local boutique was more expensive and most sizes were 6-8 (which would fit some, but not all the girls).

So, we ventured to David's Bridal and had the most fabulous experience. I have heard many not-so-great things about David's but I must say we went there twice, once on Friday and another time on Saturday, and had awesome service! It's not that they weren't busy - they definitely were - but they still cared about us. They had a ton of different sizes (between 2 - 24) and lots of colors.

We said yes to those dresses.

Serene dresses and Midnight vests

So another "problem" with the gorgeous serene dresses is that although they came from David's Bridal, they did not have exact coordinating tuxes at their "brother" company, Men's Warehouse.

Therefore we opted for the Midnight at Men's Warehouse. My fiance and I personally went and looked at all the vests, and this was by far the best match (aside from just silver, gold, champagne, or black).

I would definitely recommend these vests.

Serene Dresses and Flowers

I haven't updated this in forever, but I definitely will start (hopefully) at a little bit more of a regular pace.

First off, I had a hard time finding tuxes and flowers online that matched my girls color - Serene from David's Bridal. Therefore, if any future bride finds me through google, here are good options.

Flowers for Serene: Orchids, purple or pink roses, white/ivory roses

Here was another suggestion: "a combination of roses and lilies. Both are beautiful and summery flowers and their contrasting shapes are very striking in a bouquet. chose white, blues, with hints of yellow and coral/peach. I thought bringing in yellow was a nice was to compliment and brighten up those blues."

Please Vote for my Dream Assignment!

I invite you to invite everyone else

So I have seen many invitations over the years - my father is a pastor and we have had our fair share of weddings since I could remember. I would get excited when I allowed to open the envelopes and check out each piece in a extensive creative check.

Now I know that those brides can have the tiniest piece of mind that those cards they spent hundreds of dollars on were well appreciated.

I had no idea how much wedding invitations were - it's pretty crazy. As a guest, I appreciate the cards and try to hold on to them until at least the end of the wedding (until it inevitably gets lost at the hotel, after it's use of the map of directions and reception address is up). Therefore, I can only imagine that most other guests do the same. Which equals a lot of money on something that is only really going towards a maid's trashcan in the end.

So we decided to make our own. We actually got very lucky and went to a store going out of business (it was one of the stores always way too overpriced, however I do feel for the employees becoming unemployed soon), and got a great deal. So now we have the paper and create our own hopefully creative and discounted invites.

On the other hand, here are some amazing invitation websites if you don't want to worry about throwing your fiance's printer out the window when it decides to mess up when you try to print them out on your own (disclosure: I did not use any of these companies for my invites):

Icing on the Cake Designs - These are amazing, creative invites. A little pricey for our budget, but probably a good deal if we would've saved for more than a few months.

VP On Sale - Great deal and it looks like they really take care of you.

David's Bridal - Yep, they have dresses, tuxes, and even invitations! They are nicely coordinated and quite cute. I also like that they have reviews from real brides.

Vista Print - I used them for my save-the-dates and loved them.

For the theater-themed weddings - Invitation Consultants - so cute and some are more expensive than others, but if you don't want to worry about designing them on your own, these are awesome!

Another great website for the theater folks: Invitation Box

For the photo folks these sites are awesome:

Photo Card Chef

Photo Wedlock Invitations

Some other reviews I found online:

"go to printsmadeeasy.com they are really cheap and professional. You'll have to use the postcards section but it can be easily transformed into invites. I used it for my sisters wedding last year. 300 cards for 29.99 plus shipping."

"I am a graphic designer and I use VistaPrint for a lot of things. I did not use them for my wedding invitations, as I created my own unique ones. However, I did use VistaPrint for response cards. I got 100 postcards for about $8.00. I waited until they had a special (which is pretty much once every other day), and uploaded my own design that was printed in glossy color. On the reverse side, I had them print me and my fiance's address in black and white. I would definitely recommend using them for response cards.

The materials I purchased for my invitations came in packs of 50. I need about 60 invitations, so I am considering getting 10 or so from VistaPrint to send to a few people that I know probably aren't coming anyway. They will be nice, just not as nice as the ones I custom made. I would definitely say that they are better than any you'd buy at Wal-Mart and print at home. Their print quality is fabulous!"

"not sure your budget but willowtreelane.com has complete invitation packages for cheap i got 100 invites with everything you need to go with them for $93"

"I used Vista Print for invitations to my casual outdoor wedding. The service was prompt and very cost effective. I got very simple, tasteful invites, response cards, thank you cards, and envelopes all for less than I would have paid for invitations alone from another source.
Highly recommended. There is a lot of freedom in design options and you do not have to use cookie cutter formats or text."

"I used VistaPrint for our company business cards and they came out great. I have a wedding website which I sell wedding invitations at low to high prices. Just click on the link with the flashing invitations at http://weddingsuppliesunlimited.com."

"Mine were $500.00 for 175 and I made them but I used high quality paper. You can make them as cheap as $2 per set
http://www.budgetweddinginvitations.com/...

So look here and you can see what you can get at what price so the cheapest you could do is about $150.00-200.00"

"Like everyone has said, it does depend on where you get them and the like. I bought mine at Office Max and made them myself! Everyone loved them and had no idea we did them at home.

It was a white overlay with text over a picture of the two of us in black and white. I loved them.

Orientaltrading.com has the exact ones I bought in Office Max. Here's the link. http://www.orientaltrading.com/applicati..."

Style Network wedding contest

Are you an engaged couple who truly wants a one-of-a-kind wedding of a lifetime, but you're finding it next to impossible in the face of an economic crisis? Then this is your opportunity to have the wedding of your dreams!

The Style Network is celebrating the 100th episode of "Whose Wedding is it Anyway?" We are searching for ONE LUCKY COUPLE who is ready to scrap their plans and go on a wild ride with one of our featured "Whose Wedding" planners, as we GIVE them the most unforgettable wedding adventure!

Please send your contact info, love story and photos to: WhoseWedding100@trueentertainment.net

All participants must be 21 years of age or older and have a valid US passport. You must also be available for shooting and travel in early March 2009.

The deadline to apply is February 16, 2009.

- So after some thought (okay it only took a few minutes to decide) I am not scrapping all our plans for a very cool (and free) wedding. Yes, it would be awesome, I'm sure...but this is more than us. It's about getting married in the church we attended since we started dating, it's about our families coming together, it's about all that crazy and fun stuff that I want to experience with my fiance and our new combined families and friends...but yes it's definitely tempting to also take the wedding money and just take everyone on a cruise instead, lol.

The Save-the-Dates

I made them with Photo Shop and VistaPrint and a bit of help from my advertising and design-guru, Anya. I incorporated a few of my fav ideas: baby pictures, cute 'engagement' pic (although it was taken in the summer), calendar idea, and then on the back has all the info and a magnet we put on.