Nine Bridesmaid Dresses Ordered...Check!

These aren't my bridesmaids' dresses. :)

I am super-excited that I have all my best girlfriends in my wedding. These girls have been with me through various stages of my life--high school, college, work life, and beyond. While I trust each of them completely, I was still a little nervous that the bridesmaid dress-ordering process would be...chaotic...to say the least.

Well, it wasn't!

Here's what we did in five easy steps:

1. I chose the colors (petal pink for the seven bridesmaids; sangria for the two matrons of honor), the designer (Bill Levkoff), and the styles (seven different ones, from strapless to v-neck, and a bunch of other styles in between).

2. The ladies chose the style that they felt the most comfortable in. Then they let me know which style they wanted to go with.

3. I gave the final list to the dress shop. The dress shop was actually the same place my dress was purchased at. (PS: Having all the dresses be purchased from the same place allowed the ladies to get 10 percent off their dress prices.)

4. I gave the ladies a deadline to purchase their dresses and the phone number to the dress shop. This deadline was a few months out in advance so that they could prepare for the purchase, as needed. The dress shop was aware of when the ladies would be all calling and ordering their dresses.

5. The bridesmaids called and ordered their dresses at their convenience on the deadline day. There were no issues. Everyone knew what to do. And now the nine dresses have officially been ordered!

Once the dresses come in, I'll receive a postcard from the dress shop. From there, I'll go pick up the dresses and distribute them to my bridal party, or the faraway ones can even have their dresses shipped directly to them.

Simple. Efficient. Done. What's next...? :)

A Heart-felt Opinion on...Bridal Party Bouquets

Gorgeous peonies from marthastewart.com.

I have four words:

Wedding flowers are expensive.

Of course, they're beautiful, (usually) smell great, and can make a wedding ceremony--and especially the reception area--look extra gorgeous, but shelling out thousands of dollars on flowers that will last less than a week seems beyond silly and frivolous to me.

At the same time, however, I don't want to not go without flowers on my wedding day. One of the things I pay attention to at my friends' weddings is what the bride's bouquet looks like, what the bridesmaids bouquets look like, and what kind of flowers are used (if any) for the centerpieces.

According to an interesting website, www.costofwedding.com, the bridal bouquet alone averages $121-$165. (The average wedding itself costs $25,631.) If you want to get a bridal bouquet from a "well experienced professional" and/or "unique or custom products and services," that cost quickly shoots up like a weed to $198-$264+. What? That's insane!

The website goes on to say that the average cost of bridesmaid bouquets is between $121-$201. I don't know if that means per bridesmaid or for the whole bridal party, but we have nine bridesmaids in our wedding (see post below).

A sample bouquet from Muncle Fred Art.

I couldn't bring myself to contributing such a large chunk of our wedding budget to something that was going to die in a few days. While I was all about going the wholesale flower route to save money, I was a little nervous about doing that for the bridal party bouquets. Messy can look beautiful, sure, but I mostly didn't want to be trying to create ten bouquets two days before the wedding.

When I stumbled upon a shop on Etsy called Muncle Fred Art, I immediately fell in love with all the different felt flowers they had to offer. Even better, I could pick and choose the blooms I wanted; it was kind of like going to a real florist. All the bouquet samples were stunning, whimsical, and a little on the rustic-y side, which would be perfect for our simple outdoor rose garden ceremony. Plus, they were reasonably priced and could last well after my fiancé and I said our "I do's." I was sold!

First, I sent the shop an email, asking for a quote. Not only did one of the shop owners respond incredibly fast, she also allowed me to set up a payment plan to make paying for ten bouquets easy and completely doable. Additionally, she put together a mock-up bouquet and sent me pictures so I'd know exactly what I was getting. Next, I picked out the colors I wanted (out of dozens!). I then told the seller that I was nervous to receive the flowers so early in advance (we have three dogs...), so she said I could have them sent to me whenever I wanted. I decided to have them sent a month before the big day.

Oh, I also was told that I'd get a free toss bouquet for being the shop's 100th customer. Whoo hoo!

I have one payment left, and I can't wait for when all ten bouquets arrive in mid-April. I think my bridesmaids will love having flowers they can keep, and I love the fact that these flowers are a little different than what most people go for...or expect. No, they won't smell as lovely as real flowers, but we'll all be busy laughing, dancing, eating, and taking pictures to even notice that little oversight. I think I'm okay with that.