My Wedding Report

Remember when I played dress up with Mama Duckling’s wedding dress? Well after trying on her dress I wanted to figure out some way to incorporate the lace into my veil. There was a veil that I loved when I first tried on my dress, but it was a crazy $1000!! That clearly wasn’t it the budget, but I loved the lace edging and thought that maybe we could do the same thing with my mom’s lace.

I hadn’t found a normal veil at a reasonable price yet, and I was nervous about finding someone who could incorporate the lace from my mom’s dress and do it custom for me. I remembered hearing about Candi Merlee’s Crowning Glory Designs and her reasonable prices.

I contacted Candi and it just so happened that she lived about 30 minutes away from me. She invited me to her house so I could try on some veils and figure out what I wanted. I asked Mama Duckling to come with me to design my veil. After being greeted by Candi we went into a room to try on various sample veils to get an idea of what I liked. We also showed her Mama Ducklings dress and that we wanted to incorporate it into the design.

Here are a few of the veils I tried on to get a feel for different styles on me.

After lots of sample veils and discussing what I really wanted we decided that she would take the lace off the bottom of my Mama Duckling’s dress, tea die it (who knew you could die with tea?) so that it would match the more ivory color of my dress. I wanted the veil to be very soft, a little shorter than fingertip length and the lace to not completely frame my face so it didn’t look like I was boxed in.

How much did this custom veil cost me? Fifty-two dollars! Can you believe that? Such a reasonable price and completely custom for me including all the work taking the lace off Mama Duckling’s dress. My veil was ready 2 weeks later and was perfect. And just so you can see, here is a teaser picture from the wedding day.

I highly recommend Candi to anyone that is looking for a custom veil. She was so sweet, easy to work with and it didn’t take long to get the veil back. Also, you don’t have to live in Orange County. She takes veil orders from all over the US and even other countries. She doesn’t have a website in order to keep costs down, but if you are interested her email is: candi@cgveils.com

Are you doing anything to incorporate something special or a piece from the past into your wedding day attire?

Remember way back, when I was wishing and hoping for a certain pair of shoes? I basically had given up on the search. I couldn’t find the shoes for a decent price and many stores weren’t even carrying them anymore. I had begun a new search for “the shoe.”

I recently had my birthday and went down to visit my family in San Diego for the weekend. Imagine my surprise when I was handed a lovely green box with the words Kate Spade across the top. Opening the box, I squealed with delight to find my dream shoes inside! My family had gone out of their way to surprise me and I was thrilled.

Probably one of the funniest things was my 19-year-old brother’s reaction to the shoes, “You are wearing pink shoes? Aren’t you supposed to wear white because of the dress?” Apparently he isn’t a regular reader of the wedding blogs. haha

Even more fun? We found mama duckling’s wedding shoes that weekend and they subtly match mine. Notice the bow-like detail? Just wait until you see the shoes with her dress. Hint: her dress matches the color of my shoes.

Did you ever give up on the hopes of getting something only to be delightfully surprised in the end?

I’m still on the search for my own shoes, but I also need to make a decision on the bridesmaids shoes. However, I need the advice of the hive on what to do. I want all the bridesmaids to get their own shoes, but I do want to at least let them know what color to get.

In case you forgot whatthe bridesmaid dresses look like here is a reminder picture:

The first option is letting everyone pick out their own silver or grey shoe. The dresses are a light grey so these would match. Some had concerns it would be hard to match, although I think even if it isn’t an exact match it’s okay since it is a short dress.

Source This isn’t the exact shoe since they would get to choose their own.

The next option is that everyone wears a strappy black shoe that they may already have. I definitely don’t want a black pump or peep toe because I don’t think it is soft enough for the dress and black isn’t one of our colors. However, it is probably the easiest to find and most rewearable. I just don’t want the black to stand out too much which is why it would need to be strappy.

Source This isn’t the exact shoe since they would get to choose their own.

I’ve also always loved colored bridesmaid shoes, but I don’t want to be super picky and make everyone go on the hunt for a particular color after they were able to save so much money on the dress ($62) and were so excited. But look at this picture from Amelia Lyon. Our colors aren’t green but we do have blue and raspberry. I’m tempted.

So hive I turn to you for your wonderful advice and thoughts. What do you think?

a. Grey/Silver Shoes
b. Strappy Black Shoes
c. Colored Shoes
d. I have a different idea and will comment below

Oh and if you want to comment why you chose A, B or C below that would be helpful too!

The ladies dresses are all taken care of so the next big thing to take care of is figuring out what Mr. Ducky and the groomsmen will be wearing. Mr. Ducky and I are planning on going shopping this weekend to find what he will wear on our big day.

Long ago Mr. Ducky decided that he did not want to wear a tux. He tends to overheat and did not want all the layers of a tux and he thought it was just too formal. I think Mr. Ducky would look so handsome in a tux, but I also know he will look equally charming in a suit and he’ll feel most comfortable.

The look of gray suits matches the balance of casual and classy. I have been admiring many pictures of gray suit grooms lately in all the blogs. I have to admit I really don’t know that much about men’s suits, so Mr. Ducky will be doing most of the choosing. I do love all this inspiration though!

The Bride’s Cafe

Bridal Wave

The Bride’s Cafe

Brooklyn Bride

While the gray’s are different, I loved this image because the whole bridal party is dressed in gray like ours will be. And of course it is a wedding from one of our wonderful PROs.
Once Wed

Evoke Photography

The Knot

And Mr. Ducky and I hope to find some fabulous socks!

Martha Stewart

I’m excited to see what we find. I’ll try to take pictures for you all if he allows it. He thinks I’m picture crazy.

Any advice for us before we go on the search?

I recently went shopping with my two maids of honor for bridesmaid dresses. I wanted to find dresses that were cute, flattering, able to worn again, not a standard looking bridesmaid dress and most importantly affordable. My first choice was a cornflower blue dress or a gray dress if we couldn’t find the blue. Because I feel like “bridesmaid” dresses are often expensive because they are made for bridesmaids, we decided to start our search in the mall. We found a few dresses that either were the wrong shade of blue, too expensive, lots of beading or just weren’t very cute on.

Heading to store after store began to get tiring, but we finally made our way into Banana Republic. We found a gray dress that looked kind of interesting on the hanger and decided to give it a try. As soon as I saw it on both MOHs, we all loved it. The dress looked beautiful on both of them!

The dress was $150 which was within our goal of being under $200. We didn’t purchase the dresses right then and there because Banana Republic often has sales so I was going to go home and check my membership information to see if there was an upcoming sale. Sure enough I found out that this last weekend was friends and family weekend for 30% off and with my membership I got an additional 10% off, making the dresses 40% off and under $100!! Woo hoo! I went ahead and bought all the dresses this weekend and the girls are sending me checks for the amount, since they would have not been able to get the same discount. Even more good news? As I was writing this blog post, I just noticed that the dress has gone on sale even more and we’ll get a price adjustment! Yes!

Look how cute it is! Don’t you just love the back?!

Banana Republic

Here are are pictures of when they tried the dress on so that you can see how great it looks on both of them in real life. The lighting was kind of weird, so ignore the lilac undertone and poor picture quality.

Now here is my vision for the dress. Imagine hair with a gentle, soft and low hairdo or waves that just fall subtly. There is a raspberry hair flower and raspberry bouquet that just pop against the light gray material. All of the girls are just going to look gorgeous! I can’t wait to see them!

The lovely flower pictured here is from Oh My Deer! I just love her work, but am not sure if I’ll be able to splurge on one of these lovelies. Can’t you just see something like this in the hair though?

Anyone else excited about the bridesmaid dresses you found? How did you decide where to shop?

Earlier I believe I left us off having left Mon Amie and stopping for a much needed lunch break.

The next store we went to was The White Dress in Corona Del Mar. I’d say between Mon Amie and The White Dress, every designer you could possibly think of is covered. Maybe not…but very close if you are looking to cover your bases in two trips.

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I got my dress!! Woohoo! So excited and I can check that major one off the list. But before I do my celebration dance (jk) I’ll give you the background story.

On Sunday I went out shopping with my team, consisting of my mom, Mark’s mom and my two maids of honor. We had the itinerary of Mon Amie, The White Dress and then Saks in South Coast Plaza.

(side note: Saks is closing most of their bridal salons in the US and therefore have all their samples on sale!)

Store One: Mon Amie

Mon Amie is probably one of the biggest wedding dress stores on the West Coast and it just so happens to be 25 minutes from where I live. My mom and one MOH drove up from San Diego, my other MOH came down from LA and then with Mark’s mom I met them at Mon Amie. The store is huge! They have over 4,000 dresses, I’m not sure how you can possibly know everything that is in that store.

It was a busy day so we did not have a regular sales person, but one of the seamstress/designers named Sonia helping us. This was great because first of all she was not a pushy sales person that used all the cliches and instead of using those ugly binder clips she just used pins. After talking with Sonia and picking out some dresses that I liked we just started trying dresses on. Based on what I liked and what was flattering everyone pulled more dresses.

It was pretty busy in there so I tried most of the dresses on in my room since you know I have issues with going out into the open where random strangers look at me. However, once I narrowed it down to 3 that I really liked they had me go down the aisle. Yes…they have an aisle. And Yes I felt awkward going down the aisle with fake flowers and then standing on a pedestal. However, I was able to get out into more natural light and that was helpful. After that the “aisle” was taken so I just used a different pedestal minus the aisle and flowers to my relief.

They wouldn’t let me take pictures there unless you buy the dress, so sadly I have no pictures to share!

There was one dress that I really liked there and narrowed everything down to. Surprisingly it was a Mon Amie exclusive and was the most affordable out of everything I tried on! (Love that!) However, we still had an appointment to go and we were in need of a lunch break. (Have I ever mentioned that when I don’t eat for a long period of time and I’m in need of a meal I will get cranky?)

So off we went to lunch at the delicious Avila’s El Ranchito (also love chips, salsa and guac!) before our next destination where we found THE ONE! The rest of the story will be coming shortly…

If you are a new reader and want to hear about my first dress shopping experiences and look at some scary pictures of me, here is part I and part II of my shopping trip in San Diego with my mom.

When I was little I loved looking at my parents wedding pictures. Well around Christmas time we were unloading boxes from the attic at my parents’ house and we came across my mom’s wedding dress. Immediately Mr. Ducky and Daddy Duck were trying to convince me to try the dress, while I kept saying no. This went on for awhile before I gave in. So my mom and I went to my old bedroom opened up the dress that has been sealed for 26+ years and I did another duck and dive.

You can tell the dress was from back in the eighties. My mom looked beautiful, I definitely did not. However, it made me laugh that some of my mom’s favorite dresses I tried on were modern versions of hers. She is a lace person. Anyways, I snapped a few pictures for your enjoyment. (Note: It was early in the morning when I took these thus make-up and hair is not done. Maybe I’m getting too comfortable sharing awful pictures of myself with you guys?)

Well I probably won’t be wearing my mom’s dress on the wedding day. However, my mom and I think it would be special to take some of the lace and parts of her veil to create a custom veil for me to wear that day. This will be a perfect “something old” that recognizes my mom and dad’s wedding so many years ago.

Have you tried on your mom’s wedding dress? Are you doing anything on your big day to incorporate memories from your family?

If you are just catching up go this Part I to hear about the first store I went to for wedding dresses. The next store we went to just opened up in North County San Diego a few months ago.

The shop is called Bliss Bride. The two owners, Jennifer and Anne are so sweet and I had a lot of fun working with them. I really felt special and they close down the whole store just for you. If you are a San Diego bride and looking for a smaller shop then this one is wonderful. Their dresses are higher end ranging from $2000-12,000 with the majority being between $3000-5000.

Once again: MR. DUCKY DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER!

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The search for my wedding dress had officially begun. Mama Duck and I went to two different bridal dress stores. You may remember my first post and then follow-up post regarding my feelings for wedding dress shopping. I’m pleased to say that I actually had a good time and it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.

There are a few things that began to stand out as I tried on dresses. I really liked dresses that had rouching in the bodice. To my surprise a dropped waist looked good on me. My fear was that I was not going to be tall enough. However, the height was not an issue and the dropped waist showed off a bit more of my figure.

Our first store was Here Comes The Bride in San Diego. It is one of the more popular stores down there. There is a big room that has lots of dresses and then a hall with several “bridal suites.” The bridal suite is where you try on the dresses and has a comfy couch, big mirror, pedestal and a little cabinet with water, binder clips and other things I don’t know about.

Basically I just took a deep breath and went for it. I learned the “duck and dive” move it get into the dresses. Thanks to some advice from a fellow blogger, I wore a strapless bra and some bikini panties so that my butt was not exposed for all to see. I’d say that the experience was not necessarily emotional, but kind of a “woah moment” when you realize you really have a wedding dress on.

Okay my loyal readers, I did take pictures or I guess Mama Duck did. However, she was sitting down taking some of them and then tends to just hit the button at random times. The result being that these pictures are NOT flattering. I will show them to you as long as you promise not to laugh at how scary I look. If you have never seen a picture of me before, I apologize in advance and encourage you to keep checking back for when my posts don’t contain terrible pictures of myself. I am trying to be brave and be a devoted blogger and show you the good, bad and ugly. Here we go…

NOTE: MR. DUCKY IF YOU ARE RANDOMLY LOOKING AT THIS BLOG DO NOT LOOK ANY FURTHER. I MEAN IT! YOU WILL BE SORRY…

(MR. DUCKY CAN NOT HANDLE SURPRISES AND THE SUSPENSE IS ALREADY KILLING HIM)

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