Fancy Find #10 Etsy Seller- Galit Barak

So,I am not the only one that gets the daily Etsy email featuring various sellers so this may not be a "find" for you but of today's featured sellers definitely stopped me in my tracks, Galit Barak.

I love this ring! Of course, it says it is sold out but I still love it and thought it would make a great bridesmaid gift or even day of jewelry!


Here are some other things from her Etsy store that I love...




The above pieces are all from the "Bridal Collection". I didn't even realize!


UPDATE:
I just did some searching and found out a little about this craft designer from her blog!
Here's how she describes her jewelry style (take note, she does do custom orders):
"For me each jewelry is a creation stands for it self, I combine colors, shapes and textures while choosing high quality materials.
All my jewelry is made with sterling silver 925 or 14 karat gold filled, semi-precious stones and pearls.
I'm happy to make custom orders, according to your ideas, or joint thinking, for a special event, as a gift, or just because it is time to treat yourself with something new."

Two dresses? Two looks?

OK, so the two-dress trend is definitely one of the latest and greatest. I love the idea in concept. I mean, giant wedding dresses are definitely not always conducive to cutting a rug all night long. And sometimes the same dress doesn't look right in a church and then in a sleek reception setting.

The post idea came ffter reading an article in the Argus Times (it came across the wedding news ticker), in the article Mark Ingram was quoted saying he saw the trend emerge about 2 years ago and has continued on.

Here's one celeb that made the dramatic change: Christina Aguilera
Dress 1 elegant, form fitting with a heck of a train by Christian LaCroix


Dress 2 Sexy number, definitely a party dress made for dancing and showing the Xtina personality. This one was designed by her stylist Simone Harouche.

Designers are now catering to this trend as well. Go to Priscilla of Boston's website and there is a whole section of "Reception" dresses!
You could go from one of their over the top Platinum collections like this

Or maybe you have a garden wedding and you are looking for something romantic like this from the Vineyard collection?

But then you want to let loose from the tulle or drop the romance and get sexy so you throw on one of these numbers and you are ready to partay (all shown from POB)

Conceptually I LOVE this idea but for a couple of reasons I cannot fathom doing this.
1. My dress was expensive. Maybe not for everyone but for me, its definitely the most expensive thing I have ever worn. How could only wear it for the 1 hour ceremony plus some pics? Seems ridiculous (unless you are the above mentioned Xtina and the wedding dress is just another expensive thing you will don). I mean I justify buying $200 jeans by tellinng myself I will wear them again and again and again. How could I purchase something for thousands of dollars to wear for an hour?

2. I love my dress. I really love it. I want to wear it for as long as possible.
Besides, I didn't go too over the top and I moved around a lot when I tried it on to make sure it was danceable.

However, when I started planning my day, I did want to add some sort of costume change in there. The ceremony is during the day at a traditional Catholic church by the beach. The reception is in the evening in a formal setting, The Woodlands mansion. Wouldn't it be the perfect wedding for a dress change? I think so, but again, not really in the cards.

So here's my plan-
For the church I am going to do pearl studs, pearl strand necklace, veil. Not exactly like this - well not really at all but you get the idea, classic bride wearing classic pearls.
(pic from BridalfashonMall)
Then, once I am ready to get to the evening reception and want to sport a more nighttime look, my plan is to get a pair of "wow" chandelier earrings and go drop both the necklace and the veil. I'll also have in a hair "spray" that I got from here.

What's your thoughts on the dress change phenom? Do you plan to do anything to differentiate the ceremony and reception? NOT that you HAVE to, you spend months figuring out what to wear to one!

I'm Back! Custom Veil Shop

Hey Ladies!!! I am back and back to a semi-normal work schedule where I can blog a bit and more importantly read some blogs!

I got a lot done in a short period of time but there's still a lot to do, I cannot believe I only have 172 days left. Whoa, once you take out the holidays, it will really be here tomorrow.

Let me tell you about the great veil experience I had! I should start by telling you that when I found my dress the sales woman gave me the perfect simple veil to try on. I loved it, just two pieces of tulle, not very puffy and a simple ribbon edge. As I was signing my bill I thought, wait, this does not add up. Oh, because she threw in the $450 piece of tulle. "My dear, this is a very good price for Manhattan", which made me think to myself "listen skinny little NYC socialite wedding fashion authority, then I will look someplace else!" (I say this with the disclaimer that I love and adore her, I just wasn't about to pay $450 for tulle that you can buy at Michael's)

Enter my mom who works in the garment district in NYC. There are fabric and trim stores everywhere. She works close to the famous Mood from Project Runway. My mom started looking around on her lunch breaks and stumbled upon Sposabella Lace. She told them I was looking for a fingertip length two layer diamond white veil with a simple trim. No problem! So I told my mom just to go ahead and order it and they told her that I had to come in, "your fingertip and her fingertip will not be the same length" duh, we didn't think of that!

So, when I had about 2 hours free in NYC last week we went in.
Here's the front of the store, nothing special, just a small fabric store. Its got some really bad flourescent lighting but you are paying a quarter of the price while getting it made specifically for you so you get over it.


I turned the corner and there were two rows of veils.

Its not overwhelming at all, just the perfect amount. See, there really are just a couple of basic styles and you work from there. You pick your length or general style (I wanted simple tulle) then started adding trim, picking the amount of "poofiness" by how much it is gathered, adding layers and the way it falls. The sales girl was great, I, of course, forgot her name but I didn't get the impression that there were too many people that work there.

I went with a simple double ribbon edge, which shockingly is the one I do not have pictures of! But, here's all of the trim you can look at! You can even bring in samples of your dress if there is lace and I can gaurantee that you will find a match.





In the end I went with a simple, two layer, simple gather (middle amount of "poofy", the technical term they used and wrote on my order form) with a double edge satin. It is like two thin rows of trim and just adds something to it. It is fingertip and diamond white. It is almost identical to the $450 one from Saks, instead it has a little extra with the edging. You know what I paid for it...$95!!! Hooray!!

Now, I haven't picked it up yet so I don't want to give them the ultimate glowing review but so far definitely so good, choices were vast, price was right and service was really friendly. I have to be back in NYC for work in a couple of weeks and will pick it up then. I imagine you can get it in about a week and you can have it shipped to you.

Here's the address and contact information for you NYC brides:

Tel: 212-354-4729
Fax: 212-391-4208
Email: Sposabellalace@aol.com
252 West 40th Street, New York, N.Y. 10018


Oh, one more thing before I forget. As tried on the different styles we (me and sales assoc.)would look at my mom for an opinion. She gave subtle opinions but nothing overwheming, the perfect amount of guidance a girl would want. The sales woman was so amazed by this and kept telling me I had a great mom. As if I didn't know that!:) :) And funny enough there was a girl in the store getting a lace and satin dress custom made (you can do that too!) and the mother was being SOOO pushy they were both almost in tears. I could not imagine!!! So yes, I know, I have a great mom!!!

More to come, I did get a beautiful hair piece, tried on my dress (no pics of that) and my mom got her dress! For now, I have work to catch up on but glad to be back!

Fancy Find #8 - For the Princesses

My undeniably cutest flower girls in all the land are the twin daughters of my cousin, who also happens to be a bridesmaid. She's got fantastic taste so I am just going to let her figure out what the girls should wear. The great thing is, we'll be right after Easter so there will be tons of little girls dresses available. We checked last year in March or so and there were tons of options. they are twin 3 year olds, I could put them in seagull outfits and they would be the stars of the show!

But, just because I need a break from the craziness that is my job right now, I did some online searching and found these beautiful dresses from Malley & Co.

The downside is you have to buy them at a boutique and I can't tell what the prices are. But, at least I know there are really adorable styles out there.

I think these two are my favorite:

especially since I could get them with a blue ribbon.

But I really love these ones also:



To see a list of boutiques where you can purchase them, click here:

Where are you getting your flower girl dresses from?

The rehearsal dress that will never be...

So, I am completely in love with this dress from J. Crew. I think it would be absolutely perfect for the rehearsal dinner. The problem - it is on sale. Whaaaaaa? how is that a problem, you ask? Well, it is still $199 (a bargain since the starting price was $395) but because it is on sale and on clearance, there are no returns or exchanges! I actually thought about buying the same dress in the new not on sale version (it is in a floral print that I don't really care for), ordering two of those in different sizes, review the neckline to make sure the cleavage was not inappropriate - return the dresses, and if I love them, buy this on sale one. Crazy? Um, yeah. When I thought about it, the chances of this dress still being available in my size and the shipping costs and well, the effort, were a little much for a simple dress. It's not that I am hunting for a rehearsal dress right now either, I just saw this dress and fell in love with it and tried to come up with a place to wear it! Maybe I will check out their outlet and see if it shows up there. If you kept up with that little rant for nothing, thank you, I just had to tell someone my love for a dress I will never have :)