Bridal party attire

Joshua and I chose purple and black as our wedding colors. We are naturally earth tone individuals. When you walk into our home there are tans, browns, reds and greens with various accents of black.

For our wedding we wanted to go outside of our comfort zone.

Ever since I was a child purple had always been my favorite color, so that was my first suggestion. We paired it with black and it was the look that we both wanted.

To start our theme we first looked at what the wedding party would wear. After getting the color done the rest was easy. I knew the designer that I wanted for the bridesmaid dresses so I hopped on the Alfred Angelo website and started browsing for styles.


I had a couple of styles in mind and took my sister Andi and my brother's fiance Kelly to a bridal shop who carried each of the designs. The ones I liked the most were tea length and strapless, but just didn't quite look right.

I spent some more time envisioning the wedding and determined that I wanted long dresses so I started looking for other styles when I found the perfect dress for the girls.


I took my sister and my Matron of honor down with me to look at the dress in person and knew that it was the one for the bridal party. It looked flattering on both of them and knew it would be perfect for all of the girls.


It took 3 months for the dress to come in and we went to pick them up last Friday. We have a total of 5 bridesmaids and a flower girl.

Unfortunately not all the bridesmaids could come with due to conflicting schedules.

Hannah, Josh's niece, is our flower girl. You'll notice in the group picture she is in a Jr. bridesmaid dress. We choose to go this route because my dress isn't a stark white and finding a flower girl dress that is in her size was just very difficult, not to mention I couldn't find a dress that I liked.

Tracy is my Matron of Honor. She is the entire reason that Joshua and I met in the first place. Her and her husband, who is also a groomsmen, insisted on a double date and we hit it off from the start. They are the match makers in our little romance.



Kelly is my brother Rusty's Fiance and just like a sister to me. If possible she would be the female version of my brother.

My sister Andi, who puts up with all of my craziness tried on a dozen dresses before I found this one. I promised her no butt bows or ugly dresses. The only problem she has this this dress is that it has a low cut back which means she, and the other girls, will need special bras to wear underneath.

While the girls were trying on their dresses I couldn't fight the urge to put on the sample dress again. It was a lot of fun to walk around with the girls in our dresses. The contrast their colors bring to my dress is just beautiful.

I wish that Amy and Lindsey could have been there, then the Bride's party would be complete.

All of the girls have to have alterations done to their dresses. As you can tell by the pooling fabric on the floor.
Most of them will also have to have their dresses taken in some. Thank goodness for alterations!

On Saturday Joshua and I went out to pick out the formal wear for the men in his party. Josh will also have 5 groomsmen. Chris is his best man, with James , Bruce, Alain, and my brother Rusty as the groomsmen. His nephew John-John will be the ring bearer and he will have Nai and Greg usher. All the men, including my father and his father will be in a tux.

Josh picked out the style of the suit, which has three buttons. The store did not have an exact match to the bridesmaid dresses in a vest so we choose one that had another shade we are using for accents. The vest will be worn with a black shirt and the longer neck tie rather than the bow. To incorporate the main purple color we purchases pocket silks that do match the eggplant color of the dresses.

Up coming posts

We are down to 4 months until the big day!

Stay tuned for posts on the following:

Bridal Party Attire

Pre-Marriage Counseling

Engagement Photos

DIY - Center pieces and favors

Wedding rings

The search for our wedding rings took us several months.


Josh, being the most wonderful man ever, apparently listened to something I said in passing during the first few month of dating.


I believe we were discussing the movie Blood Diamond and the topic of diamond engagement rings came up. I have always wanted a traditional engagement ring. A diamond set in a simple band. But not just any diamond. I wanted a pear shaped diamond. I didn't care what it was set in as long as it wasn't yellow gold, as it doesn't look quite right with my skin tone. I also didn't want some overly designed engagement ring. Just a solitary diamond.

I was very surprised when Josh presented me exactly the ring I always hoped for over a year after having that simple 5 minute conversation.


The pear set above a platinum band was more than I could have ever hoped for and the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. I couldn't have picked out something more perfect if I had to choose one myself.


The best part is that Josh did choose it himself. I didn't have to tell him what I wanted, he listened and remembered. That act in itself is more touching than I can express.


Because of the pear shaped finding a matching wedding band was not an easy task. I couldn't quite find a band that didn't overwhelm or take away from my center stone. That or a band that didn't leave a gap between the ring and the stone.


With many failed attempts at ring shopping we had almost decided to have a custom ring made. Just thinking about it made me nervous, because what if I hated the ring created for me? I couldn't say, "oh never mind". I'd be stuck with a ring I didn't like.


I knew after trying on single bands that I wanted a wrap, or more commonly know, guard. I wanted something that would protect my ring and lay nearly flush to the band of the engagement ring.

With that in mind we went in search for the ring that would do just that. We had almost settled on this ring, but it still had the gap that I disliked. The tip of the pear fell flush, but the opposite end had that dreaded gap that was starting to loath.

As we were pulling up the paperwork on said ring we both saw this one.

I tried it on with my engagement ring and knew right then that it was the perfect match. It didn't have a gap on either side and hugged the pear without leaving it overwhelmed.

It just so happened that Josh was able to find the ring that he was in search of too at the same place.

We had looked at many styles for him but he absolutely did not want a diamond. We toyed with the idea of a mixture of white gold and platinum, but none of the rings felt very comfortable. As I was trying on the first pictured guard he found a ring that he knew he was going to get.

His is white gold with a stardust finish which is raised slightly higher than the polished portion of the band. It give it the simplicity that he was looking for, with the exceptional detail that we both wanted without going over the top.

After trying both rings on and holding them together there was no going back. We absolutely love our rings.


And in only 4 months and a week we'll be able to wear them always.