Making it my own

A few months back I mentioned I was making a change to my dress. http://www.weddingbee.com/2007/06/28/new-dress/. Originally my Private Label by G dress went straight across in the back. I knew my dress was the the best for my body and it really had all the elements that I wanted in a wedding dress. But something was missing...there was something that I just knew I wanted to be different. It wasn't until the dress arrived and I had my first fitting that I realized I need some extra pizazz in the back. When I went in for my second fitting I asked the seamstress what could we do to have it dip in the back. A few pins later she was ready to start my dip. I think the results turned out great! I loved the back of my dress. I really felt like the dress was a little bit more of my own and not like any other bride.
This is the back after I had the dip detail added.


Here is the before from knotbio of southerngrl *her dress is also in a different color than mine but you get the idea :)

Gonna dress you up in my love...

You've got style, that's what all the girls say....Ahh love old school Madonna on a Friday! That also was the song that was going through my head as I ran to the dress shop for my final fitting today at lunch. I was so excited to see how the changes I had made looked and I wanted to see myself in the dress one last time before the big day. Here is a sneak peak of my dress
***If for some reason my fiance has found his way onto here. STOP!!!! Do not look any further! A small hint of my dress is below and I want you to be completely surprised on our wedding day, love you!

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AHHHHH!!!! I love it! Now that my alterations are complete I wanted to give the highest recommendations to my dress shop. La Belle Elaine's in Seattle were superb! I originally ordered my dress back in November with a nice sales girl named Nikki. She was great and she even put up with my friends that came along (long story). Sadly Nikki was leaving at the first of the year but she assured me everything would be all taken care of. She was so good she even picked out this dress since I had orginally passed it by. My dress was due to arrive in May. So when when it arrived here a whole month early I was thrilled! The girls at the desk are always very helpful and every time I called the shop with a question they were able to help me quickly. I mentioned before that I wanted the back of the dress to dip down. The seamstress team at La Belle Elaine's is a wonderful mother and daughter duo. They were wonderful! They both were very helpful and I couldn't be more pleased with the changes made. I would highly recommend the shop and getting alterations done by them. They are also pressing the dress for me I am leaving it there until the day before the wedding and then Maria will press it and have it all ready for me to pick up.

Final fitting

I get to slip away at lunch today for my final dress fitting. So excited! Sadly I cannot post pictures of my dress in case the mister stumbles his way onto here. But I will hopefully be able to give you a sneak peak. Ok now I just need everyone to pray to the weight Gods that everything fits ok.

Make sure you get my good side

What can I say...my father is an artist. I have grown up surrounded with hand painted pictures and sketches my whole life. I have seen that some brides are lucky enough to have their dress designer make them a quick sketch of their dress as a keep sake. When I saw this sketch of Eva Longoria's dress it got me thinking. Yep... I am going to requested that my dad sketch my dress as a fun little keep sake. Or wait is that silly? What do you guys think of this idea?

A penny saved is a penny earned...

That is my motto when it comes to some wedding items. Sure I was willing to drop a small fortune when it came to my venue and dress, but luckily I didn't have to on either. So whenever I see a chance to save a few pennies I go for it. For example my flower girl dresses. We waited until after Easter to find the dresses. Well although that was a good plan in theory it did still have a few bumps. My girls are my sister 9years old and our niece 1 1/2 years old. So that is about a size 8 and 2T. I found my sister one dress at JcPenny on sale for $29 originally $59! It's a plain white dress so I felt $29 was a great price. And I added some customizations to the dress to give it some pizazz! What do you think? I also made our ring pillow in the same material. The material was also on sale and I had my 40% off coupon from JoAnn's so for the 3 yards I bought it was only $4 for silk!
Before


And After


The fabric and the ring pillow

Sexy back!

Ok so here is the picture of my gorgeous maid of honor in her dress. What do you think? I love the jewel toned color. All of the girls are either olive toned or dark complexion so the dress looks great on them! The shoes are dark in this picture but they match the dress perfectly and they were only $15 on amazon and no dying needed!

New dress!

Ok so my dress isn't new but I did make a change to it. I went to my first fitting today and took along pictures. Now some seamstresses may think I was being crazy but not mine! She was happy to make the changes I requested without blinking an eye. Needless to say I was Thrilled with a capital T! Here is a picture of the look I was changing...
Before

After

I had the back dipped down to a V rather than straight accross. What do you think?

Ta dah...

Ok this is really a half ta dah, maybe just a ta! Here are the dresses my sisters and best friends will be wearing.
This is the dress all the bridesmaids get to prance around in. At first I didn't like the ribbon but this color is good but I still haven't seen any of my girls in the dress yet.


This lavender dress for the usher my future sister in law. She will be walking her mom down the aisle and my brother will be in lavender as well walking my mom down the aisle.

Here they are together. It's blurry but you get the idea...

Squeals with delight

So my best friend and I love target. We squealed with delight when we found target in Sydney Australia. Al thought they had the same stuff that the Targets in the states have. It was just the mere idea of seeing that lovely red bulls eye in a foreign country. And I was so happy to hear Target will now have a bridal line! I cannot wait to see what they come up with.

They're here...

Ah! The BM dresses came in a week early. Holy cow that didn't take long. The girl on the phone said my usher dress was so pretty. I cannot wait to go and get them this weekend. In case you forgot here it is...

My lovely BF Bena has agreed to be my model with shoes and dress! Yippy! So we will have an idea of what everyone will look like soon!

Its here!

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Its here! I got a message last night on my voicemail that my dress is here! Whoo hooo I am going to visit it on Thursday. So exciting!