Tie One On

In the midst of my overwhelmingly stressful work situation (that is, 33 days until proposed submission date of my PhD dissertation, with a LOT of work still to be completed), I have been trying to win mini wedding-battles to at least maintain a rolling momentum. To be honest though, the wedding is NOT my priority, which, considering the short 3-ish months to the day, is slightly scary.

One of the items on the to-do list is to order ties for the groomsmen. I knew from way-back-when, that I wanted the geniuses over at the Cyberoptix Tie Lab (shout out to etsy!!) to create some magic for our men. I mean, not many people can make ties look original... think about it... you can head over to Banana Republic and get some nice ties for your boys, or splurge and go to Holt Renfrew or Harry Rosen (yup, I am a Canadian!!) to get the creme de la creme, OR, you can rock it out with some kickin ties that will make your boys look like they have a bit more personality than a young and cocky investment banker... ya, that sounds like a better option!!

Take a look at some of the beauties...

So, what's the battle then you ask?? Well, the biggest issue (in my bride-eyes) is the fact that her color selection for the ties themselves are not rocking my world... she has a decent selection, but considering our girls' different dress colors, I wanted to keep things pretty simple... I don't need people getting dizzy when presented with our bridal party!! Well, when I saw this...

... the battle was more of a slight conflict! Color matching people... this I can work with!!

So, I figured it would be simple enough to clip a tiny piece of fabric off each of the girls dresses from an inside seam or something, send it to the Lab, and order some rockin ties... not so much!! Clipping fabric was NOT an option. Bethany at the Tie Lab told me that digital pics would not be the best option, since, as we all know, the colors don't necessarily translate from reality to computer screen, let alone from one computer screen to the next. WELL, what to do?? I don't live in the same city as the dresses, but my mom (I LOVE YOU MOM!!) offered to take care of it... she came through, BIG TIME!! Bethany mentioned that a Pantone # would tell her all she needed to know... a wha?? I didn't even know what a Pantone was, and neither did my mom, but without stressing me out with the details, a few days later my awesome mom emailed me the Pantone numbers!! Victory!!

So, here they are... the official colors of the girls dresses (keep in mind that these are the colors, but in reality they each have their own unique metallic finish to them, but the colors are as shown) (SIDENOTE: the color palettes were all created over at ColourLovers.com)

Beautiful right?!?! You might remember my post about my color inspiration, where I showed you this palette:

Well, although none of the girls dresses match exactly to my inspiration palette, I think they look amazing. Actually, I think they do a better job of capturing the colors of the mountains than I did with my palette... yep, that's me, I'm a happy bride!

Ok, so I digress. I now have the Pantone #s for the girls' dresses, which means that I can (and have) ordered ties that won't cause dizzy spells with our guests (at least with the color anyway... stay tuned for the ties we chose). sigh. of. relief. I can now work work work, knowing I will progress through this wedding planning process one mini-battle-victory at a time!! I repeat... sigh. of. relief.

What online/long distance vendor required you (or your wedding helpers) to step outside the box and problem solve? Or, a more fun question, what off-the-wall wardrobe decisions are you contemplating?!?! Or, even better in the name of gratitude, who pulled one out of the hat for you and relieved some serious wedding stress??

Colour Combos Considered

Created over at colourlovers.com

OK, I considered, and selected, mostly by default, and then I made a gorgeous image!! Here's the evolution of the colors that will be seen at the wedding...

You will notice I refuse to say my "wedding colours", instead hinting that different colours will be seen, incorporated, or suggested. One thing is for sure, my dress is IVORY. After that, the colour choices have been somewhat organic, inspired by our setting.. the mountains!! We will have greys and indigos (think mountains and river rock!), browns and greens (think forest and meadows), and wheat!! Yes, I have a thing for wheat!! It has no doubt popped into the whole planning process once or twice. I am a prairie girl, so the wheat is mandatory!!

this makes me swoon...

The story of my three bridesmaids definitely needs a bit of explanation. Here's the family tree: I have an older sister, Candy-Cane. Candy-Cane (or CC for short) is the 2nd oldest cousin on my dad's side, preceded by Jelly-Bean (JB) by9 months. JB's sister is Pea-ah (P-ah), who is only 2 months older than me. Did you get that... JB (32, my cousin), CC (31.5, my sista), P-ah (28.5, cousin, JB's sista), then me = 4 Musketeers!! OK, you got that sorted! CC got married first, 3 years ago, followed by P-ah who got married 2 years ago. The bridesmaids in both weddings were the remaining 3 of the 4 musketeers... and the same will hold true in my wedding.

So, the point of this discussion, is of course, bridesmaids dresses! Well, in CC and P-ah's weddings, the 3 girls wore the same dresses, and while some considered one or the other pretty nice, there was also a few very negative responses to wearing named dresses... and I should know, cause I wore one that made me look like a stuffed sausage (see if you can spot the dress I didn't like, below)! Of course, all my whining and complaining (to non-involved parties of course) is coming back to haunt me, but I am fighting off the demons with one chosen defense: PICK YOUR OWN DRESS GIRLS!!

moi!, JB, CC, P-ah

P-ah, CC, Moi, JB

Seems like a fair approach right? Well, it has gone extremely well, the girls each chose a dress in one of the three named colors (brown family, purple family - but more on the greyish side, and the grey family). P-ah just had a baby, and was 8 months pregnant when the other two girls were buying their dresses, so I picked one up for her on a whim... in the grey family. It was $99. Not bad right?!?! Well, fast forward three months, she has a beautiful baby boy, and the dress fits, but more importantly she, she like it!! YAY!! CC picked up an off-the-rack (ie. CLEARANCE-RACK) Banana Republic dress in the brown family... and it is STUN-ning!! How much you ask?? $65!! YEEAAHH!! And finally, when CC and I were out shopping for my mom's dress, we picked up a gorgeous little number for miss JB, the pickiest of the bunch. It is sexy, stylish, and the most beautiful purplish-grey colour ever! And the final number... $68!! WHAT?!?! Three dresses for $233!! This of course was less than the cost of ONE of the dresses in each of the prior weddings!! SCORE!!

So, here is the lineup of dresses:

CC's dress... it looks purple here, but in person it looks brown from afar, and on closer inspection, has a metallic purple undertone

Next in line, the gorgeous P-ah... Charcoal grey silk with sequin embellishment

And then we have JB and sexy little number... love it!! It's the grey-purple, and JB is getting the neckline adjusted to a V-neck to match the other girls.
So, those are the dresses... I wish I could figure out my cheap digital camera so I could show the actual colors of the dress, but I think you get the idea. In the end, I will have 3 bridesmaids that look amazing, are comfortable in their dresses, are NOT broke after having bought them, and, if they like, can most certainly wear them again... I know, every bride says that, but I think they will!!

Whatcha think??