Wedding Wednesday: Bridesmaid Dresses

I really don’t have a favorite color, other than maybe white or grey, and with our wedding being pretty minimalist and neutral, I thought about what color I wanted my bridesmaids to wear for a bit. I figured the classic black dress would be flattering on everyone and tie in all of the features of our wedding.

I knew I wanted long dresses for the girls and maybe something with a slit because a little leg never hurts :P. We looked at a couple of websites and finally discovered Azazie, which specializes in custom formal dresses. I found the Fiona dress and immediately fell in love. It is a beautiful, clean, sophisticated strapless black dress with a silky sash, a slit, and POCKETS! I’ve been a bridesmaid a couple of times and definitely would have loved to have pockets! Just to hold my phone or tissue (or snacks!). Just kidding about the snacks. Or am I?

Anyways! Azazie allows you to either buy generic sizes or you can send in your measurements and they’ll make your dress according to those numbers. This allows them to get it as correct as possible and you can save on further alterations. Some of the girls gave exact sizes and didn’t have to pay for further tailoring, whereas a few others planned to lose weight so they purchased generic sizes.

Although my heart was set on that dress for them, I wanted to get their opinions and make sure they were comfortable and also loved the dress. Azazie offers sample loans for the cost of $10 each. I purchased about 3-4 samples of different dresses that I liked and had the girls try them on to see which one was best. Almost all chose the one I originally liked, so we went with the Fiona! 🙂 After that, we just returned the samples! If you don’t return them, you’d have to pay a fee.

On the day of the wedding, they looked absolutely gorgeous. It was so sophisticated and a lot of people told me it reminded them of a Vera Wang bridesmaid dress, which is great since we paid much less for it!

If you’re looking for bridesmaids dresses or maybe even a formal dress to attend an event, I really do recommend Azazie. They have a huge selection, tons of color options, styles, at such affordable prices.

Wedding Wednesday: Videos

We knew we wanted our wedding video to be shot on Super 8 camera, which is from the late 60s, early 70s, so the video has a unique, vintage feel to it. We found Steven of Wild Light Films after a bit of research and found that he incorporates Super 8 footage into his videos; he has such an amazing vision and creates the most beautiful wedding videos!

I booked Steven thinking he was in Florida but he was willing to travel, but found out that he was moving to LA, so it was great! About a few months out from our wedding, he suggested to meet up in person at a couple locations that we like to get in some extra footage of us that he could mix into our wedding video. I had never heard of shooting extra footage for a wedding, but we were totally up to meeting him in person to get to know him before our big day! AND boy did we have a blast! We spent a few hours wandering around Downtown Los Angeles, having some drinks at a few bars, and just getting really cool footage in.

The day of the wedding, we felt like he was one of our guests and a close friend. So I totally felt comfortable having him film us! His fiance was assisting him the day of with the Super 8 camera, while he had his digital camera. That way, he could get footage on both.

I couldn’t be happier with our videos. They are jaw-droppingly gorgeous and completely captured our special day in the most beautiful, romantic, and best way! I don’t even have words for it. Just take a look at them here!

Wedding Wednesday: Dessert

Now that the wedding is over and we’re getting all of our pictures back, I’ll be continuing with my Wedding Wednesday posts! That way I can feature my vendors and give you all details about my wedding planning process!

This post is about our DESSERT! I had a pretty tough time deciding on desserts and I needed something I both loved AND was within our budget. So I did a ton of research and found Dazzling Donuts, which is a donut vendor that makes hot, fresh mini donuts right in front of your guests! How could I not choose them right?!!

They allowed us to choose a few flavors to have for our wedding and some topping options from nutella, to birthday cake, samoa, tutti frutti, and many more. It’s such a fun feature to have because it’s a like a conveyer belt that pops out delicious donuts! Our guests were raving about the donuts because of how unique it is! They normally see a donut bar or wall, where it’s just arranged in a pretty way, but never have they seen donuts being made in front of them! I loved how easy it was to work with Kim from Dazzling Donuts; she was so accommodating and everything went so smoothly.

I hope I attend a wedding that has them as a vendor so that I can enjoy them again!

Wedding Wednesday: Bridesmaids Gifts

I wanted to create a chic, modern gift set for my bridesmaids gifts which included little trinkets and things that I liked! I think the most difficult part for me was to decide on what items to choose and setting a budget for it. I honestly only wanted to spend maybe $30 a box because I have 8 bridesmaids. Yes, I know that’s a lot but I honestly could not cut it down any more than that!

I shopped around for a bit until I decided on what I wanted to put into the box. I loved the look of clean, white round boxes with a sleek black ribbon. I’ve seen a ton of gift box websites where you can customize your bridesmaids gift box but they were extremely expensive. They’re super cute but way too costly for my budget, so I diy’d it myself. I found it to be really fun and I was really happy with how they turned out!

Here’s what I used to create these!

  • Container Store round gift box: I love the shape, simplicity, and almost perfectness of the box. I actually spent a lot of time trying to find the perfect box. I know, it’s probably not the most important thing but for some reason, it was really important to me as to what type of box I used. The Container Store has a lot of options if you’re looking for gift boxes and these are really sturdy and well made.
  • Black ribbon : I wanted to make the gift box look really sleek and clean, which called for a thin black ribbon tied around the gift box.
  • Well Kept Screen Cleansing Towelettes: These wipes are for cleaning your phone screen and any lenses, which we often overlook. I also loved that these towelettes are towards a good cause. “The “Lady” pattern is in honor of the men, women & children trapped in slavery around the world today. A portion of the proceeds from this pack will be donated to enditmovement.com a coalition of the leading organizations in the world in the fight for FREEDOM by spreading awareness, prevention, rescue, and restoration.”
  • Soaprocklet in White Opal: I found these super cute soaps that look like crystal gems from a store called Riley Rose and they smelled sooooo good! When you open the gift box, you get a lovely scent from these soaps and the girls have all mentioned how much they love it! They are also made of a unique blend of whole herb extracts, vitamins, and minerals, from aquatic, botanical, and terrestrial sources. 
  • Sugarfina cookies and cream milkshake chocolates: I wanted to add some cute treats in my box and Sugarfina has the most amazing candies that are packaged so nicely in clean, clear plastic cubes. They are a little pricey but sometimes, you can find a sale or deal at the store. Keep an eye out for that.
  • Target Card with a marble print: I bought these cute little blank cards from Target that had a clean marble print on the front. They were a great way for me to write a little note to all the girls. I went with writing a very fond memory I’ve had with each of them just to really personalize each card when asking if they could be my bridesmaid.
  • Paddywax Candle in Sea Salt + Sage – I love Paddywax candles so I found these small, mini candles to put into the gift boxes for the girls. They just fit so perfectly and their packaging really enhances the entire box!

This was how I personally put my gift boxes together but have fun with it and make it your own! You can put whatever gifts you want inside, change up the packaging to match your personality or wedding theme, etc! Look below for ideas on what else you can fill the boxes with!