It’s officially wedding season. Or, in my case, ENGAGEMENT season, since I’ve heard about/toasted to 6 newly engaged couples in the past two weeks or so (!!!) and probably another 6 couples over the past few months! Such an exciting time! AND (not to make it all about me), just found out that I will be the maid of honor (refuse to use the term “matron of honor” — sounds so old and ogrely) in my bestie’s wedding and am dying with excitement (!!!) I’ve clearly already begun to make some preliminary plans for all of the awesome parties I’m going to be throwing in her honor over the next year or so, and have also already bought her a truckload of engagement prezzies, including a Smythson wedding planner with her NEW initials engraved on it.
She informed me that she’s already stocked up on Le Pens ($1.69 apiece, Marvy) and some organizational folders/dossiers ($18, SeeJaneWork), like a good little bride:
The pens will come in handy for all of the THANKYOUNOTE writing she will be doing, and — to further assist her in the enormous task of wedding-related letter-writing — I found her the most ADORABLE note cards in the universe from TheLittleBlackShop:
When I reached out to place the order, I got to “e-meet” the creative genius behind the line, who turns out to be just the loveliest of people as well as the UBER-talented founder/head designer of a event planning / design firm, LittleBlackPress. (She also lives in Boston, MA, my current dream city, as noted in Friday’s post…). She has generously offered one lucky reader a set of personalized cards from her shop! What what! To enter, all you need to do is leave a message on this post telling me about the best piece of mail you’ve ever received — acceptance letter to college? love note? $5,000 refund? Pair of Louboutins? What was it?! Please also check out TheLittleBlackShop’s Facebook page (lots of interesting ideas for the brides-to-be!) and her uh-may-zing bloglet to swoon over her event-planning capabilities. Enter to win by Thursday, 5/19 — I’ll announce a winner on Friday, 5/20! Also, died over her “Pregnant in Heels” cards given my unhealthy obsession with the new Bravo series of the same name. (Ridiculous and also addictive.)
Need to order now?! The sweet proprieter has offered 20% off all purchases from her Etsy storefront with coupon code FASHION, from now through June 30! WOOO! Love is in.the.air.
But down to the nuts and bolts of wedding/engagement season: what to wear to all of the festive wedding-related occasions so many of us have on our social agendas over the next few weeks? I can’t tell you how many emails I’ve received about wedding-related wardrobe decisions, i.e. what shoes to wear with a bridesmaid dress, where to go for cute wedding presents, etc. So here goes: a few styling ideas to leave us stylish throughout the season!
My first instincts for wedding attendant fare? A bright sorbet-colored dress (mango — Tibi, $155, TheOutnet; strawberry — $305, Zimmerman; or raspberry — $345, RebeccaTaylor) —
I like the idea of complementing with some dazzling, high-def turquoise statement jewelry — how about this go-geous necklace by Loren Hope ($175, LorenHopeDesigns — incidentally, bought my mother’s “mother of the bride” thank you gift from her — the “Belize Cluster” necklace, and she loved it):
Perfect with a chic clutch (love this beaded style — Chloe, $1,650, MyTheresa) and some eye-catching gold sandals (OMG, obsessed with the entire Rupert Sanderson collection! — $795, Rupert Sanderson):
If you shy away from bold colors, this soft gray dress (on sale for $229, Calypso) is lovely, and I d.i.e. over the soft “epaulette” inspired accents on the shoulders.
I kind of like it with some dramatic sparkling danglers ($270, Dannijo) and some jaw-dropping shoes (a girl can dream, can’t she?! — one concern about these: they may upstage the bride…$3,295, Net-A-Porter):
With a monochomatic look of this sort, a little POP in the form of a funky clutch is in order — still head.over.heels for these be-petaled Sondra Roberts clutches, which come in a range of colors ($105, SondraRoberts):
The above dress is also available in a classy navy hue that would look killah with some emerald-inspired earrings ($280, Mariam Haskell)
I’d finish with a show-stopping cuff (Alexandra McQueen, $670, TheOutnet) and some glittering pumps (Kate Spade, $325, Jildor) —
For the pastel-lovers, how to die is this elegantly-draped mint dress ($368, Alice & Olivia), especially offset by coral earrings ($320, Bounkit):
I’d finish with a pearl-accented bracelet ($480, Mariam Haskell) and one of the amazing Amanda Pearl roll clutches ($1,395, AmandaPearl):
More wedding attire posts to come soon — but for now, I’m off!
Those notecards are toooo cute!! I may have to order some anyway, ASAP 🙂 My best piece of mail wasn’t actually addressed to me, but was FOR me — my engagement ring! It was my grandmother’s and a family member had been resizing it for my fiancé. I’d had a long day at school and got home around 7:30 and was starting to finish up our dinner when my fiancé walked into the kitchen and said, “Look what came in the mail today.” 🙂
By far the best piece of mail I’ve ever actually gotten was from my best friend. We had gone to middle and high school together. We even ended up at the same college. One summer, six weeks in Toronto was so lonely she took a bus from DC to spend time with me. I decided to go to grad school in Washington state. I knew I’d be home to see her and that we’d stay in touch but it was so hard to leave everything I knew. We had maintained concurrent scrapbooks for years but the pressures of graduating meant that we hadn’t done much work on it recently. When I moved into my new apartment in Seattle, sitting in the mailbox was a little scrapbook of our last year- she had overnighted it to make sure it was there when I was. I didn’t have to unpack anything to feel a bit more at home- she was right there with me. It meant so much to me. The time, the effort and the love poured from every page. It still sits on my desk and we still talk all the time.
The best piece of mail I ever received was an emotional love note I wrote an ex-boyfriend that got ‘returned to sender’.. One of those ‘YES! He never read it! I probably didn’t mean it- it was the bottle of wine talking!’ moments 🙂
My acceptance letter to law school was the best piece of mail I’ve ever received!
My favorite piece of mail has always been my mother’s care packages. I ventured 1,200 miles away from Minnesota to U.Va. Being the oldest of only two, my mother was a bit heartbroken that I would no longer be nearby. She started sending themed care packages my first year of undergrad every two to three weeks. She maintained this tradition, although less frequently, even through law school in Connecticut. Her packages have always had a bit of the practical – homemade cookies, cereal, Target gift cards, new pens for class – and a bit of the whimsy/fun – hair accessories, colorful , and local MN finds. These packages always arrived on my doorstep when I needed them most, during finals or holidays when I could not be home. These packages always brought a touch of home regardless of where I have lived or how old I have gotten.
My favorite piece of mail was my letter of acceptance to college. I had previously received a negative response to transferring from my junior college. I decided to drive up and plead my case, and met with the dean and the head of the English department. A few weeks later I was accepted!
Would you wear anything around the waist of the gray dress. Online they show it with a belt, if so what suggestions would you have?
**BTW, Caren and Dan say helloooo, I saw them briefly yesterday afternoon.
Hm — I could go either away. I would add one if the fit wasn’t perfect, i.e. if I wanted to cinch the waist a bit more. It would be really pretty with a simple navy or darker gray sash, or even something with a little sparkle. Thanks for passing on my well wishes to them! xoxo
Mail was a really valuable commodity to me during Peace Corps and while I cherished everything people sent me from packages to birthday cards, to letters from my boyfriend, one card probably had the most impact. My best friend from Virginia Tech sent me a card my first April in Romania for the one year anniversary of the shooting. The card just said “for a rainy day” on the front and on the inside it was covered in suns and said “sending you sunshine” along with a note from her saying that there was no one she would rather be with on this day than me. Being away from family and friends- with no other American for hours- was hard for a lot of reasons, especially feeling like no one understood where you were coming from. For the anniversary of something so tragic that happened at a place we called home, it was even harder to have no one who understood or even knew what had happened. Her card reminded me of all the people at home that were with me with their thoughts and prayers and made that day a little easier.
Great post 🙂
Love the note cards by LittleBlackPress! My favourite piece of mail is from my soon-to-be husband. We were old college friends, so I wrote to him while he was doing a year-long military training course at Sandhurst (the British equivalent of West Point). I still have all his replies–and I particularly treasure his first letter back to me. We eventually ended up being pen pals for about two years before we started dating–from the UK to Washington DC, where I was doing an MA. Even though we now live a few hours away from each other, and are planning our wedding, we still write! Thanks for the wedding related post!
What a beautiful story! Love that. Pen pals then fiances. 🙂 Thanks for reading, Gaby!