I'm Obsessed with Tessa Kim

After tackling the major last minute to-do of the bridesmaid dress decision, today we're gonna talk veils. Not just any veils Tessa Kim veils. They're beautiful, soft and just great. I put off the thought of having a veil for a while because I just didn't want to put in the time to think about my wedding day look. But as I've started to think more about my hair, figured out my shoes, and purchased some jewelry, there's one obvious thing missing...a veil.

I see many birdcage veils that I think look really cool and beautiful like these:

Sara Gabriel "Wendy"

Sara Gabriel "Marilyn"

But for some reason I can't really envision myself in any of them. I don't think I'd be able to pull off anything like that. Then one day while browsing weddingbee, I saw a lovely veil, this one to be exact.

Tessa Kim - Mini Tulle Birdcage Veil

Then I dug a little deeper and found this one...

Tessa Kim - 18 inch tulle veil

But I still don't think those are quite right for me. The first one has what I like to describe as an elegant edginess. And I did like the second one, but the more I looked at it, it keeps reminding me of a tulle helmet.

I kept browsing through her site and I kept stumbling upon one lovely creation after another. And I must add that they are all very affordable, most under $100. That's another reason I love her and her designs.But then I started thinking, do I want to buy a veil and only wear it once and probably for a maximum of 2 hours the entire day. Or maybe find a pretty hair flower that I can wear all day. Decisions. Decisions. Decisions.

I'm still thinking about what I'll do. But here are my top two veil contenders from Tessa Kim:

Tessa Kim - 11 in tulle birdcage veil

Tessa Kim - Elbow length tulle veil

There's an obvious commonality between them all....tulle. I love it because it provides the softness that I think I'm looking for. And it doesn't have a bunch of sparkle which I like and they're simple.

Like many other things, I have a choice to make. And now I'm on the hunt for hair flowers....first stop Tessa Kim!

And the Winner Is...

I posted recently about my shoe situation but I'm happy to announce that I have finally picked a shoe. Here were my original 4 options:

Clockwise from top left - Enzo Angiolini Cristle, Merryann, Sully, Mezzo

Then I went to the mall with my mom and we found all but one, Mezzo. But I wasn't dissappointed because it wasn't one of my super faves anyway. I did end up trying on all three pairs and Sully was the odd shoe out. Even though I thought I wanted a platform, I definitely didn't feel too stable in these babies. They looked lovely on but I almost tripped a couple times just prancing through Nordstrom. So those were a definite no go. I've had a long standing shopping rule which is to never buy something from the first store I stop in (don't ask me why or how I came up with this but I think it has to do with the fact that I'm always holding out for a better deal) so I put the shoes on hold while we continued our search.

And I'm so happy we continued. We ventured to Macy's where we became super excited because the glittery Enzo Merryann that you see in the right above with the gold heel, well we found a pair that had a silver heel (sorry I don't have a pic)...I didn't know these existed! My eyeballs almost popped out of my head when I saw those, it was one of those hallelujah moments. Nevertheless, I bought two pairs of shoes and now I had a choice to make between these two:

Enzo Angiolini Cristle and Merryann

So I proceeded to try them on with my dress and stare blankly at a mirror for a couple minutes in each pair, then with one on each foot. But I still couldn't make a decision. Finally, it was the day of my fitting and I needed to take the pair of shoes with me that I'd be wearing so she could hem the dress properly. So it was down to the wire. I tried on the dress one more time and let my mom be the judge. She chose this pair:

Enzo Angiolini Cristle

Since both pairs are the same height I could've taken either pair and ended up alright, in terms of alterations. But I ended taking the pair that my mom selected and when I showed Mrs. F the shoes her reaction said it all. I had found my shoes...finally! 

Now I just need to take the other pair back before I change my mind again.

The Road to My Dream Dress Starts Here

Source

I have my official first dress fitting tomorrow with my alterations lady . Let's call her Mrs. F. For now let's recap... back in mid February I had my first meeting with Mrs. F. During this meeting I tried on my dress gave her these pictures and we discussed how she works, her experience and what the general cost would be. She's a wonderful woman from London, I think, and she's super nice and open to all my ideas and she was also very realistic. She explained to me the different changes that I was interested in making to the dress in terms of how labor intensive those specific changes could be. Of course, more labor = more $$$. I wasn't expecting the estimate of the cost of the alterations to be as high as it was, but I don't want just anyone touching my dress and I have faith in Mrs. B, even though my mom was giving her the side-eye for a majority of the meeting.

But right after the dress meeting I realized that I wasn't in the physical condition that I wanted to be in for my next fitting let alone my wedding day. I'm going to attribute this situation to massive amounts of pizza eating while in the office. I'm talking it was pizza every week and sometimes twice a week. We were hooked. But I have to take some kind of accountability so I started to workout and we've since quit our random pizza binges. And for the past 4 weeks I've been going pretty hard in the workout department and I've lost about 2 lbs. I know I've probably lost more inches vs. actual weight and I'm fine with that because I'm feeling a little sleeker and I'm liking the results of my efforts.

At this time, I'm feeling pretty good about my appointment tomorrow. I know I still have work to do, but I don't feel like I'll be going there tomorrow in pitiful shape and in 2 months when I go to see Mrs. F again she'll have to take the dress in a lot more because I've done a major body overhaul.

I'll be back Monday to let everyone know how this went.

Did anything unexpected happen at your first dress fitting?

Shoes...Take Two

Ever since I had to give up my perfect Badgley Mischka Hyde's I haven't been able to find a shoe that I think is worthy. But the show must go on and so must my hunt for the perfect wedding day shoe. Enter my current contenders:

Clockwise from top left: All Enzo Angiolini Cristle, Merryann, Mezzo, Sully

I want the shoe to be somewhat comfortable (I mean as comfortable as a pair of heels can be, right?!?). I definitely want them to look elegant but with some kind of wow factor.

And they can't be over 4 inches high (I feel slightly unstable in anything that high) the last thing I need is to take a tumble down the aisle. I would actually prefer if they were around the 3.5-3.75 inch mark. I would like a peep toe and a platform as well.

All of the shoes above pretty much meet all the criteria except for the fit and comfort factor as I have yet to get them in my possession. We'll see if any of these shoes prove to be fit for the day. I plan on finding them in stores and trying them on. I just might have to buy a couple pairs and see which ones work the best with my dress if I find myself in a real shoe selection dilemma.

And yes, I realize they're all Enzo's. I saw one pair and just kept browsing for more of their selection and they were many great options. Plus they're affordable and lovely.

So we shall see what happens...