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THE DRESS!
I was absolutely thrilled to find my dress at the Bridal Garden, a New York City shop that sells dresses that have been donated by designers and brides and whose proceeds benefit New York City children's education (currently a charter school in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn). I was even more thrilled with my dress, an Anne Barge trunk-show sample from her spring 2008 La Fleur line that had never been worn. I got a ton of compliments on it. Love those little bows! Here's how it looked when I was getting ready:
And here's how it looked swishing down the aisle with my dad:
THE SHOES
I have talked at length about my shoes. Anyone who doesn't know I wore rubber Vivienne Westwood for Melissa shoes with red hearts on the toes hasn't been paying attention. People adored them. I didn't even get one "different," although my mom did laugh in a way that suggested she wasn't 100% in favor of the decision. You can get them, and lots of other Melissa shoes, via Epaulet in Brooklyn, online or in person.
THE HAIR ACCESSORY
I got this fantabulously fun ostrich-feather hair piece from New York City milliner Artikal:
The designer, Holly Slayton-Chance, does lots of cool fascinators as well as veils and hats. To me this piece sort of echoed the freedom and movement of the bows at the bottom of my dress, and just screamed FUN! You can get her pieces for reasonable prices direct from her (either at her East Village studio or online), or pay a gigantic markup at Kleinfeld's. Yeah.
THE JEWELRY
I'm not really a jewelry person, and I didn't know for sure what I was going to wear for jewelry until the day of the wedding. The necklace was from Etsy seller Tree and Kimball, made of vintage lace with a little blue bead (something blue!):
Looking at the photos, I realized it doesn't photograph that well, but whatever. We all liked that the bead sort of nestled in my cleavage. I borrowed my bridesmaid Randi's grandmother's watch for my something borrowed as well as her diamond studs even though I never wear earrings. And that was that!
THE BAG
Yep, Etsy again. Gotta love it! I got this to-die-for vintage crystal-beaded purse for $25:
It came with two matching clip-on earrings and a great shoe clip (sadly, only one, because it would have made a great earring itself). I barely used this all night but I DID need to reapply lip gloss, after all, so. There. I DID need a bag! Take that, naysayers! Plus, it's gorgeous!
THE SECOND DRESS
Yes, that's right, I had a second dress. For dancing. ("What a DIVA!" they said.) It was a short little Betsey Johnson number that I simply couldn't resist. I'd discovered while dress shopping that I unexpectedly loved lace, and this was a really interesting type of open-work lace:
Also, it was $50. And I was really happy to be able to change into it before the cake cutting, because it was hot and humid that night, and we were dancing our faces off.
DRESS #3 and HAIR ACCESSORY #2
Oh yes I did! I had a dress for the afterparty, too.
I actually bought it before the Betsey Johnson, intending it as the dancing dress, but then I couldn't resist the Betsey Johnson and felt it was fancier, and so this became the afterparty dress. It is vintage and sweet and easily the most comfortable dress of the three. I got a ton of compliments on it, with some people even voting it their favorite of the three (by a hair, I think/hope!). Not too many people were still taking pictures at this point (our photographer had left), so this is the best I've got so far:
The headband is from Forever 21. Loved it, too.
THE BRIDAL PARTY
You've all been patiently waiting to find out what I made Tamron and the rest of my ladies wear. I chose J.Crew dresses: easy and cute. I wasn't really sure about the color (fresh mint, in the Crew's parlance) until the day of the wedding, when all my girls looked so beautiful, especially against the backdrop of the lake.
Eagle-eyed readers will notice that Tamar sluttily shortened her dress and later paired it with silver Toms for dancing (of which I was profoundly jealous). All the bridesmaids wore silver shoes of their own choosing , and I got them all different silver bow necklaces from Etsy, to echo the bows on my dress. Here's Tamar and her fiancé — how do they make their eyes sparkle like that??
Moving on to the boys: They wore black suits and stripey multicolor-blue ties (see the pic of my brother, above).
We didn't want to spend a lot of money on ties, so we got stripey aqua ties for $15 each at thetiebar.com. Don't judge. The colors were perfect and complemented the groom's tie, too.
THE GROOM
The groom wore a windowpane-print Hickey Freeman suit that (even on sale) cost more than my dress and still needs to be cleaned. He looked absolutely fabulous in it, even when he'd sweated through to the pits. (Note to future brides: Make sure he wears a V-neck T-shirt underneath if he's a schvitzer—wife-beaters not so classy in this situation!)
And that's all she wrote as far as my wedding fashion is concerned. If you'll excuse me, I'm off to take a totally normal walk in a meadow with my husband!
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