3 Bridal Shops in One Day! - Phew!

Posted by Unknown on Saturday, December 29, 2012. Filed under:
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Good Morning! 

Well I am off to three shops today. It's definitely going to be a long day.  I've looked at probably 12-15 dresses by now. I have definitely figured out what style works best for me.  So that's a plus!  Now I just have to find the ONE dress that is for me.  Wish me luck!  Hopefully I am able to find the dress today. I have a good feeling about today.  Talk to you soon!

xoxo.

L.B.


The dress crunch..grrr!

Posted by Unknown on Friday, December 28, 2012. Filed under:
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After visiting a few bridal shops over the past few weeks, I started to notice one major trend.  Each shop that I visited told me that I needed to make a purchase by the end of next month. Or I could potentially have to pay a rush order to have my dress ready on time.  This definitely put me in a slight panic mode. Since I am the type of person that like to plan in advance.  I also like to have a timeline for most of the things I do, hearing this information did not make me happy camper.  



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The search continues...

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This past weekend I went to my second bridal shop, once again it was another great experience!  I loved how this shop was set up, it kind of reminded me of Kleinfield for 'Say Yes to the Dress'. Very cute show by the way!

Picture form 'Say Yes to the Dress' (not the actual store I went to)

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My first dress shopping experience

Posted by Unknown on Sunday, December 23, 2012. Filed under:
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Greetings!  

I told you all that I would update you on my first dress shopping experience. To say the least it was definitely an experience!  My mother and I went to the shop and it was full of beautiful dresses. It was really hard to figure out where to begin exactly, especially since I did not have a particular style in mind.  Since this was my first time trying on dresses, I wanted to try all of the different kinds from sweat heart, to mermaid, and A-line.  Now after doing research, I actually know the differences between the different styles.  :-)

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Let the search begin! - The hunt for the right dress...

Posted by Unknown on Monday, December 17, 2012. Filed under:
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On your mark, get set, GO!!!!!  The time of the planning for me to begin my search for my dress has  begun.  I'm not going to lie, I am like a deer in headlights right now. Eek!  When I went to the bridal show back in September I had one vendor read off several bridal gown designers to me, and let's just say I had no clue to who she was talking about.  I had to explain to her that I knew nothing about dresses, which was the truth. 
 
So after feeling slightly overwhelmed in September at the bridal showcase, I put off looking for my dress until I was ready.  I wanted to do some research first on the different styles.  So I immediatly went to Google, which then pointed me towards The Knot and Wedding Wire.  I found that both of these sites gave me a lot of information on the different styles.  Though, I still did not feel quite confident to go bridal shops just yet and begin trying on the different stories.  So I put it off a little longer.  (I know, I know you are probably like what are you waiting for?)
 
Well to be honest, I am not really waiting on anything exactly.  I just have to go when I am ready. As I know once I begin my search, I will not be able to stop until I find THE dress.  After about a few weeks of reading articles and looking at dreses in maginzes and online. I was finally ready. Woo-hoo!
 
I decided to go dress shopping with my mom, as I was not ready for all of the ladies of my bridal party to join me just yet.  I felt going with my mom would be a great bonding experience.  My mom was really excited to go with me, as I was for her to join me. 
 
Now that I decided that I was ready, what next?  Well I continued my search through Wedding Wire and located some local bridal shops that had good reviews.  I also wrote down a list of stores that were recommended to me by friends.  I was able to set up an appointment for this upcomming Saturday.  I only set up one appointment, was it was my first time trying on wedding dresses and I did not want to be overwhelemd. 
 
Let's just say, I am really excited and cannot wait to try on my first set of dresses.  :-)
 
Of course you already know, I will update you on my experience in my next post. Stay tuned!
 
xoxo,
 
L.B

Taking a small break for the holidays :-)

Posted by Unknown on Monday, November 12, 2012. Filed under:
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The holidays are just around the corner and I decided to pull back on planning to enjoy the holidays. I want to be able to enjoy time with my loved ones and relax. 
Enjoy the holidays everyone!  I will post after the holidays, as that is when I will begin dress shopping! 
Happy Holidays to you and yours! 
Xoxo,
L.B

Recap: DIY Bridal Party Jewelry Boxes

Posted by Unknown on Friday, October 12, 2012. Filed under:
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I just wanted to give everyone a quick update as to how things went with notifying the bridal party.   It was a success! All of the girls were surprised, even to the point of tears for a few.  I was beyond happy to see the smile on their faces when they received their boxes. It meant so much to me to see them so happy. I do hope that they each cherish the box and use it for something special. :-)

Until the next one.....

Xoxo,

L.B.

DIY: Bridal Party Jewelry Boxes

Posted by Unknown on Sunday, October 7, 2012. Filed under:
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Time has definitely flown since I got engaged, I am a month in and we brain stormed about so much already! After announcing our engagement I have been a bit hush hush on a few things, especially my bridal party selection.  I have so many close friends and it took some time for me to figure who to select.  After making my selections, I then thought to myself how do I want to ask these individuals.  

I put on my create thinking 'cap' and did few searches on the highly addictive Pinterest website. I typically get a lot of inspiration from Pinterest (I absolutely love that website!).  After several searches I came across a pin from the Weddings Chicks blog. (Side note: The Wedding Chicks blog is a great resource for DIY projects and wedding inspiration.)   The Wedding Chicks featured a cute creative DIY project that a bride used to ask her friends to be in her bridal party.  Being that I love DIY projects, I knew this was the perfect way for me to ask my girls to apart of my special day.   Though I found the idea to be perfect for my girls, I wanted to add my own personal touches to the concept.  

My Project Inspiration


 For a direct link to the blog posting please click here.

 For this project the bride used cigar boxes and painted the inside of the boxes with her wedding colors. Within each box she included cards that gave details about the wedding.  Each of these boxes were then shipped to the ladies in her bridal party.  

Here is what I did...
1. Instead of cigar boxes, I used jewelry boxes from Micheal's Arts and Craft. I painted the inside of the box with the colors of our wedding.  My fiance and I went to our local home depot and picked up some sample paint.  My fiance helped me with painting the inside of the boxes.

Paint Samples


2. After the boxes were painted, I wanted to incorporate the theme of our wedding into the box. We have a two-part theme for our wedding. First part of theme is "Live, Laugh, Love" which is my favorite phrase.  The second part of our theme is "butterflies" which signifies new beginnings.  So we placed the phrase "Live, Laugh, Love" on the inside corners of our box.  As well as placed "butterflies" on the inside of the top lid.  Inside each of the butterflies I wrote a question to the girls.  The question was "By my......?" (Maid of Honor, Bridesmaid, or Usher).
Inside of box

 3. Inside the box I also included tear sheets that gave details about our big day.  I typed up the different cards utilizing a  flash card template through Microsoft Office.  I printed out the different cards and placed them on card stock of our selected colors.  The tear sheets included:
  • Wedding day details
  • Dress Information
  • Roles 
  • My promise to the bridal party (I'm sure they will all be keeping this card handy!)
  • Etc.


4. In addition to the tear sheets, I included color swatches of our colors. We used sample paint cards from Home Depot. This gave the bridal party an idea of where we are going in regards to our colors.


5. I also wanted to add a personal touch to each box. I was able to do so by creating a collage of each girl and a fun moment we had, and placing the collage in the box.  I also framed each picture with a picture frame from Micheal's Arts and Crafts.




6. I then placed each box into a separate gift bag, so that I could give them to the girls.  

I really hope the ladies like the jewelry boxes!  I wanted to show each and everyone one of them that I appreciate them, and it's a blessing that they are in my life.  As well as letting them know how much it means to me that they take part in my special day.  Stayed tuned for my next posting and I will let you know how everything went!


Do you want to create a similar project such as mine? Here is what you will need:
  • Jewelry boxes  - You can pick these up from your local craft store.  (I went to Micheal's Arts & Craft and placed a special order, so I was able to get a bulk discount)
  • Sample paint - You can find these at your local Home Depot or Loews store.
  • Paint cards - You can find these at your local Home Depot or Loews store.
  • Card stock - You can get this from your local craft store.
  • Glue stick - For the tear sheet cards.
  • Butterfly hole punch - I purchased mine from the local craft store.
This was a fun little DIY project to let your bridal party know how special they are to you.  It does take a little time to complete, but it is well worth it once you see the smiles on their faces when the recipients face.

Enjoy!

L.B

Venue & Date - All Set!

Posted by Unknown on Saturday, September 22, 2012. Filed under: ,
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Phew!  People were not kidding when they told me that time would fly, even with our wedding being next year.  Even though I just got engaged a month ago, I feel like a lot has occurred.  A lot of people gave me some great advise to help me along with the planning process. One thing that I found to be consistent across the board was to secure a venue soon.  Being that my fiance and I want to get married in September, we are in peak season.  So with that being said we wasted no time in looking for a venue.  Since we discussed what we were looking for, I had an idea in mind of what our venue should look like.  Let me just say, knowing what you want in a venue definitely helps when it comes to the searching process.

I viewed several venues in one weekend and let me just say,  it was an exhausting process.  I have told a few of my friends that purchasing a house was so much easier for me.  I say this because with a house you have your standard bedroom, living room, kitchen, etc. So you know what goes into those rooms. But for a wedding venue, you have to really use your imagination.   You have to actually see yourself in the venue, the set-up, your entrance, etc. It's not easy! Trust me on this one.  LOL.  Though I will say, when you have found the venue - you know it.  Similar to the same feeling as to when you find the house, and also to what I have been told as to when you find the dress.  (BTW - I have not started dress shopping - can't wait to start though!)

After viewing several venues, I finally found the one that I fell in love with upon first site!  During the tour, I was able to see myself in the building, envision the set-up.  I'm telling you it was definitely love at first site! You should already know how the story goes from here.....

It's official, we have a venue and we have a date!!!!!!!   Unfortunately, all I can tell you is the date (in order to maintain our privacy):

Sunday, September 22, 2013

At this time we are not releasing information about our venue.  More information will be revealed to our guest, once our wedding website is fully created and published. 

What was your venue search like?  Did you already have your dream venue selected prior?

- XoXo

L.B

Bridal Showcase - My first one!

Posted by Unknown on Sunday, September 9, 2012. Filed under:
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Greetings -

Today I attended my first bridal showcase, and let me tell you boy was it an experience.  Upon walking in the door I was immediately greeted by few familiar faces.  Turns out that my two of my Zumba students were working the event the registration desk.  They are such lovely ladies and they definitely gave me a warm welcoming feeling upon entry to the showcase.  The first thing that I received after filling out some paperwork was a nice little button saying "bride-to-be".  It is so cute!  I still have it and placed it on a bear that my fiance gave me for our first Valentine's Day. 

After placing my pin onto my jean jacket, I officially entered the showcase.  Let me tell you, talk about OVERWHELMING!  Lol.  I had people coming at me from left and right asking me for my information, congratulating me, etc.  It took a second for me to get used to all of the attention.  Who would have known, such a cute little pin would make you a target. I know now the power of the 'bride-to-be' pin!  LOL. 

The bridal showcase revealed so many things to me. One thing in particular - I've got a lot work to do!  Vendors were represented for every aspect of the wedding.  Being that I had nothing planned prior (believe it or not, I never really thought about my dream wedding) so I was pretty much starting from scratch.  The showcase offered me a good sense of direction.  My mom and I were able to obtain a lot of information and get a good idea for what was in store for us.

After getting home, I had bags of information.  So of course, I had to organize everything into piles.  See below: 
Now with all of this information just at my finger tips, I was officially ready to get started with the planning process. I definitely recommend attending a local bridal showcase to help give you some direction for planning your wedding.

So tell me, did you attend any bridal showcases?  If so, what was your experience like?

~ XoXo

L.B

Picking a date...

Posted by Unknown on Thursday, September 6, 2012. Filed under:
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So now that the word is out that I am engaged, I have been flooded with the same question from everyone.  I'll give you a second to guess... Figured it out yet?!?  I know you have!!!  Just in case you are stumped, here is the question: When is the big day?!?  

I know I cannot be the only bride-to-be out there that does not have an answer to this question.  Those that know me, know that I am pretty good at answering questions.  Though this was one question that I did not have an answer for.  My fiance and I agreed that after we got engaged, we would give it a few weeks before we started planning.  The only thing we did know is that we wanted to get married in September. As soon as September 1st hit, we began brainstorming ideas as to what we wanted our dream wedding to be like.  We came up with a nice little list of things that were important to us. 

Side note: One thing that you will notice throughout my blog is that my fiance and I plan a lot things together.  My fiance is very creative and I value his opinion to the fullest.  So at the end of this journey our wedding will be a true representation of us as a unit.  

Okay, now back to our original conversation.  Do I have a date?  Quick answer: No.  But I do have a month! 

We tried to figure out what dates were important to us, but for us everyday is important to us.  It was really hard for us to try to narrow down one specific date.  So we decided to let our venue search determine our date.  We agreed that with having a bit of flexibility in our date, will make the venue search a little easier. 

I will let you know how it turned out for us.  Stay tuned...

So tell me...  How did you pick your date? 

XoXo

L.B

I'm engaged!

Posted by Unknown on Saturday, September 1, 2012. Filed under:
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Welcome to my wedding blog!  For those who do not know me, my name is Lesley B. (soon to be M.).  I am a proposal professional by day, and I am a Zumba instructor at night.  I love to hang out with my family and friends.  I enjoy life to the fullest.   Now that you know a little about me, guess what?!?!? 

I am engaged!!!!  I mean most of you already know this, but I still like saying it. It is almost hard to believe that on Saturday, August 18th, 2012 everything changed for me.  Who would have thought when I woke up that morning that by the end of the day I would be engaged? It is amazing as to what the day can unfold for you, and you have absolutely no idea.  Though the one thing that I will say is that I couldn't be any happier.  The smile on my face is even bigger than the one I already displayed before.  Below is a picture from the night I got engaged. :-)



I decided to create this blog as a way to track my journey to my wedding day.  Hence the title of the blog: 'From B to M - A change in my last name...'.  As I know there are many of you future brides out there, I felt this was a great way for me to express my thoughts, as well as you to share yours.  Within my blog you will find a few of my thoughts, some of my DIY projects, and plenty more! 

I do hope you enjoy!  

XoXo,

L.B


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