I Said Yes to the Dress!

Last Wednesday, I bought my wedding dress.

Just typing that makes me feel giddy.

We went to Bridal Boutique in Baton Rouge. Stephanie was out of the country, and Lacy was working, but Abby and Allie were able to join me and Mom, and I am so, so glad I had them there. Abby (queen of Say Yes to the Dress) and Allie (Professional Bridesmaid) were supportive and helpful and definitely watched my reaction to each dress before giving their opinion. Mom was also wonderful, but completely unhelpful, as she just teared up and said that every dress I tried on looked beautiful. Thanks, mom.

I can't say much about the actual dress, for obvious reasons. I will say that it was only the second dress I tried on, which is bananapants. I really expected to not find anything and agonize over the decision. Except, every dress I came out in was an "Oh, shit." moment (as Abby said every single time I came out of the dressing room.) In the end, I was torn between the first and second dress I tried on, but as soon as I put my hair up (which I wasn't planning on doing), I knew the choice was clear. It looks like I'll have an updo after all, but it's totally fine because this dress demands it.

I cannot wait until the next time I get to put it on, which will probably be every single time I go to my parent's house.

Asking the Bridesmaids

I'll be honest. I love getting gifts. I mean, who doesn't love a thoughtful gift given from someone who knows you well? However, I love giving gifts even more than getting gifts. So, when the time came to choose bridesmaids, well, I knew I had to get them something thoughtful to bribe ask them to stand up with me.

I found inspiration on Pinterest (of course). After seeing Bethany's blog post on Rinse. Repeat., I knew I wanted to make something like that for my girls. I have to say, the project was time consuming, but totally worth it.

First, I bought boxes. With only four bridesmaids, I bought eight boxes because.. logic? I painted the outside an off-white color and painted the inside of the boxes midnight blue. Pro tip: tape off the edges of the box so that the interior color doesn't get on the exterior color. Also, buy extra paint for touchups.

I then used Canva to create monograms for each of the girls. (Canva is the best thing that I've discovered online, and it's totally free!) I printed the monograms so that they were big enough to fill the lid of the box without being too big.

After printing, I taped the monogram centered in the lid of the box. I took an ink pen (you could also use pencil) and traced over the monograms so that it left an indentation in the wood. I then used a gold paint pen to trace over the indentations. There was some heartache, lots of touchups, and one point that made me glad I had spare boxes. (The paint pen was hard to work with!) In the end, I'm so thrilled with how they turned out!

Once I finished painting and monogramming the boxes, it was time to fill them!

I bought some navy tulle to put in the bottom of the boxes to keep the contents from rattling around too much. I love the way it gives the box a plush feel.

I then added little bottles of nail polish that I got each of the girls. Each color is wedding themed, including "Baby's Breath" and "Something Blue". I gave each girl a color I thought suited them.

Then, I added the notes. I stole borrowed the words from Rinse. Repeat. and edited the words to make them my own. I loved the idea of giving the girls information about their dress and my "expectations" of them as bridesmaids. (The most important expectation is to dance all night with me, of course.) I used Canva for these cards as well, mostly to keep the size consistent and make sure that they would lay out in the way I wanted them.

Finally, I added cards that I created to each of the boxes. In the cards, I wrote a sweet note to each girl, then popped the question!

They loved them and, thankfully, all said yes! So glad to finally ask these girls!