Playing Dress Up

I've just about finished shopping for outfits for all my remaining wedding events and wanted to give you ladies a preview! Some purchases were steals while others were splurges (luckily, FMIL gave Mr. Lab and I $300 just for wedding outfits as a gift last time we visited her). I even plan on reselling at least one of the dresses after the wedding, so if you see something you like, let me know to call dibs! ;)

First up, my bridesmaids' brunch outfit. I'm throwing my girls a tea party at Savannah Tea Room. I've instructed all the girls to wear frilly dresses and floppy hats so we can channel our inner Southern Belles for the brunch! And of course, since I'm the bride I'll be wearing white:

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I scored this cute ruffly dress at Forever 21 for only $27! Definitely one of my "steals". To spruce up the dress a bit I bought the following accessories:

The same J. Crew belt Mrs. Cowboy Boot wore on her wedding dress. I've been eyeing it ever since this post and finally decided to snatch it up when it went on sale. I'll be able to wear it often as it matches a million things in my closet!

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A pretty, girly necklace:

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All some matchy girly earrings:

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I'll be wearing white wedge sandals I already own. And of course, my floppy hat the FILs got me! It looks like this:

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But boy would I love to own something as whimsical as this:

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But all is well. I plan to jazz up my hat with some ribbon and maybe even some tulle. ;)

Next up, the rehearsal dinner outfit! This was a pricier purchase and I will definitely resell to recoup my costs (I can't help it! I hate wearing things I already own for big events, so I buy now and resell later. I like to think of it as "renting" an outfit! hehe). I got this dress from Mod Cloth (I can now thank Mrs. Apple Cider for my new obsession with their clothing which is typically out of my price range! :P).

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I have a black cardigan I'll carry with me in case it's cold that night (we'll be outside for the rehearsal then on the riverboat for dinner and the ghost tour after that). I haven't found any shoes to go with the dress yet but I'm looking for some along these lines (but waaaay cheaper):

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I'm wearing black flower stud earrings I already own plus this dramatic statement necklace:

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Then comes the reception/after party dress. Some of you may remember that I already had a dress for this part of the wedding weekend (as seen in my profile pic). But due to an unfortunate (and shameful) event during my bachelorette party (still waiting on photos from my girls *hint hint!* so I can post), I no longer have my dress. So I had to find a replacement. It took forever but I finally settled on one that comes close to the way I felt about my engagement dress.

I really really really wanted this one because it would compliment my wedding dress so perfectly...

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...but $400 is simply too much for me to justify. And I couldn't even use the excuse of reselling it because I KNOW if I bought this dress I wouldn't give it up for the world. *le sigh* If I were a short dress bride, that would be my wedding dress in a heartbeat!

So I went back to the search, deciding that I wanted something similar to my original reception dress but a little more bridal. I quickly came across a photo I used for inspiration. I love Solange's dress!

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Working off the inspiration photo I found this gem!

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I've said it before and I'll say it again; if it blings, sparkles, or glitters, I LOVE IT. The sweetheart neckline and flower embellishment just sent my love over the edge. And I could live with the $133 price tag (after a promo code to take 10% off!). I'll decide after the wedding whether I want to resell this one.

I also bought special shoes to go along with this glittery dress:

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And I'm wearing earrings I already own:

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I'm wearing a short veil I ended up getting for free on Ebay after the seller refunded me the full price when it arrived super late (I wanted it in time for my boudoir photo shoot-more coming soon on that!). I'm also switching bags before we go out and using the one my MOH got me for Christmas last year (that's only $5 now!):

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*Whew!* Okay, that's all...for now. I still have to share my bridal outfit! You know, the wedding dress and all? :P I pick up my dress from the alterations shop next Friday and I'm hoping to get a post in before the wedding on the much-anticipated "inspired by" purchase! Stay tuned and more importantly, stay patient my lovelies! :D

Map It Out: Another Check Off the Labrador DIY List

Bet you've been wondering where I've been lately? In Busytown, that's where. I started my final semester of classes (yay!), landed a second job (wtf was I thinking?!), and worked near full-time last week at my original job; all while continuing to plan this little wedding of ours.

We are *thisclose* to our 2 month mark and I am about to $hit bricks full of anxiety. No, I'm not being dramatic. My stomach churns just thinking about how little time we have left. But at the same time, I'm soooo ready for the day to be here! Conflicted much?

Somehow during a week full of 64 hours at work, 11 hours of class, and a coed wedding shower (pics soon!), I found the time to crank out our DIY wedding maps! I never really considered maps a priority, but after seeing Mrs. Ballet Flat make it look easy as pie, I decided to give it a try and shocked myself with the result. Here's what I came up with in PowerPoint:

Click on map for more detail!

To be completely honest, I'm no stranger to PowerPoint. Mrs. BF's tutorial was definitely thorough and easy to follow, but I'm also not a beginner. While the logistics were easy to me, it was still a tedious task! It took a few hours here and there to complete (mostly because I'm a perfectionist). Newcomers will have a tougher and longer time with it. But don't be too discouraged! If you have time to play around with it, you'll end up learning and getting better. That's how I learned PP: totally self-taught!

I won't repeat Mrs. BF's steps, but here's a run through of my project from start to finish. First up, the Google map of Savannah! "A" is our ceremony site and "B" is our reception site.


Then I traced the main roads and Savannah River. I added icons to represent event locations and lodging. I found all the icons through Google Images. I tinted them pink by double clicking on the icon, then clicking on "picture", then "recolor".


Here's my first attempt at removing the map in the background. As you can tell from the final map, I changed a few things because they didn't look quite right.


After some serious tweaking (what I spent most of my time on), I had my official map! I added the compass rose and map symbols and steam ship to give it an extra special touch. The title font is "Scriptina" free from Dafont.com and matches our save the dates! The font even coordinates with our invites, which I'll reveal very soon now that they're finished being designed and are on their way to be printed up and shipped out! :D

Our maps are more on the "cutesy" side than the super informative side. But our guests will have our wedding website for more thorough directions plus actual Savannah visitor maps in their OOT bags. I'm just hoping they'll use this map as a supplement that provides a visual pinpoint on where all the festivities will go down!


The perfectionist in me isn't quite happy with them yet. I'm stuck on the title of the map:

"The My Last Name - His Last Name Wedding
Events Map"

I think we're keeping the first line, but I'm not sure that I'm feeling the second part (Event Map). Should I keep it or change it to one of the following? [Poll]

• Event Map
• Events Location Map
• Events & Accommodations Map
  
• Just our names in the first line and "Wedding Events Map" in the second line.
  
• Just use "The My Last Name - His Last Name Wedding" title and that's it.
  
• None of the above. I'm leaving a comment with a suggestion!