broken*saucer

{part of her 2010 lookbook via leannem. } In our neighborhood, on a tree lined major arterial, there is a posh little wedding boutique that I have never set foot in. It's not for lack of bridal frocks modeled in the window, but when I was looking for a dress, I didn't want white and, I was afraid of going into any of these places. I was afraid they would convince me what I knew wasn't true - that I should wear a white gown. A strapless, floor-length, expensive, white gown. Until I was engaged, I purposefully avoided window shopping that store and once engaged, I sneered at it's princess flounces. But now that it's all over and done with, when we drive by I stare earnestly at the three white gowns that dress the window. Often they are overly frilly, strapless and well, average-looking. But sometimes they are very pretty. Yesterday, we were stopped at the light that allowed me to stare perfectly into the window and G noticed me looking at the dresses again. Th...

{ Rebecca and Collin via Ruffled } How cute are these two! And to pair two of my favorite things: polka dots and a blue wedding dress. how much do you love it?

{style me pretty twit pic} { style me pretty twit pic } hi. personally, i think this dress is a monstrosity. but it was tossed out as a wedding gown at the Kleinfeld bridal fashion show .  I'm still on the fence, do I give them props for designing a non-traditional wedding gown or just hate the dress? what do you think? { my le creuset giveaway closes tonight...}

i just read here that apparently anthropologie is going to be launching its own wedding brand replete with dresses, shoes, jewelry, invitations, the works. but we'll have to wait until spring 2011. during my last jaunt over there I saw the drifting by dress and it struck me just how easy it would be to buy a simple wedding or bridesmaid dress there and not completely break the bank. just add a belt or sash or shrug and it's totally your own. actually my MOH wanted to wear a dress from anthro but the colors didn't coordinate well with my dress - if i'd only gone with white. cherie {love the black straps} drifting by wind catcher picture show {so fifties!} optimist bayan {oh how I love layers of silk} traced twirls {I think I have to at least try this one on...} which one is your favorite?

maybe this one... { Leanne M. }

I'm sorry, did you say, blue striped wedding gown? I thought so. the 1938 wedding of Leonora Ormsby of Saks Fifth Avenue. {via Lee Sutton's vintage advertising pool }

what seems like ages ago now (only last year), I was having dinner with a friend and talking about what I wanted in a wedding dress. at the time I wasn't sure what it should be, but I knew what I didn't want it to be. my friend is not a super girlie girl and so we were discussing how neither one of us had grown up with a childhood fantasy about our weddings. I never dressed barbie up like a poofy princess bride to marry ken (I didn't even have a ken). and to be honest, as old as I am, I had gotten to the point where, because I didn't think I would get a chance to have one, I didn't want to think about weddings at all. so sure, maybe some girls grow up dreaming of being that pretty poofy princess bride someday, but when talking about we dreamed of when we were kids, i realized that, i just wanted to be a ballerina. what does that mean? {image via rodney smith }

rebecca didn't wear white. { stacy reeves photography via style me pretty } **due to random internet glitches, apparently I posted this three times (at least in google reader). oops.

so I've been thinking about what to do with all of this pent up event energy. do I have it in me to throw a theme party that my friends who are bbq people might get behind? but it's funny how you put certain questions to the world and the answers come back to you. the new anthropologie catalog fell in my lap all full of circus bits and then G and I went to see the imaginarium of dr. parnassus and then it struck me: traveling circus theme party. costume required. for me, I'm thinking stripes and tulle. I've already gone to h&m to purchase black and white stripey things (because of course H&M for that). and i've got enough tulle bits and pieces from planning the wedding gown that all I have left now is to play. { ouma }

I just love it when I stumble on a wedding that makes me swoon. and you know how I feel about a blue dress. meet Ben and Beth. I just love every detail of their gorgeous wedding. go see !

I have been a huge fan of erin ever after since I first started blogging this wedding stuff nearly a year ago (has it really been that long??). She was recently picked up by Style Me Pretty to do a few posts (or more...) and the first real wedding she decides to post? this gorgeous lovely with the bride in a jade silk dress. I'm drooling over Farra and Juan's gorgeous wedding. And I just love that dress. Congratulations to Farra and Juan and woo hoo to the lovely Erin !

All right, so maybe I should be over this by now but I'm not. I just love that this bride chose purple! This is the second time I've seen the bride in a smashing color and her bridesmaids in white. I considered this, but with only one maid-of-honor, I thought that would be a little odd. In any case... {image style me pretty }

I know, I know. I haven't given you all what you really want - the pics of the dress. But I received something like 900 digital photos. Typical me, I'm having trouble deciding on what to show you. So instead, because I just read meg's love song to one love photo I'm posting one of Heather and Jon's lovely pics. How gorgeous is Jennifer's not quite white dress? {image: one love photo }

the dress. is done. and I have two days left. two days until the wedding. two days left to stare at it, questioning it, analyzing it. that is, unless I put the garment bag over the dress so that I can't see it anymore. but I just don't want to do that yet. I want to look at my work and admire it just a little more, because once I slip it on, on this lovely Sunday, I won't be able to see the back that I worked so hard on. but let me tell you, all those luscious layers of silk feel very nice rustling around me. And even though I got distracted and didn't work out like I wanted to or felt like I should, I lost four pounds and the dress feels absolutely fantastic. lovely and amazing fantastic. nine hours of pintucking. and at least 24 hours of hand stitching layers and layers of silk chiffon. and countless hours of contemplating and sorting in my head. and it's done. it's done it's done it's done!

I have been so overwhelmed with wedding prep (25 days left) that I have not been blogging, reading my favorite blogs or even, well finishing everything. I have so many things left to do, including finishing my dress. I spent 18 hours on it this last weekend and now I need a dress form, or at least my MOH to hold still in my gown as I attack it with pins. But, my girls are whisking me away to a Mount Baker cabin in the woods to, well, bachelorette it up. I forsee wine, mojitos and pie in my near future. Recommend any cheesy movies for when we're loaded and just want to watch tv? Elizabeth Dye made this gorgeous orange dress for Serah . Hmm , do I sense a trend here? and if only I could just have her whip up that shrug I kept thinking of... but.

Sorry that I fell off the map in the last week. I have had so much drama that I couldn't even share here, so just had to take a break from it all. I am trying to keep my mind and this blog in a positive place. And I am just trying to relax (as the to-do list falls into the red) and enjoy all of the fun things about planning this wedding. So. lets start with how gorgeous this bride is in her not-white dress: and I just love that she had her bridesmaids wear white instead. it's such a lovely twist. {Kristina & Mark on Style Me Pretty}

I am so in love with this rehearsal dinner from smp. this would so be my wedding if... well. so, my venue offered us a bunch of those square vases, which i like, but, i loooove these tall beaker style vases. set just like these with three to a table and a couple of candles. where do I get these? no really, where? and her dress. oooh. love the details on the skirt. {dress - vicente villarin photos - jose villa (of course) events - alison events from style me pretty }

do i get so confused? So there are two basic forms that I love in a dress: the full skirted forties look like this aforementioned lovely red number. and the twenties/thirties style low waisted embroidered sheath ala: and then, see those pink pleats? yep, that's already integrated in my dress design. these are from haute hippie via mika 78 .  {by the by, maybe I'm just completely out of the loop, but once you find this gorgeous stuff, how do I acquire it? haute hippie' s website doesn't even have a store listing. just sayin'}

so, what do you think? do you want to see the inspiration board for the dress that I will wear? the details don't seem to be coalescing fully, because I have yet to see anything even remotely like what I am planning to do to the poor, little, JCrew bridesmaid's dress that I bought on Ebay.  remember when I said I was disappointed in what I bought at first, because I didn't think it was special enough? and then remember when I said that I had started channeling the former me and have dress designs scampering inside my head?  all I can think about is tearing this up! (literally.) (mine is navy, but JCrew discontinued it so I'm having trouble finding pics.) so should I try to create the inspiration board that will become something completely mine? do you want to see it?