Flower Girl Dresses

Image and Dress from Posh Little Tutus

In three words: too much fun! If you know me it isn’t a stretch to know why I had the most enjoyable time picking out the flower girls’ dresses. Frilly? Flowers? Count me in! Our flower girls are totally the perfect age to play dress up at five and two years old. They are the age when they are super adorable in whatever they wear!

One reason why it was so easy is because I knew their style: “flower princess butterfly” as the five year old expressed it. As long as it was puffy and some shade of pink I knew they’d love it. It was a minimal pressure purchase. I figured as long as it wasn’t uncomfortable in fit or of scratchy fabric it would be just fine. Dealing with young children there is always the risk that their mood will dictate if they like it or not the day of the event. Really, children are a wildcard! But if the girls were happy and excited to wear the dresses from the get-go, then we were on track to have a good day.

Another reason why it was low stress was because I was paying. It could be as expensive or cheap as I’d like. I gave myself the responsibility to pay for all my junior bridesmaid and flower girl dresses. The five girls in total–three juniors and two flower girls–all came from one family. It would be a lot to ask of their parents to buy them all, especially since their mom, the Sister of the Groom, was buying a bridesmaid dress for herself and they were all tracking across the United States to be part of the wedding! So if I could ease any pressure off of them so they could attend happily, I had to do it.

I got a lot of help from the older sisters identifying styles that they thought would be cute on their younger siblings. The 10 year old junior bridesmaid took it on as her project and would always be calling me over to the computer to look at the one that had to be the one because it was way too adorable. From here I learned of some of the brands she liked for the youngsters: Kate Mack, US Angels, Biscotti, Hannah Banana, Halabaloo, Isabella & Chloe, Ooh La La, Posh Little Tutus and Le Pink.

Shopping I did in person on my own time. Hands down my favorite department store–and my recommendation for girl’s special occasion dresses–is Nordstrom. They have a huge variety of fancy dresses and so many of them were exactly what I was looking for. My other top department store was Bloomindales followed by Lord and Taylor, but they had less variety and less price points than Nordstrom. My other favorite shops were the outlets Nordstrom’s Rack, Century 21, Filene’s, and Daffy’s, all of these were great to find good deals. Unfortunately I could never find dresses in the sizes I wanted–they were always just a size off. I liked a lot of summer dresses at J-Crew where I purchased the junior bridesmaid dresses. They were all of coordinating colors (coral and blush pink were everywhere) but most of J-Crew’s special occasion dresses were either in white or too expensive (over $150). Some of the other stores at the mall had great sale rack options, like at Jacadi.

Here are some pictures of my most favorite flower girl dresses from my outings:

Jacadi Paris

Nordstrom

Nordstrom

Nordstrom

Nordstrom

J-Crew

J-Crew

J-Crew

J-Crew

I ended up purchasing the girls’ outfits at Nordstrom. The two year old’s had a rosette on the bodice and the five year old’s had petals making up the the top. I just thought they were too cute and classic looking to pass up! Flowery? Check! Pink? Check? Flowy. Check!

Nordstrom

Groomsmen Attire

Finding the perfect groomsmen outfit was harder than finding bridesmaid dresses! Much harder. After visiting Men’s Warehouse and trying on suits we realized we didn’t want a tuxedo. It was going to be too stiff, too heavy, and too much for a more casual outdoor wedding. The problem with was finding a suit that would work.

Rental stores are so good because they have different styles in stock, purchasing is less time sensitive–the three month turn over in mall stores becomes even more of a rush when trying for a hard to find size–and really, it requires minimal effort from the dudes. There is a clerk that knows what they need once they drop the wedding party’s name so they aren’t left to hunt for the right things all by themselves. Typically getting the guys to the rental store and on time is something that us brides go crazy trying to coordinate! And rightfully so!!

Our pick for the groomsmen

We tried to find a seersucker suit or a more casual tan suit at a rental store. But to no avail. We tried the main department stores but everything was too expensive to ask our groomsmen to purchase (we were already asking them to travel across the country so we wanted minimal cost). We looked at H&M, Zara, and UNIQLO trying to find low price items–and we did, but not in the range of sizes we needed (darn international slim sizes!).

We found our perfect outfit at a regular mall store called Express. It was exactly the style we wanted and it feel within the $150 or less budget we were hoping for. It was a seersucker vest and pants. I absolutely loved the seersucker vest look for the country club! It was perfect! We tried to take advantage of what the boys already had like white dress shirts and casual white shoes to save them money as well.

Image from Express

Below is a letter we sent to our groomsmen (originally with links but now outdated).

—–

Hey Groomsmen,
Here is what you should do while stores are stocked this month:
1. Sign up for a “15% off your next purchase” coupon
2. Purchase the following groomsmen attire (in-store or online)

Basically the outfit is a vest, pants, and white shirt (picture of the outfit is attached–we are not wearing ties).

5-BUTTON STRIPED CORDED COTTON SUIT VEST – COLOR: CABANA $79.50

STRIPED CORDED COTTON PRODUCER SUIT PANT – COLOR: CABANA $69.50

YOUR OWN WHITE DRESS SHIRT OR 1MX MODERN FIT STRETCH COTTON SHIRT – COLOR: TRUE WHITE

YOUR OWN WHITE SHOES: SLIP ON VANS, CONVERSE, OR SIMILAR STYLE (WALMART HAS CHEAP ONES FOR $15)

Image from Shoes.com

——-

We sent this in April–you would think they wouldn’t wait until July to buy!! Well they did–well, two of them did and that screwed everything up! That left me in panic mode. Three groomsmen had the entire outfit. But one of them now couldn’t fit into his vest.  One person only bought the pants and (in July) couldn’t find a vest. The bestman didn’t buy a thing thinking that we would automatically buy his since he was the “best” man. So we were down three vests, one pant.

For one entire weekend I bought every single seersucker vest I could find–that I could afford. Thankfully a lot were on sale at Macy’s (Bones & Rags, DKNY, Nautica) but they were not the same fabric, color, style of our Express outfits. I figured as long as they were in seersucker vests we would be okay, but I wasn’t excited about it. Some vests had navy blue stripes, some tan, some thin, some wide, some wrinkly fabric. One word: Headache!!

 

Our variety of groomsmen attire

I ended up with 6 miscellaneous vests unsure what was going to fit, bought an extra jacket thinking the best man could wear that if the others didn’t work, I found the missing pants at Express after going to three different locations!

The other thing that happened: we planned on Mr. Pashmina wearing the matching jacket so he would be a dressier than the groomsmen, but still matching. He didn’t fit into it! We never tried it on when we first settled on it so we were left to find another suit. Thankfully this wasn’t in July. But still…

In the end everything worked out, but I didn’t know how it was going to look until I was at the aisle! I left it for my groom to figure out.

The Bohemian Braid

Sorry for the delays in my posts–I can’t believe it has been more than two months since my last! Well, back to hair!

Image from Hairdressers on Fire

My three junior bridesmaids are gorgeous! They have this heavy and thick wavy hair. We are always playing and experimenting with it. One of my favorite hairdos on them is a summer chic, half-up bohemian braid. Originally I was looking at braid hairdos for me, but I just love it for the junior BMs–who are 10, 13, 15. It is cute without being too cutesy, and it is totally up my ally with my wedding being more of a natural and relaxed one. Basically, this hairdo reminds me of home in California and how perfect is it for our outdoor courtyard wedding there!

I was trying to look up some pictures online because as a penny pincher we will be doing all the kids hair ourselves. While on my search I found something better: YouTube tutorials. Here are a few for you that helped us on the magical day.