Over Christmas I took the chance to scan some of my parent's wedding photos! I thought it'd be fun to have a few copies for myself.

Now, my mom and I have one thing in common already... non-diamond engagement rings. She has a pearl engagement ring so my non-diamond choice wasn't much of a shock.

But, what I didn't know was that my mother managed to fulfill another one of my wedding goals; truly wear again bridesmaid dresses. I found photographic PROOF that at least one of my mom's bridesmaid (her little sister Cheri) wore her dress again.

My parents had a winter themed wedding. Now, to my mom's credit, her dress choice should have been stylish in its day... she went to LA for fashion school!

But, it remains up in the air whether my aunt wore her dress again because she loved it OR because my grandma didn't want to buy her another dress when she had a perfectly good one from the month before! (Feel free to weigh in Aunt Cheri).

Two of the other bridesmaids are my aunts too, so perhaps they'll also let me know if they ever wore their dresses again :) Although, unless someone wants to REALLY prove me wrong, I don't think they're still re-wearing them!

I've seen a lot of debate on the topic, do you think a bride should try to make the dress re-wearable? Tell me the truth, how many bridesmaids dresses do you own? How many have you worn again? What happened to the rest?

My tally: Own 1 BM dress, worn it to at LEAST 5 weddings since then!

These days there's this huge push to be an individual. We need to customize our lives to outwardly reflect our personalities. These days there are rainbow colored iPods, custom ringtones for our phones and skins for our web browsers. So, when it comes to weddings this extreme need for personalization really shines through. It seems like ladies are driving themselves to the brink of insanity to come up with something that's never been seen before.

But, sometimes it just goes too far! There is a carrot on this man's lapel from crying out loud. I'm not sure where this theme came from but to me it seems like a vegan theme gone wild.

Actually, the real story is something about this girl owning a catering business. In any case, I don't get it. If its truly representing a love of food, I find the theme far too literal!

My real question is did people attend this wedding and think "oooh how cute and personal!" or did they think "the bride smells like onions"?

Is this what happens to normal brides in the throes of planning? I lamented early on that I didn't want to be a bride with monogram toilet paper; that when I get to the point of wanting that then someone needs to smack me upside the head and bring me back to reality.

Was emptying the crisper drawer a sane and rational decision OR was this her monogram toilet paper?

I want to have a personal wedding but I really don't want my guests wondering if they can take the centerpieces home to their rabbit. Where does it end? Where is the line between personal and crazy? And more important, how do I know when I cross it? :)

P.S. This makes me want ranch dressing.

OK, its not really dirty...

I LOVE combing through photographers sites to find pictures of my venue. I don't know, I just think it'll give me more inspiration if I can spy into other people's weddings! I could spend hours trying to find a new photo and then I keep making lists of where I want my own photos taken...

Check out this one. If you click the picture you can go to the whole website and see the adorable wedding.

This picture just makes me so excited. The front of the house is just so pretty and I love the way it looks. It has this classic vibe that I totally love!

Any I crazy or have any of my married friends done the same thing? Google is going to be the death of me!

I must say, I'm becoming a good bargainer (if that's a word). I've never really had to do much negotiating so this is new territory for me.

One of the major pitfalls of an outdoor ceremony in an incredibly rainy city is the necessity for a rain plan. Since my ceremony is in an outdoor courtyard I'm going to need a tent for that area in the event of bad weather. When I booked my venue, the event coordinator made it seem so easy. The most well known rental place in my city does tents on "rain reserve" meaning that I can reserve it but only pay for it if they have to put it up!

Well, that great deal turned into a minor headache when I realized that I didn't like the rental place. For being the place to rent from, I really wasn't impressed with their customer service. I mean, they were the ones who wanted my first born child in return for some teal linens. From the beginning, I felt like I walked into the place and told them where I was getting married and they just gave me the list of what I would need. I didn't feel like they asked me about what I wanted at all!

Luckily, I decided to hit up some other places in town. When I went into another rental place in town, I inquired about "rain reserve" tents but this new rental place was only really starting to do weddings vs other event rentals. Now, after a few emails, I've got the other place to start offering "rain reserve" tents which makes me really happy! I kept telling them I was working with the other place in town but very unhappy with their service. Apparently, a little competition is good and I think I have a chance to get a much better deal and better service by simply asking them to provide the same services! I'm going to meet them this week so I hope it goes well.

So, lesson learned. Just because a place is popular doesn't mean they're actually good at what they do AND asking a business to offer a new service may be the route to go!

Anyone else have experience where the top dog in town just didn't seem that impressive?

I have to love my friends. I've gotten many responses on my teal shoe quest, I'm one lucky girl to have such lovely friends that'll scour the internet on my behalf! Seriously, thank you for all your suggestions!

I want to share one pair. These beautiful Badgley Mischka shoes are a Shanna find. She immediately sent them to Carly and I.

Shanna: I just fell in love with these. Maybe the bridesmaids need teal shoes.....

Carly: Those are beautiful!  Holy heel!  Maybe we do need some teal ones...

Shanna: I know. I seriously love them. I want to cheat on all of my other heels with those. They cost about as much as our whole bridesmaid dress is going to cost hahaha. I don't even care.

HAHAHA! I LOVE IT! I read online posts on Wedding Bee of all thee brides sobbing that their bridesmaids just don't care about their wedding enough/don't get excited about their "vision"/aren't supportive. I'm so so lucky to have lovely friends that can love teal shoes as much as I do!

If only I could justify $130 shoes for me and all the bridesmaids!

I know no one will see my shoes or theirs since we're all going to be in long dresses but there's still something so appealing about having amazing shoes, even if its just for cheeky pictures of all of our feet. Anyone else have that one thing that doesn't really matter but you want anyway?

Anyone who has watched a few episodes of Say Yes to the Dress has seen a fair number of over the top Pnina Tornai gowns. For those of you unfamiliar with these $25,000 gowns I thought I'd do a short post to sum them up for you.

A $45 corset for under a wedding gown...

PLUS a $50 ruffled crinoline....

EQUALS an incredibly expensive (and odd) wedding dress.

There are many things in life I will never understand. This is definitely one of them. Why these are THE dress of the moment, I will never understand. I thought my gown having pockets was fashion forward, haha!

Anyone got any thoughts? I just don't want to be caught in my underwear, especially on my wedding day. Its like a bad dream where you forget to get dressed before you go to school!

Well, after a little time off from blogging for the holidays I'm back in full force and have a nice little list of blogs to write. I know I still have some major things to accomplish (photographer, DJ) but I couldn't help but start on the things on the more minor importance to do list.

And by that, I mean SHOES! My venue has brick courtyard so I know heels are going to be an issue. I'm determined to wear heels for the ceremony and pictures before the wedding. Andy is a lot taller then me so I'd really like some height in those photos.

But, I also know that the mere thought of heels gives me blisters. So, I'll definitely need some flats for the reception or else I won't be able to walk or worse... I'll go barefoot.

Luckily, while visiting my parent's house in Los Angeles, I had ample opportunity to go shoe shopping. When I got home my mom told me about some cute, cheap silk teal flats at DSW so I quickly scooped them up as my reception shoes. Now, I only have to keep myself from wearing them for the next 10 months!!!

Unfortunately, LA didn't turn up any heels I really liked. I found some wild ones and lots of patent leather pumps but none of them seemed appropriate. Many people suggested dying shoes but I've seen and heard that they run if they get wet at all. Given the frequency of rain in Mobile, I think dying shoes is a poor choice. Luckily, I have a few more months to find heels before we start dress fittings!

Anyone have any luck with dying shoes? I've heard scotchguard helps keep the dye in place. Anyone got any other creative ideas for amazing teal shoes?