I never really spent much time before we were engaged planning out the details of my future wedding. Of course, I would see things here and there that would make me think about what I might want when the time came, but never really formed concrete opinions -the only exception to that is my wedding dress....
I always love looking through the daily emails from
Etsy and in the fall before we got engaged,
this dress popped up in one of those such emails. I clicked through and immediately added the item to my Etsy favorites- I would go as far as to say in that instant I knew this was going to be my wedding dress, but at the time I figured once it came time to truly shop for one I would end up buying a gown the traditional way through a bridal boutique.
Between discovering that dress and after getting engaged I never saw another wedding dress that I loved as much as that one. The designer/maker of the dress is
Tatyana Mereyuk and she was a doll to work with. I emailed her about a month after we got engaged to figure out how I could see/try on this dress in person before ordering it from her. Unfortunately, she is based in NYC and upon my initial email she simply told me that most of her brides order it without seeing it. Believe me when I say I can online shop like the best of them, but for my wedding dress....yeah not so much.... so I convinced Tatyana to send me her only sample so that I could be 100% sure. Long story short- she sent the dress which was even better in person and I ordered it the very next day with a few modifications (removing the chiffon poof in the back and ruffled waist plus adding the little bow belt). I sent my measurements to Tatyana through email and the dress arrived 6 weeks before the wedding and never needed one alteration-not even being hemmed!!! Even if you aren't in the market for a wedding dress, my gown comes in any color imaginable and Tatyana has an entire collection of fun
party dresses here.
Chris knew from the beginning he wanted a grey suit and while he buys most of his suits from Zara, he wanted a little less of a European fit for the wedding so he went for the Ludlow double vent suit from J. Crew. Chris originally took the route many brides chose and used the wedding as an excuse to splurge on some amazing pricey Allen Edmond shoes. But on the wedding day he ended up wearing a pair of To Boot New York lace ups that we just happened across in Nordstrom Rack a couple weeks before the wedding. Chris' tie was the most difficult part of his outfit to nail down. We kept trying to "match" the tie to our color scheme by looking for something with mint green in it until we finally realized if Chris would never wear a mint green tie any other day why would he wear one on one of the biggest days of his life. We ended up choosing a simple black wool tie from the The Tie Bar- which Chris forgot at home on the way out to Palm springs and ended up buying a solid black tie from the Barney's outlet the day before.
{bridesmaid's shoes- I asked the girls just to pick something nude/neutral}
For the bridesmaids, we had all the dresses custom made by
Anoushka Alden with the exception of my maid of honor (on the right in group photo above) who actually made her dress herself. We found Anoushka through her Etsy shop and when I realized she lived in Los Angeles, I asked her about the potential of creating custom bridesmaid dresses. I purchased the dove grey silk fabric to be used for all of the dresses then asked my bridesmaids to either choose one of the styles from Anoushka's shop or work with her to design something custom. Anoushka was so easy to work with and the dresses were perfect-I highly recommend her if you are searching for something for a bridal party or even just a cute little cocktail frock.
{socks from American Apparel}
The groomsmen were by far the hardest thing, we kept going back and forth on colors and fits, but ultimately ended up taking a slight risk and buying suits from one of the many suit stores in downtown LA fashion district. I had always seen these stores while shopping for fabric so Chris and I took a few of the groomsmen down there to walk around to different shops and try on their various suits. The groomsmen bought all their suits from a store called DV by Dolce Vita located on Santee street for $80 each! The suits all needed tailoring, but the outcome was a slim fitting suit for each groomsmen for less than $100. We gave them their bowties from The Tie Bar and colorful socks from American Apparel.
{chris' reception outfit}
From the very beginning, I knew that I would be changing for the reception I just didn't know what I wanted to change into. I debated on what I wanted for the style of my reception dress for a long time until I ultimately decided that I would just go with my instincts and rent this insane Badgely Mischka gold sequin gown from Rent The Runway. My entire experience with renting the dress was great minus the fact that I didn't want to send it back since I loved it so much. (
see another shot of us in our reception outfits here)
Source List for all items:
Bride:
Groom:
Bridesmaids:
dresses: Anoushka Alden - maid of honor's dress: hand-made - shoes (referencing photo above from left to right): Calvin Klein, Sole Society, Sole Society, Steve Madden. - robes: Plum Pretty Sugar
Groomsmen:
next up tomorrow: The Decor & Florals
