The Bridal Party "Look Book": Inspiration Boards Included!

Okay, are you ready for the big reveal? *cue drumroll*

For my bridal earrings I chose the lovely gold and pink bow earrings for the amazingly low price of $13.oo plus $3.50 shipping and handling! (Can you tell I'm channeling my inner Billy Mays? Man, I'm gonna miss that guy.) Aren't they beauts?

I could have easily picked any of the choices in my previous post because they are all so beautiful. But it was ultimately the price tag and Mr. Lab's approval that did it for me. (I had him pick his favorite before telling him my fave-we both picked these!) I think they'll also compliment my dress and whatever pink shoes I end up with perfectly. My bridal "look" is coming along quite nicely but is missing a little something. Perhaps a dainty bracelet to match the earrings?

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I love the romantic and vintage look of cameos. And this bracelet fits pefectly into the bridal color scheme! But oy! Again with the price! $278?!? No thank you. Back to combing the interwebs for an affordable cameo bracelet....

Wait, what's that you got there Ebay? Oh, a cameo bracelet just as charming for a fraction of the price? I see how you do!

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So for less than $25, I will have wrapped up my bridal jewelry for the big day. Yes, I am a full-fledged bargainista. :D

Warning: Sensitive information coming up. So if you go by the WB moniker of Mr. Lab, stop scrolling now. I mean it!

In honor of these great new finds (and my obvious new obsession with Picasa's collage feature), I created a "bridal look book" inspiration board:




I'm being serious Mr. Lab. You go any further and I'll sell one of your kidneys on the black market to pay for my Louboutins! ;)




Okay, I think the coast is clear.

*TA-DA!*

This board features: My earrings and bracelet and the shoes I covet. My hair and makeup inspirations. My dream dress and a gorgeous fascinator. And an adorable clutch and lush bridal bouquet*.

And no, I haven't forgotten my bridesmaids! For them I chose the pink topaz and swarvoski crystal earrings.

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Although these are $39 a pop, I couldn't help but fall in love. They would match the bridesmaids' dresses so perfectly! So I crossed my fingers and contacted the seller in hopes of finding a way to negotiate the price. After a few messages back and forth, she offered to replace the pink topaz with pink quartz and give me a 12% discount because of the larger order. That brings the total down to $22.88 for each pair. Still a bit more than I was looking to spend, but definitely doable for such gorgeous pieces that I will be gifting to my fabulous girls. I may even see if my MOH's MIL (holy acronyms!) could replicate these for me since she's somewhat of a jewelry extraordinaire. Anywho, the moral of my Etsy story: never hesitate to negotiate price with ANYthing on Etsy. I saved a ton on my save the dates by negotiation.

And so the bridesmaids aren't left out of the inspiration board fun, I created this:

Their dresses will have a skirt closer to the chocolate color swatch shown. And I just decided today that I will be making their (fake) bouquets using dahlias, ranunculus, peonies, and possibly hydrangeas, all in a monochromatic pink tone. The girls will wear whatever shoes they like since no one will see them anyways. Now I just need to decide whether or not I want them to have necklaces to go along with the earrings, or just go with bare decolletages.

*Yes, I'm changing my bouquet color! You shall hear more about this soon enough!

Bridal Jewelry Lust

One of the many ways I'm cutting costs for the big day is through jewelry. I'm not a fine jewelry person because I usually lose or break it. I only buy cheap, fashion jewelry from places that frequently offer buy 2 get 1 free in the mall. I'm always warning Mr. Lab that the only expensive piece of jewelry I ever want to own is my engagement ring. So when it comes to wedding day and bridal party jewelry, I'm following my own instructions.

So began the search for the wedding jewelry. I knew I'd want something with a hint of pink in both my jewelry and the bridesmaids'. I happened to run across some gorgeous pink topaz drop earrings during one of my many Google searches.

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These earrings have gold in them, which isn't one of our colors, but I thought that they would blend in very nicely with the overall color palette and with my possible shoe choice. I was immediately thrilled that I may have found my earrings so quickly!

And then I saw their price: $525. Ouch.

Okay, maybe my search wasn't starting out too smoothly. But I still loved the pink and gold combination and decided to set off to the one-stop shop of inspiration with that color combo in mind: Etsy! There, I found not only a few choices for moi, but also for my girls! I even found a couple that have chocolate in them, to match our colors!

Click to enlarge!

Sources: left to right
Top: 1, 2, 3, 4
Bottom: 5, 6, 7, 8

How gorgeous are all of these?!? And they are all very reasonably priced. Even the more expensive ones come with a discount if you order a lot at once. It was hard sorting through so many beautiful pieces, but I think I may have my choices narrowed down to the ones I want for the bridesmaids and the pair I want for myself. But before I tell you which ones I picked, I want to know which ones would you choose?