More Fabulous Wedding Dresses

Looking up images of Grace Kelly's wedding dress had a site appear with the images in this blog. I especially love the use by this designer with veils.

Since my dress is almost done....I am thinking about veils.

So many ideas and possibilities.

Will start posting photos of the dress except my photos are so bad...they don't do it justice.

Bridal party colors coming together!

Exciting... as I finally put together whole 'vision' of the bridal party. Color, it is so important. For me, without the color scheme handled I can't get anything done!!!

As you see to the left, the bridesmaids will be wearing unique and different shades of pinks/reds.

As you can see from this image, we have hot pinks to dusty rose to red.

Marc J. is doing a great job of linking together uniformity without conformity.

That is the theme of the wedding....

My hope is that everything

goes together yet feels alive and unique.

For the family; mom, dad, mom-in-law, dad-in-law and sister-in-law I want them to wear shades of purple. Ideally deeper shades of purple, but I also open to mixing and matching.

Here are inspirational ideas for the men to incorporate purple into their look.

This next image shows off how the purple

will 'pop' against green and yellow of the natural landscape that we are to be married against. In other

words, we are getting married on a hill looking over the valley in Calistoga.

My florist and I are discussing the possibility of yellow

s in the bouquets, and we already chose green and orange table linens!

This last image represents Andrew and I. Bride and Groom.

Amongst all the color we will remain in a classic white and black with only our bouquets and boutonnieres to tie us into the rest of the bridal party.

When I Grow Up.

This Video shows what the world would look like if I were God. Sometimes it takes getting old to finally free yourself to have fun with fashion. I am trying to do it now, while I still can pull off anything ;-).

Advanced Style: Age and Beauty on Nowness.com.

Wedding Decoration ideas from St. Louis

I recently got back from St. Louis, MO and came across this amazing store/workshop called SKIF. In their window displays were the most inventive, whimsical and lovely paper and found object decorations. I was inspired immediately by the works for my wedding. I particularly love the mish-mash of elements. The way the twigs and paper and lights create instant texture. I love the hand-made feel of the decorations too, it creates easy comfort.
I also love how accessible this will be to make. All I have to do is get paper and friends together to make lots of flowers, papelito, and other fun designs we will probably come up with on our own.

More Wedding Dress Inspiration

Today was the third day of trying on more gowns. Yesterday, my friend Linda and I went and tried on much more expensive gowns than my first trial run.
The image with the purple background is a Lazaro dress that I absolutely fell in love with, except the price!
However, what I got clearer on was that I want something that shows off my figure (you're only young once!) and yet has a vintage feel and is long with a train.
We decided after the 5K dress experience to go to some fancy vintage stores and see what we could come up with....I am a designer and I specialize in reworking things, why can't I do that for my own gown?
I just can't justify spending thousands of dollars on a dress that I will only wear once especially when that money could go for other things like -- travel!
So, I think we found a wonderful embroidered dress that fits like a glove. It needs some length and shoulder straps (I refuse to wear a strapless...a girl has to eat!)
and some more pizazz. But other than that, this vintage dress really fits the bill, and my budget!

These other gowns I am displaying are by Maria Karin and I think they are fabulous! I am inspired to add similar elements to the vintage dress in the way Karina uses texture and form.

Inspirations for the Wedding Dress

A lot changed since I first started putting together my inspirations for the wedding dress. I have since gone out and tried some on which has altered my mindset on everything.
Which is making me think I may need two dresses. The ceremonial dress feels like I want it to be more virginal, Mary-like. More soft, more like my princess Ozma fantasy. Perhaps the reception dress will be more vixen, more queen-like and fun. The dresses I have put here fall into each category. Still not sure if I will design the dress entirely or if I will alter a dress now. Decisions!!!

Colors for Wedding....Update!

After meeting with Alex I realized that simpler is better. As a designer I am one of those who loves to overdo it. I just want more and more. In my personal artwork there is never enough saturation, print and color. However, Alex reminded me that for a wedding, it is about the people, and especially me.
If I am going to make a fabulous gown, I need to stand out from the background and not be overwhelmed by the setting.

The picture here demonstrates the results from our meeting. (I purposfully posted the image upside down so you can focus on colors, not content).

Lower the saturation of the overall color scheme and make sure they are warm hues. He says that everyone looks good against warm tones, and you want everyone to look and feel good, and warm tones make people have stronger appetites.
In the photo you can see that we have soft beige, creams, browns, oranges and golds. Light blues and silvers can also be mixed in as long as the majority of colors are on the warmer side.
Since my dress is going to have a rich royal blue and turquoise with cream--as demonstrated by the 'pop' of the blue in the image--against the pastels, they will definitely stand out. Also, reds or pinks of darker saturation will also be accent colors for bridesmaids and groom and they too also 'pop' against the softer background.

For decor, the blues can be sprinkled into the setting with little details like vases, ornaments or random objects to pull the dress into the scheme without it being too much.

So there you have it! The latest colors. More to come on the dress and other things!