Bridesmaid Dresses that REALLY can be worn again!

Still planning big design board surprise but have wedding first so here are more dresses! :)


I've been to a lot of weddings down here and probably can count on my hand the number of bridesmaid dresses I really do think will be worn again (and that work well in the heat and humidity!). When I look for dresses like these I ask the question "could I wear flip-flops with this?" .... if the answer is "yes", it's a keeper! (Keep in mind I didn't say WHAT KIND of flip flops ;)).


So, here are some dresses (and some places) I think would work well down here and most of these won't break most banks!

More Formal

I thought I would start with this category, since I found less I liked here - NOT that I think you shouldn't go formal, if you want - just that I think finding a good formal dress that is also a good beach dress is not as easy as it sounds!

First up, love these bridesmaid combos I found over at PerfectBound. Light, airy, formal, distinct - just really great.

Runner-up is this taupe dress I found at Anthropologie. Similar, of course, to the dresses up above ;).

Worth a mention - Still short, but completely different style is this flapper-inspired dress at New York and Company. Again, I'm thinking "light, airy"...

A Bit More Casual

So, going a bit more casual, love this brown dress from Anthropologie. It has sortof an ethnic vibe to it and I can see bridesmaids all standing in line with bouquets of white flowers breathlessly waiting to hear you say "We do!" ;).

Second Runner-up in this category is this sleeveless patterned dress, also from Anthropologie. I definitely think you have to be careful with patterns, but I think this one isn't a bad pattern - would be nice to have 1 or 2 bridesmaid's in this dress with the other bridesmaid's in complimenting colors/styles.

Beachy Yet Elegant

Of course, you know I saved my heart hearts for last!

Second runner up - Comes in more than one color, just a very simple, flowy strapless from Victoria's Secret.

First Runner-Up - Again, patterned dresses - I found these two in completely two different places and realized later their patterns were similar! Guess I know what I like! ;) I love the long, flowy nature of these dresses - can see them as great dresses for walking the beach at sunset. First dress from New York and Company, second dress from Forever21.

Second Place - I know it sortof has a 70's thing going on, but I just like the look of this fabric - if it feels the way it looks, I bet this is one fun dress to party in! (Victoria's Secret)

Before showing you my number one pick for bridesmaid dresses, I thought I would show you a bride dress/bridesmaid dress combo that I think would be awesome for a bride who wants to go more natural, carefree. I found these dresses at JCrew and would LOVE to see one of you decide to go for some yellow. Yellow rocks!

And now, drum roll please, the number one bridesmaid dress comes from....Victoria's Secret! Not only does this dress come in multiple colors, but you can wear the SAME dress in multiple styles - so, same color for your bridesmaids (if you want) but they can do it in a style that most flatters them! winwin!!

I have NO IDEA what I'm blabbing about next week so I won't even pretend to try - but I'm sure it will wedding related ;).

Beachy with Class!

A big shout out goes to Brit who was married last Saturday in Las Caletas! We did a whole set of things for her, as you will see - all super fun!

INSPIRATION

Brit did send us her invites but told me she didn't really want something based off the invites (other than the colors) - after discussing it a bit as to what she would like to see, I remembered an invite that I loved which was very colorful but super kewl - Brittloved it too and, thus, started our inspiration for her wedding sets!

Maracas

The first thing Brit ordered were the maracas. She wanted the colors of yellow, orange and an orchid/fuschia color. We decided to put the white tiger lily on it for the biggest effect and this is how they turned out!

MARACA TAGS & NAMES/DATE/LOCATION

The bride really wanted to have the names/date/location on the maracas but it was a little over her budget - so, instead, we offered to do tags on some and she decided to do the print on others. The inspiration for these tags (and, as you will see, the place cards as well) came as I was struggling to find something that would be beachy but not too "beachy" - I wanted something artistic, yet also classical when I ran across this graphic image and realized it was perfect! On the other side of the tags I put a tiger lilly water color and I really like the effect. Also taking oodles of time was the font - I must have looked at over 100 different fonts before deciding this was IT! And you thought picking a dress was hard! :)

PLACE CARDS

When I asked Brit how she would like her place cards she was really laid back and basically told me to just do something kewl!! So, I thought place cards on the forks would look nice (and as I knew the wedding was outside at Las Caletas, I thought that would ensure that they wouldn't blow away). I really liked how they came out - as I was playing with font colors I accidentally did the two-tone and decided there was some kewl factor there!

HAND PAINTED FANS

We were just going to do sandalwood fans with ribbon and accents but, when we went to order the fans, it turns out that they are stuck in Mexican customs right now and nobody in Vallarta had any! So, we had to do some quick thunking and we suggested to Brit that we could do some fans based on the same theme as the maracas with a slight twist and she agreed! I'm actually glad it turned out this way because I think they turned out awesome - actually a product of my husband, rather than Omar!

Next week we have Megan's maracas to share ... we've been so busy and I promise I've been scouting the web for ideas - but they have mostly been for my bride's weddings and, of course, must keep those under wraps until we unveil! If you are eager for me to get back to cool decor ideas I will be back to that at the end of April when we have a little break before we go into May and are oodles busy!

Favor ideas especially for Vallarta...

Favor ideas! Who doesn't love that?! What I love about favors is the opportunity to personalize a gift from the bride and groom really specific to them as a couple - the options are endless (and fun!). I really prefer to try to stick to favor ideas which are either a) something the guests will really use or b) something that is more artistic or interesting so that the guests might be more likely to display it. I don't see favors as simply another thing someone has to throw into their suitcase and hide away somewhere!


First, I wanted to address favor ideas which are used often in Vallarta, but I wanted to share a way to look at these with a different "spin" on them! For example, maracas are a crowd favorite but by personalizing them with a hand-painted touch representing the bride and groom, makes them even that more special.

MARACAS

Another popular favorite is the famous Puebla Talavera (or the other various "knock offs" which are still beautiful, but as we know not quite up to Puebla standards). Something I like to do sometimes is to integrate the favors into the design decor. In this example, the water glasses were replaced with talavera favor cups!

TALAVERA FAVORS

On a similar theme of integrating the favors into the design, we've taken logos which are very important to the client (without them knowing it!:) and integrated them into useful favors such as embroidered handkerchiefs, embroidered napkins and hand-painted fans!

EMBROIDERED HANDERKERCHIEFS, NAPKINS AND HAND-PAINTED FANS!

Along with tequilla, sweets are also a fairly common favor requests. For these particular favors, we made specially designed labels with guest's name and dinner seating as well as incorporated it into the cocktail decor of the event itself!

SWEETS

Then there are the more "unusual" favors such as retro Puerto Vallarta t-shirts for a retro wedding, hand-painted carnival masks, silver butterfly charms and artistic scenes of Vallarta from local artists.

ONE-OF-A-KIND FAVORS

OTHER IDEAS
I also wanted to point-out a few favor ideas which I found while visiting two of my favorite websites http://www.favorideas.com and http://www.myweddingfavors.com/. Some of the ideas on these sites are really great ideas that won't break the bank and something which might be useful should it match the personality of your particular bride and groom.

LUGGAGE TAGS
I love the idea of luggage tags! Many's a time when I wished for a fun, creative set of luggage tags to really distinguish my luggage from everyone else when it came time to pick up my luggage. Of course, here in Vallarta, as we have a lot of destination couples, I think luggage tags even make more sense for their guests! Here are two very different ideas for luggage tags which I found online:

FLIP FLOP LUGGAGE TAGS

These luggage tags are under $3.00 a piece! I think, for a laid-back wedding, this might really work.

CRUISESHIP LUGGAGE TAG

This particular set is more at expensive but still comes in at under $4.00 a piece. I think these are pretty elegant and the price isn't ridiculous!

BOOKMARKS
I think bookmarks are also a good idea and there are so many options to choose from. We haven't made any yet, but I have oodles of ideas for just the right bride and groom. Meanwhile, I found these bookmarks with a seashell theme at BySerendipty for under $3.00!

MAGNETS
I know not everyone loves magnets like I do, but I'm sure you'll have some clients who do! I found these magnets at http://www.myweddingfavors.com/ ... of course, these are projects we can do here, but I think, at $2.00 a PACKAGE it's a hard price to beat!

COASTERS
Useful and great, especially if done well! These coasters at http://www.myweddingfavors.com/ are under $3.00 each.

So, that's all for April mid-month ... if you there is something about decor that you're interested in but just don't have the time, just let me know and I'll see what I can find and put it in a subsequent blog!