Crafting spree: hair flowers

I'll be taking my veil off for the reception in exchange for flowers in my hair. Of course, that required a little bit of crafting. A clear comb, some clear thread (so difficult to sew with!) and some silk hydrangea blooms, and this is what I came up with:

What do you say? Yea or Nay? Too big?

Business in the front...

I don’t really wear makeup. I don’t really know how… For some reason, I didn’t learn in middle or high school like everyone else did. I was too busy with my nose in a book, or playing sports.

Even through college, mascara and a little bit of blush was the extent of my makeup wearing. A pretty serious bout with acne, which I still struggle with, didn’t help matters. It seemed like if I layered the cover-up on, I broke out more. So I stuck to the basics, and never left the house without chapstick. Seriously, the best present I’ve ever received (ok, I’m being dramatic) was a year’s supply of all different types of chapstick.

Anyway, in terms of wedding day makeup, Harrison doesn’t have a lot of doesn’t have a single makeup artist that I’d trust. Seriously, I had my hair cut in Harrison once, right before Mark and Jos’ wedding, and she cut my bangs so short that Erin and I kept joking that I deserved a shirt saying “I’ve been banged in Harrison”.

My facial expression indicates how thrilled I am about the length of my bangs.

(DJ: I’m about to talk about wedding day hair and makeup. I don’t care if you know what I want to look like, really, I don’t. I promise the goal is to look like myself, only better. And not have a mullet.)

Dress-Alikes

You know I’m wearing my mom’s mom’s wedding dress from 1951. You’ve even kind of seen a photo of it.

And believe me, I can’t wait to tell you the whole story on this dress, its alterations, etc, but I want to have photos from my grandparent’s wedding to tell the story with. And I tried to hunt up my grandparents wedding photos while in Clarkston over Christmas, but they’re buried in a box somewhere in the garage. Or closet.

Such is life when your parents move.

BUT, I spent a little of tonight browsing around for invitation inspirations, so that we could start thinking about how those are going to come together. I’ll post on that later, because in my search of wedding related stuff I stumbled across a bunch of dresses that I wanted to show you!

(DJ: Standard disclaimer. Continue at your own risk. None of these are photos of the actual dress, just dresses that look similar.)

Suiting DJ

A few weeks ago I was walking on Main Street and happened to notice the men’s suit shop was going out of business. In the last decade Bozeman’s Main Street evolved from a multi-aspect shopping location to a very boutique-y strip of high end shops. 2003 was all out with the western wear, in with the Vera Bradley shops to cater to the yuppie ski crowd.

Unfortunately, the yuppie ski crowd has less to spend in a recession. And the men’s suit shop seems to be a recession victim. Or rather, a victim of the recession and Bozeman’s laid-back attitude towards menswear. In my governmental office, it’s perfectly acceptable to wear Carharts and a Ducks Unlimited shirt. It’s just not a very formal place, which I love.

I am sad to see the suit shop go. It means one more vacant storefront on Main Street. And it’s where I wanted to buy DJ’s wedding suit. So shortly after seeing the “Going out of Business” and “50% off all inventory” signs, Gretchen and I dragged DJ into the store to see what we could find.

Our wedding, like the town we live in, is going to be pretty informal. Since a number of guests will end up camping, we’re talking roll-out-of-your-tent-put-on-flip-flops kind of informal. Black tuxedos were out for. And we wanted to spend the money on a nice suit he’d have available for years to come. I was pushing for a charcoal grey. And a blue tie to match the whole wedding-color thing.

He ended up finding a lighter grey suit he really liked, after first finding a jacket that fit him correctly. My dear man has long arms (which is why his mom made him play the trombone in elementary school!). The shop owner found a viable jacket, and then the seamstress came out and clucked over DJ.

A suit jacket, with Carharts and tennis shoes. Might as well wear a Cabella's shirt underneath and go to work!

Then he tried on pants.

I love that you can see his backside in the reflection in the mirror!

And then added dress shoes with the pants, to see where the hem should go.

How's that for getting fussed over!

And then Gretchen and I were on a hunt to find him a shirt. I immediately picked a white, with grey stripes shirt. Gretch found another grey shirt, and DJ grabbed two blue shirts. After a back and forth of “What do you like” with the shirts (only to find we both liked different things) the shop owner settled it and voted for the grey stripes.

Then Gretchen and I hunted ties. In the end, it was the seamstress that found a patterned tie to go with the striped shirt.

So GQ, in your stocking feet!

All told, we spent under our budget on a very nice suit. One DJ will have for a long time, and one which I think he looks extremely handsome in!

Looking at my sister to his right. But so handsome!

I’m finding all sorts of recession-deals for wedding related stuff. And house decorating stuff. Are you finding any good deals on, well, anything? What do you think, suits or tuxes?

Throwback Thursday- Wedding Dress style

Psst. Can you keep a secret? Wanna see a 50 year old photo of my wedding dress?

I’ll tell the full story of my wedding dress once I get scanned copies of other photos from my mom, but this is a preview. And a throwback.

(DJ: I don’t care if you know what dress for our wedding looks like. Heck, you saw most of it in your mom’s closet over Christmas. I almost showed it to you twice. You’re welcome to click the link below if you want to know in advance. The purpose of this break is to respect your wishes to not know what I’ll look like on The Big Day.)

How to Choose Wedding Shoes...

I live in Montana. I love fun shoes. These two sentences are often contradictory. I usually leave the house in my Bogs (LOVE),

My Bog boots, in "Autum Leaves" on the bottom. I pretty much wear them every day.

… and change into professional shoes at work.

Getting married in July means I get to wear fun shoes. I won’t have to worry about snow. And if it rains… well the whole thing is screwed if it rains, so we’re going to pretend that I’ll be sunny and beautiful!

(DJ: I don’t care if you know what my shoes for our wedding look like. Really, I don’t. You’re welcome to click the link below if you want to know in advance. The purpose of this break is to respect your wishes to not know what I’ll look like on The Big Day.)

Dressing Gretchen

Let me introduce you to my Maid of Honor, and only “attendant”:

Senior Picture in the fall of 2007. Photo by Kelly of Kelly Kuntz Photography.

Name: Gretchen Heitstuman Kramer

Age: 20 years old

Occupation: Sophomore at Washington State University- Go ‘Cougs!

Major: Journalism (?? this might be changing)

Interests: Music, men, college athletics, all things 'Cougs, her friends and sorority

Surfing over Spring Break, 2006, in my grad school apartment in Lexington, Kentucky.

It’s hard for me to begin to explain Gretchen. And I mean that in a good way; her outstanding personality and unique characteristics make it hard her up quickly. But once you know her, Gretchen can only be my sister Gretchen. And isn't she gorgeous!?

See those long legs of hers? I'm jealous.

She’s my only sibling, and one I waited six and a half years for. The large age difference between us definitely put us at odds for a long time. When I was 14 she was 7, and we were into totally different things. But as we’ve gotten older, we’ve gotten closer.

For me, she’s the only person I can turn to sometimes who knows exactly how I feel, and what the story is behind it. We lived in the same house, with the same parents and many of the same outside influences, and that shared experience makes her as close of friend as I have.

Why rent a hotel room when you can sleep on an airmattress in Courtney's apartment?

We’re also very different. I’m 5’ 5” tall with brown eyes and hair; she’s 5’11.5” inches tall with blue eyes and blonde hair. I’m into “Old Shit” and she’s more pop culture. She’s friendlier and more outgoing than I am, but I might be a little more self-assured than she is right now (but I was totally insecure at 20 years old too). She’s better at hair and makeup, and actually taught me the little I know about putting myself together. She’s a better friend to me than I am to her sometimes.

Wow! Our noses look alike in this photo!

Originally, DJ thought that three attendants apiece was the ideal number of people in a “wedding party”. He named his three quickly, but for me it went from Gretchen to twelve people in the blink of an eye. And I’m not a twelve attendant kind of girl. So I suggested demanded that we keep it to just our siblings. His brother and my sister. Simple, easy to coordinate, and with the added bonus of being super awkward! (Imagine Lucille Ball next to say… a punk rock Bill Gates).

Photo again of Kelly Kuntz Photography

In writing this right now, I just realized that I never formally asked Gretchen to by my Maid of Honor; it was always just an understanding between us. And there’s no one else I’d want to be around for the day. She’ll make me laugh, divert stress, and might even do my makeup, like any good littebig sister should!

See why I call her my LittleBig sister? We're standing on the same step... she's taller than me. She calls me her BigLittle sister.

Right after getting engaged in August I started looking for dresses for Gretchen. Weird, right? I mean, usually people choose the bride’s dress first. Well, I was hoping to score a sweet summery dress for cheap at the end of the season. And I knew I wanted to use some version of blue as a color. Preferably a deep, dark, rich sapphire-ish blue.

I started with JCrew, and had marked these two dresses earlier in the summer:

JCrew "Delores" Dress in a silk taffeta (?).

JCrew "Loreli" dress in the same material (maybe it's watered silk?)

But by the time I went to buy them, I couldn’t find them on the internet. And we were headed towards Eastern Washington over Labor Day, which is when I wanted GK to have a chance to try something on. So I kept looking.

I stumbled onto Nordstrom’s website, expecting to not find anything I could afford. Or that a girl like me would fit into. Suffice to say, after searching by color I was pleasantly surprised! Check out Gretchen’s dress, which she looks fantastic in, by the way!

A-Line skirt is flattering, strapless, and dark blue!

It hits Gretch in all of the right places!

We haven’t figured out what she’ll do for shoes or accessories yet. Maybe a strappy silver heel? Or is that played out? Frankly, I don’t really care; as long as she’s comfortable and confident in it! And able to dance.

Who’s with me on the “less is more” theory of wedding parties? Is the silver strappy shoe played out?