Would you be my...

As soon as we got engaged, I knew the girls I wanted to be in the wedding. Jake and I discussed the bridal party and decided we wanted to keep it small, just 3 on each side. On Jake's side it will be his brother (best man), his closest cousin and his best friend. On my side, it will be my best friend K (maid of honor...actually matron since she's getting married in April), my best friend C from college, who now lives in Florida, and Jake's sister-in-law, J. We waited a while to ask them, since we wanted to get details worked out.

Last week, I decided I just couldn't wait any longer, so I started working on the cards that I mailed each girl, asking them to be in the wedding. I'm not a huge fan of those traditional cards with the picture of a dress on the front, so I decided to get crafty and make my own cards. I headed to the new Paper Source that just opened in Annapolis (PS - totally obsessed! I could spend hours in there!) I decide to make personalized cards with each girls name on the front and then tie in the wedding colors in a classy and simple way. Here's what I came up with:

The letters are black sparkly stickers (they look weird in that pic, but I promise they are not crooked in real life). To bring in some of the navy, I decided to line the envelopes in a fun print:

I love how they came out! We will actually be lining the envelopes for our save the date's in the same navy polka dot paper! The girls all loved them and now I have a fabulous bridal party! YAY!

Because I'm OCD and slightly neurotic, I started looking at bridesmaids dresses before I even asked the girls. I was originally thinking just a plain navy dress for the girls, something timeless that they could wear again. I HATE all standard traditional bridesmaids dresses and I refused to even consider them. That led me to, of course, J.Crew. I stalked the website and sale section, looking for all their navy options. Let me tell you, there is not much. Without spending $350, they really didn't have many navy dresses at all. I also started thinking about how the wedding is outside in early September and it will most likely be HOT.

J.Crew makes a fabulous beach dress, which is a lightweight embosessed cotton seersucker. I actually own this dress in a few colors and love it. Since the wedding is before Labor Day (by 2 days), I feel ok with the girls wearing seersucker! I checked the site to see if it came in navy, but unfortunately, it doesn't. However, it does come in a pretty fabulous shade of yellow, called Sour Lemon! All the sudden, my entire plan of navy was out the window! I decided to order one dress, just to check the color, style, etc. It came and it was perfect! A little brighter than it looked online, but it's really a great shade of yellow (sometimes yellow can be iffy).

Then I started thinking about the girls and how different they are, in personalities and body types. J.Crew actually makes this dress in 3 different styles...a halter, strapless and then a shift dress that buttons up the back. After checking with the girls, it turns out they each wanted a different style, so it was perfect! K will be wearing the halter:

C will be wearing the strapless:
and J will be wearing the shift:

Umm and can I tell you the best part about this dress?!?!?! It was on sale (since it's last season) for $29.99 and $39.99!!! (some styles were cheaper than others, not sure why). I ordered all 3 dresses for the girls and I paid a total of $202.00 plus shipping!!! I decided since they were so cheap, I would just buy them the dresses as part of their gifts! AHHHH!

So I'm so excited about the dresses and they won't need any alterations! Now I just have to find my dress...