Shades of Gray

Get your mind out of the gutter! This is not that kind of post.

One of the most fun things about planning a wedding, in my opinion is choosing the color palette. One color that has been front and center for me through most of the planning is gray.

I saw these tables at a bridal show that I attended. At the point, I had only decided to use a deep eggplant color, but then I saw it set against the grey table cloths and I was in love. At the same bridal show, I saw this dress in the fashion show and fell in love. The best thing about it, It has pockets. I love dresses with pockets. Since I insist on thinking of my wedding as a cocktail party, I was originally going to cut them short, but now that we are clearly having a fall wedding, we will keep them long, which will be absolutely lovely.

After seeing a coworkers toes painted gray and loving it, I started to think about the wedding and how grey nails would be perfect. I hit the local beauty supply (for China Glaze) and Whole Foods (for Mineral Fusion) and came home with several shades of gray to try out. The Platinum Silver is a definite no-no. You definitely cannot judge a color by how it looks in the bottle. Right now, the China Glaze Recycle is my favorite. The Elephant Walk shows a little blue and the the Mineral Fusion Slate shows purple sometimes. But, when I return to the shop for my next dress fitting, I will paint each color on a nail and see what they look like against my dress. The winning color will be included in gift set for my bridesmaids.

And of course, I can’t forget the gray sneakers that

Famous Footwear

gifted the attendees of

Blissdom 2012

. I am seriously contemplating buying a new pair of these (in the same gray and pink) and wearing them under my wedding dress. We’ll see how that goes.

What do you think? What colors are striking your fancy this year?

Hair of the Week-braid out

I’m continuing on my love of the

braid-out

. My hair is at a length that just seems to work better with the braid-out that it did previously when doing flat twists. Braids take longer to set and longer to take down in the morning, but the texture and stretch that is achieved makes it worth it.

I can’t seem to get any really good hair shots, but I think this one did turn out pretty well. This was taken at the end of the day and I happy to say I still had good definition and minimum frizz at that point. But even on the good days, I have to set my hair every night by re-braiding it. The picture below is how it looks in the morning after taking down the braids.

I’m trying some new product combinations to increase moisture for the coming winter. This week’s combo is a shea butter/castor oil mix, DevaCurl Angel and ILY leave-in conditioner. I have a review of DevaCurl and ILY coming up soon.

And this is my natural hair tip of the day, week, month…. Since the length of the front of my hair is getting down to my chin and I don’t want to cut bangs, my hair and my glasses are not getting along. To keep my hair from mucking up my glasses, I have started putting small clips in my hair. I’m holding my hair back to show the clip but when my hair is down, the clip disappears below my hair holding the bottom layer to the side and away from my lenses. This little tip has save me a lot of frustration. Even if you don’t wear glasses, this is a good method for keeping your hair away from your skin when exercising or engaging in activities that would make you sweat. When I took this picture, I had just come in from walking around the neighborhood.

Pins and Needles

I had my first dress fitting today. Unfortunately, it was hard to enjoy it because I had a migraine but I made it through it. My seamstress, Mina, was very nice and understanding. Everything went more smoothly than I expected. Because my dresses are the perfect length and didn’t need any hemming, my alterations are very reasonable in cost.

I wasn’t very prepared for this appointment. I went in to the local David’s Bridal yesterday to inquire about alterations and they offered me an appointment for today. I wanted to share with you the few things I picked up to make an alteration appointment go smoothly.

1. Have your undergarments purchased and with you. Since I was expecting to have a couple of weeks before the first appointment, I had not yet ordered mine, but David’s will let you borrow units for the appointment. Now that I have a pickup date, I have a defined deadline for getting these on order.
2. Bring the jewelry and accessories you plan to wear that day. I have two custom sets made for me by Jill Zaleski. I was able to try them both on with my dresses to determine what to wear when and decide if any changes need to be made. This also goes for veils and shoes.
3. Style your hair as close as possible to what you will do on the wedding day. I will be doing a pin-up style for the wedding so when I go back for the second fitting, I will have an up-do.
4. Take someone with you. It helps to have an extra pair of hands to help dress you and to take pictures. And in my case, I was not feeling well and it would have helped so much to have someone to drive. Having my Mommie Dearest in tow would have been delightful. She hasn’t gotten to see me in my dress yet, outside of pictures and I don’t think I’ll be able to handle her tears on the wedding day.

No tips outside of what most wedding sites will tell you, but I have tired of the wedding sites and hope to provide a little info for those of you that feel the same way.