jotting jennifer

Hey guys! Last time we chatted, I was sitting in my hotel room the morning of my wedding day. That feels like just yesterday…

To the contrary, it was a few months ago. The snow is falling again in Western New York (as it did on my wedding day) so I feel it’s an appropriate time to come back to the Hive as a missus.

For those who need a refresher on the Phone Booths, we met in a call center and fell in love over cupcakes. Our relationship moved quickly and after searching for a ring together, Mr. PB proposed on our two-year anniversary. (I also “proposed” to him with a trip to NYC.) We are not affiliated with a specific religion so we had to find a non-denominational site for our ceremony. After contemplating a few reception sites, a recommendation helped us find the perfect place. We enlisted multiple friendors for our big day. Mr. PB and I paid for the majority of our wedding, so we had to budget. After discovering a little wiggle room in the budget, I purchased a Silhouette paper crafting machine and never looked back.

I am a Pinterest-inspired bride who gifted her bridesmaids a box of goodies. I also used Pinterest for inspiration for our engagement pictures and our save the date. Our palette featured jewel tones and was a slight deviation from the original plan. I picked out gray dresses for the bridesmaids and decided I wanted them to wear cardigans. (You’ll notice I chose to wear one as well!) I found my wedding dress (on sale!) after finding inspiration, searching for a specific frock and trying on some that just didn’t feel right. My original wedding band didn’t feel right to me either, so I went with my gut and exchanged it.

I kept our guests updated with a wedding website and kept everything organized with Google Drive. Our families are crazy complicated and we knew we’d have some no shows. To accommodate our large family, we had to make some decisions about who to invite. I used branding to keep me on target and create a cohesive look for the big day.

I still have a few more DIY posts up my sleeve before I get into the recaps. Plus, I need to fill you in on my bachelorette party, bridal showers and our honeymoon fun in San Diego!

Missed you, Hive! Happy to ‘bee’ back

So today’s the day. Right now, I sit in the hotel room with some of my bridesmaids, my future mother-in-law, my step mom, two hairstylists and a makeup artist. My dress hangs just a few feet from me. Today is the day. Wowzers.

Mr. PB and I have been dating three and a half years today and have been engaged 18 months. Where did the time go?

The past few weeks have been a whirlwind. I was traveling on autopilot in a world of hot glue, cardstock, parties and adrenaline. If there’s one thing I’m REALLY good at, it’s being a procrastinator. I may have been doing things right up until the minute we left for the rehearsal yesterday.

Today is the day. I have to keep saying it because it seems so surreal. Throughout the festivities, I kept needing to take a step back and take in the moment.

I am so excited to be around my favorite people, having a great day and dancing the night away.

Hive, I owe you lots of posts including some fun things with the Silhouette and recaps of the amazing parties that my ladies put together. I appreciate all of the comments that you’ve left thus far on my posts. Even though I haven’t taken the time to reply to all of them, I’ve read each and every one. Thanks for your support and interest in my big day. It means a lot to me.

Mr. PB – Today is the day. We get to get all dressed up, meet up at a beautiful chapel, say I do and celebrate our love with some really awesome people. We began our adventure together years ago and now we’re continuing the journey as husband and wife. I can’t wait to see what activities and events the future brings. Not matter what, we’ll navigate them with love, laughter and each other. I love you and can’t wait to be your Mrs.

Disconnecting the line on my single life,

Miss Phone Booth

Throughout the wedding process, it’s natural for people to ask about the process and how things are going. I have so many ideas, plans and details floating through my head at a given time so keeping track of who I told what to began to be a big mess. I’d start telling someone about a restaurant we found in San Diego that Mr. PB and I really want to go to and they’d look at me puzzled. Turns out, I hadn’t told them that was our plan. Oopsies. Or I’d go to tell them about the aisle runner and they’d look at me like I have eight heads because they heard about it seven times already.

I definitely didn’t want any information confusion or omission to happen when it came to the bridesmaids and important information like dresses, accessories and timeline. I could easily send out a quick email to the bridesmaids, but that’s too easy and simple for this girl. No, I like to make things complicated and pretty.

I decided to put together a Bridesmaid Bulletin. I designed it quick in Adobe InDesign but anyone could do something similar using Microsoft Publisher.

Ohhhh, ahhh, pretty. // Personal photo

Things I included in the bulletin:
- A general note to all the ladies (including a countdown)
- Dresses – Info about the dress including style, color, date to when it needs to be ordered, cost
- Hair and Makeup – I let the ladies know that I would be hiring Ella in Harmony Salon to do their hair and makeup for the day of the wedding. (Looking back, this could have been clearer as some of the ladies didn’t totally get the message that I will be paying for the services for them. Make sure your super clear in what you say.)
- Accessories & Such – I gave the ladies ideas about the shoes, cardigans and jewelry I was looking at. (Not-so-surpringly, especially with my indecisiveness sometimes, I changed my mind on this topic but that’s for a later post.)
- Project Updates – Just a quite run through about the things in progress (in case I hadn’t mentioned it to each bridesmaids)
- Tentative Timeline – I included this as just a reference for the bridesmaids (again, in case we hadn’t talked about it)
- Upcoming – Yet another thing I included as an FYI. This also allowed them to see the plans and attend as well, if they were interested.

Could I have just sent a quick email with all of the same info and it work just as well? Absolutely. Did I complicate things by doing it this way? Sure. Would I do a Bridesmaid Bulletin again? Of course

How did you keep your ladies informed? Did you stick with email or was mass text good enough? Am I the only one who had a hard time keeping track of who knows what?

In the world of wedding attire, I think the bridesmaid dress ranks number two, right behind the bridal gown. Not to slight the groom and his gang but for most men, it’s a matter of going to a cookie cutter tuxedo shop and selecting from their options.

Bridesmaid dresses have evolved and expanded greatly over the years. There are now hundreds on options at any bride’s fingertips and even more available online. Satin, chiffon, dupioni. Floor length, tea length, knee length. Straps, sleeves, strapless. You want blue? Well there’s horizon, marine, navy, royal, blue velvet, peacock, midnight, cornflower, oasis, sapphire, serene, bluebird, new sapphire, capri, malibu, mist, peri and pool. And those are just the David’s Bridal options.

Luckily for me, Pinterest was a huge help throughout my navigation of the bridesmaid dress world. I went from my original Pinspiration to a slightly altered variation to my final vision by looking at pictures. Seeing things in photos was a great way to differentiate between an idea and reality. Once I knew I wanted a gray dress with a cardigan, it narrowed the options greatly. I found a couple I liked early on.

Bill Levkoff 482 in Pewter // Source: Bill Levkoff

Bill Levkoff 386 in Pewter // Source: Bill Levkoff

David’s Bridal f15555 in Pewter // Source: David’s Bridal

I coordinated a day with the bridesmaids to go look at bridesmaid dresses and try them on. Luckily, six out of the seven were able to make it, including out-of-town Cupcake. The first store we went to had Bill Levkoff dresses and to say we were less than impressed would be an understatement. Each of the dresses were either a 4, 6 and maybe one 22. What girl wants to spend $200 on a dress they can’t even try on? My bridesmaids come in all different sizes, as do many bridesmaids, so the dresses should be available in a variety of sizes as well. After that experience, I nixed the idea of a Bill Levkoff dress and decided to head to David’s Bridal.

We didn’t have an appointment at David’s Bridal (shame on me for not making one) but the staff was still accommodating. While we didn’t get the one-on-one service we would have had we made an appointment, the girls were able to try on different styles and the consultant let us use two available rooms.

Looking through the racks, it was impossible to find a chiffon dress in pewter. I thought I was going crazy until I asked someone and they said it’s not a color they keep in stock, they have a swatch they can show me but no actual dress. This made me a little grumpy but I still wanted to see the girls in dresses. My maids looked through the racks for strapless, chiffon, long dresses and pulled a bunch. There were some doozies that definitely weren’t going to be it but a few of them did try on the f15555.

DW, Sharpie, Cupcake and Frack in f15555 // Personal photo

Maybe it was because it was in the light pink and the off color gray but I just wasn’t feeling the dress the way that I thought I would. Plus, I wasn’t a big fan of the center pleating. The girls found another dress with a little bling and an empire waist so we gave that one a go.

Frack, Homegurl, Sharpie, Cupcake and Moo in f14867 // Personal photo

I wasn’t sure how I felt about the knot at the top but I really liked the sparkle it had and the girls said it was more much comfortable than the other dress. I decided that I was sold! F14867 in pewter for all the girls! The consultant said the color was a 12-week order so all of the ladies needed to have their dresses ordered by Nov. 1 to make sure there was plenty of time for the dress to come in and alterations. I was a little nervous to order the dress without actually seeing it in the gray but I decided to let it be and have faith I’d like it. We left David’s with a bridesmaid dress plan, another thing checked off the to do list.

Was your bridesmaid dress selection a spur of the moment decision? Any tips you found useful when navigating through bridesmaid dress options?