Shall I talk to you about my bridesmaids? I always said I wanted a small bridal party- I thought probably just my little sister Emma and my other "sister" and best friend for life Aubrey- but when it came time to actually think about it- there were people in my life who were way too important to not have standing beside me- Morgan, Heather, and Gabe. People who have seen me and Tim through the good times and bad times and who know me, some days, better than I know myself. Asking them to stand beside me was not about needing extra hands- it was about wanting 5 woman who I love and admire to warm up the water before I took the plunge- to put their hand on my shoulder and say, "You've got this!" when I got nervous. I never had any intention of making them run to Paper Source a million times to search for ribbon, or tie strips of fabric onto yards and yards of garland, or at the very last minute track down 12 umbrella's and have them overnight-ed to our hotel in case it rained- I figured between Tim and I, I could handle all of that stuff on my own and I am kind of a control freak- but when it came down to it, boy did I need their help and not just with errands!
It was important to me to not stifle them. They are all stylish, strong, gorgeous women and the last thing I wanted to do was force them into some same color/same dress situation. However, I did have a certain vision for the whole look of the day and I wanted to choose something that would give them freedom but also reflect the general style we were going for. I have always had an affinity for vintage dresses and loved the idea of taking a "green" approach. I knew I wanted them to all be in blushes, golds, and creams...
....so Yelena Johnson and I set out one rainy LA afternoon to check out Shareen Vintage- otherwise known as a vintage-lovers heaven on earth. We combed through dress after dress in her racks and racks of beautiful vintage pieces and knew we had stumbled upon something gold! We set up an appointment with Shareen for a few months later and when we arrived with all the bridesmaids in tow she had pulled a bunch of dresses in our color scheme for us to try on!
This is what we ended up with that day....the color palette went into a much warmer salmon tone than we had planned but the dresses looked so great on the girls that it didn't really matter at all!
With a couple tweaks, one new dress, and a bunch of gorgeous accessories made by the super talented Ashley Maxwell this is what we ended up with- following photos by Jasmine*
Throughout the year I picked up necklaces where ever I saw them in our color palette and then we styled 'em up that day!
I sent lots of links to shoes I thought might look good, but inevitably the girls all chose their own and they came out perfectly! Heather found these vintage blue velvet pumps which worked perfectly with our color palette and Gabe and Aubs went blue too!
While we were downstairs taking family portraits Heather took some gorgeous shots of the girls in the ceremony room. I think these PERFECTLY capture the style of each bridesmaid. Wish I had one of me to match but these will definitely be a large spread in the album!!!!
Seriously, seeing all of these images together in this post just completely makes me giddy. These girls looked so fabulous and the colors and styling turned out exactly the way I had imagined!
{ Photobooth! }
Most of the dresses needed slight alterations but we added up the cost of all of the dresses and then divided the amount by 5 so the dresses definitely came out cheaper than any dress I'd seen listed as a "bridesmaid" dress online. Each dress had the perfect character for each individual girl and the whole look together really still said "Meg" !
I could not have made it through all of the planning stress and decision making without these girls. I love you all to the moon and back a million times!
What do you think???