Great Preppy Bridesmaids Jewelry

Just found this fantastic site via The Palm Peach. Their jewelry looks just like a much higher priced site. Ms. PalmPeach says the quality is great, so order your's today. I think I may need to have the following:

K&B Preppy Wedding Attire

Just wanted to keep you all in the loop on that resolution I passed earlier in January.

I have enlisted the first Preppy Wedding Inc. wedding that will be held at a plantation near Richmond in October of 2008. I’m working with the lovely couple K&B to make sure that the wedding goes off without a hitch. You’ll be seeing the results of my initial storyboarding this month and I’m going to lead off with some ideas about attire for the wedding. See below for details and happy Monday everyone!

Wedding Dress, Bridesmaid's Dress, Groom's Attire, Flowers & Sign

Inspiration Monday: A Preppy Secret Garden Themed Wedding

I’ve gotten a few e-mails from readers about how to throw a garden (or picnic) themed wedding without losing the pomp and circumstance of a traditional more elegantly themed affair. I think you can strike a perfect combo of preppy, sophisticated, witty and whimsical, you just have to make sure all your choices are well thought out.

Want to see what I mean, take a look at this affair on brides.com. I like the choice of a shorter dress, the influence of gingham and check in the reception décor and the use of natural floral elements mixed with tough fabric like burlap and felt. Also (most importantly) they didn’t theme the food to fit a picnic. Instead, they had a gourmet menu and left their guests with a witty take home dessert - smores!


Need some more inspiration?

Check out this featured wedding photographed by Mallory Mason.

Or this vineyard-inspired outdoor celebration

This cool slideshow from Kenny Pang Photography features a big, antique red truck straight from a J.Crew ad.

Target Designs for Preppy Brides

I made the most incredible discovery this weekend. Target has made wedding planning so easy with their new bridal line designed exclusively by our favorite - Issac Mizrahi.

Now there are lots of fun things to see, so just take a look at my favorites:

For brides -

This one is my favorite. I can so see myself wearing this dress. How precious and totally preppy. All for $129.00.

I also love the sash and detailing on this one. What a cute way to incorporate pink into the mix. Take a look at the back for more on the amazing detailing. This one is only $89.99.

And this silhouette really is so flattering. I also think of this style as very romantic and southern. All for $159.99. And in case you're wondering all these styles come in white or ivory, I am just showing ivory because I am partial to it!

Now, Target did NOT dissapoint with the bridal accesories.

Take a look at this retro style headband. Seven Spot Sarah, this would look super cute with the J Crew Emma dress (which I think is your going away outfit).

And wait, there are also short and long veils available. Nothing spectacular, but I am also partial to a plain veil.

And you know Issac wouldn't let us down with his shoes.

And fret not, there are also some super cute bridesmaids dresses in lots of styles and coordinating colors. I am digging some pink and navy right now, so I chose those colors.

And I think I might need this one for an upcoming wedding. It comes in a few colors, I like the brown and pink.

Hope everyone had a great weekend. I got a lot done, including re-organizing our office. I'll try to post some pics in the near future, the house is starting to look really cute!

Jenny Yoo & The Perfectly Preppy Wedding Dress

I don't normally blog about wedding dresses, mostly because I think picking a dress is completely personal. Some girls obsess over the dress as one of the instrumental parts of the wedding, and some, like me, get their dress for 75 dollars on ebay.

I just want to point any of you brides to be look for a dress in the direction of Jenny Yoo. Her stuff is oh so preppy chic and under the 1000 dollar mark. She is designing a new line she calls wedding alternatives. Basically they are just dressed down bridal gowns. I think they are perfect for that spring garden wedding, or the perfect beach wedding, or for the girl who does NOT want to wear a 10 lb dress on her wedding day (TRUST ME, it gets old really fast).

Anywho take a look this Thursday, I think you'll like what you see.

Preppy Wedding Weekend Update

Hope everyone had a great weekend. I had a great time at a sorority sister’s wedding here in Richmond. I was VP Membership in my sorority and it was my rush baby getting married, so all the girls were two years younger and can still throw the drinks back like they are 24. And most of them still refer to me as their pledge mom, which makes me feel ancient!

For all you ACC girls, Doug Clarke and the Hot Nuts played (they are still rocking after the death of Doug Clarke) the reception and they did perform the dirty set. It was great to hear another amazing rendition of Roll Your Leg Over, my personal fav.

We finalized our order of service on Sunday, so the count down is on. Response cards (mostly WE’RE COMING) are pouring in and every day my excitement grows a little more. The super cute husband-to-be is checking our knot webpage everyday and can tell you to the day how long it is until we get married.

In other news, that someone I’ll be marrying in 42 days (hope that’s right) ordered the fabulous first dress Mrs. P picked out for me as a thank-you for all the work I have doing on the wedding. I can’t wait to see it, just cross your fingers that it fits!

We also sat down last night with my in-laws-to-be and prepared the seating arrangement for the rehearsal dinner. While at their house, my mother-in-law-to-be introduced me to this fabulous new site for Turq-like jewelry at a much better price. Fandangle Beads is a Richmond-based company, but do have a pretty comprehensive online store.

I’ve picked a few of my favorites, I suggest you check them out!

Preppy Wedding Finds

Now, I know I promised a full post today on all things preppy wedding. Because I have so MUCH to express, I am going to be THAT girl who bullet points her thoughts.

These last few weeks, I have run across some amazing wedding vendors who really capture the mystique that is a perfectly preppy wedding.

• Ceci New York. Take a look, these guys are spectacular. Their invitations are to die for, fully customized to fit your wedding and for all you stationary addicts, they are full service and don’t just cater to weddings.




• Mac & Cheese Designs. Offers custom photo books that look like they belong securely tucked in your favorite Kate Spade tote. Their styling is awesome, but the actual embossed croc photo album is to die for. Again, they do more than weddings, so if you want to celebrate your little one or just organize your photos, take a look.





• EDress Me. While on the aforementioned Rehearsal Dinner Dress Quest of 2007, I happened upon the EDress Me site. While they have a great selection of dresses from all the prepptastic designers, they also have an in-house line that is less expensive and look what I found - the exact replica of Reese’s Golden Globe dress. It’s on pre-order until 3/15 and it would be so cute paired with the scarlet d’orsay heels from Target, I blogged about here.
  
• Ann Taylor. Just wanted to alert you brides that Ann Taylor Celebrations has beefed up its wedding offerings to include not only wedding and bridesmaid dresses, but coordinating ties for the groom and flower girl dresses. Now, you know I am a J Crew wedding shop fan, but their stuff is very cute and very traditional chic.


• Martha Stewart Cards. I also wanted to point you to the Martha Stewart Kodak Collection which is now fully operational here. She has some precious Thank-you cards that are in MY color scheme and would be great paired with a cute wedding pic. The price is right on these cards and we were very happy with the quality of our MS Kodak Christmas cards.
  

Now onto another topic that is hot on my mind as well as other spring brides. MMM from Magnolias, Marriage and Manhattan had a question about what to buy as a hostess gift for showers or engagement parties.

My advice is to personalize not only to the taste of the guest, but to literally personalize the gift.

Stationary is always a good option. For my aunts who are throwing me a shower next weekend, I purchased personalized notecards from My Three Golfers online store. They are in my wedding colors and I know my aunts will find a great use for them.

I also ran across this site the other day. Minnie and Emma offer really cute designs (a la iomoi) AND they let you customize the invitation lining with some polka dot and striped infused coordinating patterns. The result is a precious combination of preppy fun. Here is my favorite design (and a must have for my new married correspondence)

I know a lot of girls are having cooking showers lately, and these monogrammed recipe cards from William Sonoma would be a great way to say thank you for a food-themed shower.

If you hostess is a coffee addict (as many ladies are), try buying this monogrammed coffee scoop and pairing it with her favorite kind of coffee. Very practical, and still very fun.

One of my favorite gifts is a magazine subscription because it truly is the gift that keeps on giving. My mother-in-law-to-be is always gracious with a Cottage Living subscription every Christmas and I so look forward to exploring my magazine each month. Check out Best Deal Magazines for some great deals on subscriptions. Or, Hearst is offering it’s special cheap subscriptions here, until Valentines Day.

Last, but not least, if you hostess is more young and funky, I love this monogrammable new tote from Lands End. I mean how can you go wrong with Zebra print and a monogram?

Good Luck MMM, and I’ll check in with you all again tomorrow!

Thanks Preppy Friends!

Wow. Mrs. P is a genius. She posted some amazing finds on her website for my rehearsal dinner outfit. I love them all, but the first one is really beautiful. I think I may be spending some time (and money) online when I get home tonight!

Mrs. P didn’t know this, but I really am loving the whole gold accessory thing right now. She picked some awesome gold accessories (including some HOT shoes) that were to DIE for. If you have any occasion that you need some help with, let Mrs. P know, her advice is amazing!

Melissa at Perfectly-Pink also suggested some great Lilly dresses, that I love. I read Perfectly-Pink everyday and Melissa is always right on with the best preppy finds of the day.

The only problem with Lilly is hatred from the husband-to-be of all things Lilly. He thinks they make me look like a little girl and says he gets mean looks from people when we go out and I’m wearing Lilly. I do look 13 and the husband-to-be does rock a suit in his 6’4 frame, so there may be a hint of truth to his argument. Does that keep me from buying Lilly ? NO.

I do want to thank you all for your suggestions as I am officially hitting the freaking out phase of the wedding planning. We got 8 “we’re coming” response cards yesterday, so there was no ONE winner, but overall the husband-to-be’s guests were more responsive.

Tonight we have a tasting with the caterer, Sunday we finalize the order of service with our minister and Monday we do a walk through of the church with our coordinator. My coworker surprised me today by wanting to plan a lunch for me, I am so excited about that!

I promise tomorrow’s post will be more product oriented, I have a bunch of things I want to show you!

I will leave you with this. Hair ideas for the wedding do.

And you know they are inspired by my our preppy icon.

Preppy Wedding Wrap Continued

Sorry for the lack of information on that last post. Somehow in posting quickly on Friday information was deleted when I posted on blogger.

I had a couple other suggestions on where to find a great preppy wrap, so here they are:

The refined silk cashmere J Crew wrap. I have it in black and LOVE it. Soft, supple and thin, definitely appropriate for a spring/summer/fall wedding. While, it doesn’t come in blue, they do have a precious pink and a great ivory color.

Lord and Taylor have a Kenneth Cole oversized pashmina in a baby blue. Looks like something you could wear for the wedding then curl up on the limo ride home.

Things are a bit crazy lately, traveling for work and getting ready for the wedding are taking over. I had a weekend full of shopping (still looking for that rehearsal dinner dress) and we went to a really fun superbowl party with a new group of girls who I met through a book club. All in all, a great weekend.

I promise a more substantial post tomorrow full of, pics of my bridal tea invitations and some great suggestions on holding a bridesmaid's luncheon!

Preppy Wedding Wrap

A preppy reader wrote yesterday with this dilemma:


I stumbled upon your blog while looking around for a light blue (or light pink) cashmere wrap for my wedding day.

The colors for my wedding are pink and green and when I saw your blog, I thought I found nirvana. I was thinking about the blue to complete the whole "something old, something new...", but could go with pink, too.

The one wrap I saw in The Knot was from White + Warren and looks lovely, but I was wondering if there were other places for me to look and was hoping for some advice.

This is a great question for most brides. Whether you want to find a wrap for yourself or your lovely bridesmaids, buying a “pashmina” online can be a risky move. There are too many “import” sites that leave you feeling great about the price of the product, but less confident about what it will look like when it arrives at your front door.

I suggest sticking to websites that you know and trust.

Anthropologie has a great silk crocheted shrug that would look great for a non-traditional bride.

Last but not least, there is a site called Rocky Mountain Emporium that specializes in pashminas. They have a great color selection and guess what? You can monogram your pashminas. And you know how much I love a monogram.

For my own wedding, I made the trip to Canal Street in NYC to pick out some lovely ivory colored wraps for my bridesmaids. They were significantly less, but I needed to view and feel the fabric in person!

Happy Shopping and Good Luck on your Wedding!

Preppy Bridesmaid Shoes

The preppy lil sis and I were searching online last night for the dreaded bridesmaid shoes and found these precious imitation d’osrsay pumps at Target. I already plan to grab the black pair for a wedding in February. They also come in a beautiful scarlet color a la Reese at the Golden Globes. And white for all you brides that still need shoes. Oh, and they are twenty dollars.

Happy Shopping!


UPDATE: Get me off target.com. Look at this super cute Issac white leather bag for the spring. Is it too early to shop for the honeymoon?

Preppy Wedding Veil

Sarah over at The Seven Spot prompted this post on preppy wedding veils. My dress is quite simple in the front (but a party in the back), so I opted for a really simple elbow length veil from a local bridal shop that looks much like below.

Martha does a good job explaining veil types here. This is what she has to say:

Veils
Like the gowns they are worn with, veils can be elaborate and dramatic or simple and understated. The only rule for selecting a veil is that it should complement both the bride and the gown. For example, an heirloom lace veil shouldn’t be forced to compete with an extravagant dress; Jacqueline Bouvier understood this principle when she wore a sweeping heirloom lace veil with a fairly simple scoop-neck taffeta gown in her wedding to John F. Kennedy. By the same token, an exquisitely detailed gown is shown off better by a sheer tulle veil than a fancy lace one.

Proportion must also be considered. A short veil looks too informal with a long gown, and an excessively long veil—or one with a multitude of tiers—tends to overwhelm a short bride instead of adding height. When trying on a veil, make sure you don’t disappear beneath it; also, wear your hair as you plan to for the wedding, otherwise you won’t have a clear idea of how the veil will actually look.

Nylon tulle is today’s veil material of choice. The more traditional silk tulle tends to get limp when it’s damp, whereas nylon retains its stiffness. Veils shouldn’t be strewn with rhinestones because rhinestones photograph like black dots. Even pearls, tiny satin bows, and other embellishments may look spotty in photographs, so be sparing with these ornaments.

Can I just say, I love her views on “rhinestones.” Hilarious. She’s trying to say in a nice way, don’t be tacky. You know she is.

Anywho, I would say, first decide on length. I have been to some weddings where girls have done the cathedral thing with lace and they looked lovely. That’s just not me.

I think the second thing to decide is piping. Do you want a ribbon edge or not. I decided to keep it as simple as possible and do no edging. I also didn’t like the way those veils looked in person.

Now, where to buy. I like my wedding veil the best. They have great pictures and testimonials from actual brides.

I also like Veil Shop.

If you are willing to spend a bunch on a beautiful lace veil, visit, Designs by Kristen. She was written up in In Style and her veils are very beautiful.

Hope this helps!

Also - wanted to let you all know LuLu is doing great. She went on a long walk last night and she is feeling much better. In other news, I'm happy to announce the in-laws-to-be are adopting this amazing lab, Hershey. He's so beautiful right? I can't wait to meet him.

Preppy Rehearsal Dinner Dress

Wedding dress. Check.

Now it's time to move onto the rehearsal dinner dress. Because we’re getting married in a church, I wanted to keep this look PG. When I was in NYC a couple of months ago, I ran across this beautiful Diane Von Furstenberg number and fell in love.

What do yall think? I really like the blue gingham look. My mom thinks it’s a bit too casual, but I think it is such a cute design. I'm really into the whole preppy shirt dress look. Best of all, Intermix online has it on sale.

New J. Crew Wedding Selection

Exciting news everyone! J. Crew has its infamous new spring/summer wedding collection posted here. I already have a few favorites:

There’s Anna, a perfect bridesmaid choice.

Or Hannah would make a perfect rehearsal dinner dress.
And the PERFECT preppy summer wedding dress is (drum roll please) Celeste. Look at how beautiful the large circles look on the fabric. It is prepptastic.

The Preppy Wedding Shoe

We all know that the dress sets the tone of the wedding, but what about the wedding shoe? For you girls who long for a shoe that will be the piece de resistance for your perfectly preppy wedding attire, look no further.

Kate Spade has you covered. Who knew, she has a line of amazingly preppy wedding shoes that are sure to impress every preppy bride.

Take a look at the Muse.









Or how about the Icon. Oh these are so lovely.








UPDATE: Both of these shoes are only available in size 11 on Kate Spade's website. For a better selection of sizes, visit the Kate Spade Section of myglassslipper.com.

I opted to spend a little less and went with the J. Crew big bow heels. Quite a deal now for $99.












For you girls that want comfort, check out the dainty Delaney ballet slippers in satin. So whimsical.













Mrs. P wore Cynthia Rowley on her wedding day. Cynthia Rowley shoes have a blue heel for the perfect something blue. I found the these on myglassslipper.com.












As shoe crazed as we are for everyday wear, the preppy bride must ensure her wedding shoes take the cake!

Preppy Wedding Attire

The perfect preppy wedding would be nothing without great preppy attire.

Upon deciding our colors were going to be a powder blue/chocolate brown, we had to make one of our larger wedding decisions . Are you ready?

Suit versus a tux. Long bridesmaids dress versus a short bridesmaids dress.

After lots of sleepless nights, we took the more casual approach. We have always been one to admire the beach wedding and really do like the thought of flip flops and a navy blue blazer. I just knew that would not fly in our church. Oh and did I also mention that I am from the South? Our mothers are very particular. About everything.

So, I took the middle of the road. Husband-to-be and I have been to MANY weddings. We've seen it all. But we like a more casual style. For almost the same price as renting a tux, our groomsmen bought these navy blue suits from Jos A Banks.

The guys don't know it yet, but they are getting these fabulous groomsmen gifts for the wedding from Brooks Brothers.

And my lovely ladies will be wearing this precious dress from J. Crew. (Which is now on sale for 39.99 - WOW).

So all in all we struck the balance of casual preppy, but not too casual. If I learned anything, it was to make a decision and stick by it. There are so many options out there for making choices and EVERYONE has an opinion. So we just took our taste and added my grandmother's favorite color (powder blue) and we could finally cross that one off the list!