Andrea's Wedding

Photos from Andrea's beautiful wedding are up! Andrea and Liam had a gorgeous wedding right in the middle of the fall colors in Hartford, Connecticut. Derek and I had a great time at the ceremony (St. Patrick's Catholic Church in Farmington, a lovely old stone church) and the reception (the Town & County Club in Hartford).

The wedding colors were red and orange, mimicking the autumn foliage in New England. Andrea's dress is made by Cymbeline USA. You can see my bridesmaid dress again at the right. Andrea's and our bouquets were made of red roses, orange callas, orange spray roses, and little red berries, created by Devars-Phillips. My favorite unique detail is that they incorporated Liam's desire for pumpkins in the decorations by using little, decorative pumpkin-shaped gourds, although I can't seem to find a picture of it.

Below is a small taste of the festivities. More photos can be viewed at the photographer's website. Victoria Souza Photography did a great job of capturing the color and movement in the day, didn't they?

Bridesmaid updos

Andrea's wedding last weekend was just beautiful, but, as a bridesmaid, I didn't have time to take pictures of the wedding! Right now, the best I can do is show you our hairstyles, by stylists from Oggi Hair Salon in West Hartford, CT.

A short hair updo: Claire has pretty short hair, which was just long enough for this updo. Her hair is held in place with two french braids and finished off with a couple stylish clips. I messed it up accidentally during a hug, but Kristy was able to easily fix it with a bobby pin or two.


Half updo: Jamie's hair was curled and then pinned out of her face.


A braided updo: My hair was french braided, then tucked under. The stylist left a few strands of hair on either side of my face and curled them. I really liked it.


Traditional updo: Kristy's hair is tucked and pinned, looking very elegant and classy.

As soon as I can get more photos of the wedding, I will post or link you to them. You're going to LOVE Andrea's dress, and the gorgeous red and orange color scheme.

Bridesmaid dress for Andrea's wedding

Hi everyone! Andrea's wedding is in 11 days! A few weeks ago I got my bridesmaid dress back from alterations, and I wanted to share with you how it turned out, which I think is pretty well.

The dress is from the Jasmine Bridal Belsoie line and cost $194, although I believe that was with the 15% discount we got because Andrea's mom ordered all the dresses through the same store in Minneapolis. The color is called "berry." Derek thinks the dress makes me look tall, which I don't often hear!

Alterations came to a total of $70, which, while it sounds expensive, I actually think is pretty reasonable (remember, at David's Bridal, my alterations came to $65, and I think these alterations were more complicated). I had the alterations done at a place called "Expert Tailoring" in Troy, Michigan on Maple Road. The reason the price is so high is that the dress has three layers of skirts, and all of them needed to be hemmed. The dress also had to be tightened in the bust and the straps needed to be shortened.

When I tried my dress on in the shop after it was done, there were a bunch of other customers there, and they all commented on how pretty I looked! I'll probably go back to that shop in the future for other alterations.

The bridesmaids are wearing black shoes--I'm wearing the same Caparros shoes I wore for Theresa's wedding. I'm finding that Caparros makes really comfortable evening shoes, and 2.5" heels is just the right balance for style and comfort.

I'm wondering if I should invest in a nice black shawl to ward off the Connecticut fall weather?

More Shoes!

Continuing with our recent theme of footwear, I wanted to share with you all Andrea's revelation. She was having trouble finding a shoe she was comfortable wearing--she wanted a heel, but not something too high; she wanted it to be closed-toe (October wedding, possibility of outdoor photos) but still cute. This morning I got an email with her solution:

Dance shoes!

Of course, we're not talking ballet slippers here (although that could be a fun option). Andrea scoured the internet looking for ballroom-style dance shoes and this is one of the pairs she found:
The advantages are obvious--they're going to be comfortable because they're made for dancing! These are made by Aris Allen as a reproduction of a 1930s dress pump and complement Andrea's dress quite well in my opinion (the dress has a vintage feel to it, with a boat neckline and a triple tiered lace skirt). They are $74.95 and available at dancestore.com, a site which specializes in swing dance shoes. They are "vegan" shoes, but neither Andrea nor I knows what that means!

Some other websites that sell dance shoes are Best Ballroom Shoes and DiscountBallroom.com, but a simple Google search will turn up many other options.

Reception Halls

Who says October weddings aren't popular? For Andrea's date, Oct. 16th, all but two of the reception halls she called in the Hartford, CT area were already booked, 11 months in advance!
Fortunately, one of the places she did find happens to be where her fiance's parents had their reception, a generation ago.

Also, I want to comment that I have been reading the book Bridal Bargains--what a fantastic read! (Thanks to Theresa, whose wedding I was in earlier this year, you may remember). I know you shouldn't believe everything you hear/read, but, even if this stuff isn't true, it's like a gossip magazine--a down-and-dirty expose on the bridal industry. Really interesting stuff.

Please accept Lily's and my apologies for the slow down in posts...like everyone, we are particularly busy this time of year.

Official Date

Andrea's wedding is officially set for October, 16, 2010. Major planning is expected to take place when I get to see her and the other bridesmaids on Nov. 21. I am probably too excited for my own good.

Red and orange for the fall

When Andrea started planning her wedding (which may or may not have been before she was engaged, but who am I to talk?), she mentioned red and orange, for a fall wedding in Connecticut, to go with that famous New England foliage.

I wasn't convinced. I just couldn't see it together, the red and orange. It reminded me of road signs. But Andrea sent me this picture, from Martha Stewart's website, and I got it.


But maybe I'm just a sucker for a rose bouquet.

Announcement!

I may have another bridesmaid gig (not officially yet, though)! One of my best friends Andrea FINALLY got engaged to her boyfriend of almost FIVE years (they have been dating since our freshman year in college).
Andrea's talking about an October, 2010 wedding in Hartford, Connecticut. More details to follow.