I just have to say - I LOVE MY LASHES!!! :) I have been wanting to try lash extensions for a while and yesterday I had a full set of Xtreme Lashes put on my Mitzi Hale of Bella Luxe in Arlington, VA. I honestly could not be happier - I don't even feel them on, and you can't beat waking up with great lashes to start the day.

Please excuse the self portraits with no make up. But that's actually the main reason I wanted extensions - I work from home, so I'm pretty much make up free all week long and I wanted to feel a bit more girly & glam without having to put make up on just to hang out with the cat :)

ESE's lovely parasols inspired me to post about my Parasol vendor as she was amazing. I knew I wanted to have a "Just Married" parasol to use for pics immediately after the ceremony. I had thought about doing this as a DIY project and I even purchased a blank parasol ($7 each from I Do Originals) to use, but I kept hearing it's pretty difficult to paint on a parasol so I decided to let a pro take the reigns on this project.

I found the perfect person for the job - Heather from Certainly Chic Designs. Heather offered very reasonable prices to paint the parasols and in speaking with her I discovered that she lives 2 blocks from me - How perfect! As I already had the parasol, I dropped it off at her house and picked it up a week later looking like this:

So I bought each girl a hot pink parasol from asianideas.com. I also bought the flower girls parasols as well. I figured it would be even more fun for them to use these after the wedding because they’ll use it when they play dress up!

Plus I just heart the wedding photos with parasols…it just gives those photos that extra POP of color!

Well I just got the latest Martha Stewart Weddings magazine and in it they had the cutest idea of adding a crepe paper flower to the parasol. I went to the website, downloaded the template, got my chocolate brown crepe paper from AC Moore and went to work.

I found that it was easier to work with the crepe paper and circling it around the knob of the parasol when it the actual flower was smaller.

I secured the flower with a brown hair elastic and fluffed the top of the crepe paper around the elastic.

I really love how it came out!

Just a reminder ladies that a Chatty Bride's Get Together will be held next Wednesday, May 6th at 7 PM.

It will be at the 3 Restaurant in Franklin, MA. Here is the link to the webiste for directions, etc:

http://www.3-restaurant.com/

Hopefully we get a great turn out! Let me know if you can come in the comments below!

I love the anticipation of going for my fittings because I never know what awaits me….what will be added to my gown this time?!!?

Last time you may remember only the French silk was added to the bodice but this time, Holy smokes was a lot added!!!

The French silk was added to the gown of the dress and the lace overlay was added to the bodice along with the half moon of French silk rouching at the bust area!!! It really is starting to feel real with each fitting I go to!!! Not sure what will be added next time I go!!!

Our Rehearsal Dinner has a completely different feel than our actual wedding - We're going for a strong Red & Gold color scheme.

The Dinner itself will take place at Maggiano's in Park Square. This wasn't my first choice in venues, but my FIL's picked it and I let it go. Now that I've seen the rooms we will have and have gotten my decor inspirations together, I'm actually very excited to have the RD there. We will have one room for cocktails & hors d'oeuvres and then our guests will head into a second private room for dinner. And who doesn't love family style italian? :)

We will have two types of centerpieces in the dinner room. The first will be a large centerpiece of red roses (and perhaps a few other red flowers mixed in). I love the look of lighter red and darker red roses mixed in together. Here is the inspiration pic for the floral centerpieces:

OK, so although I love shopping for wedding items. I am not the same for clothing. LOL. I've just never been a shopper! Anyway my first shower is in 2 weeks and I needed an outfit. So I asked my Fashionista Diva friend to take me shopping. Well, here is the final result.

Yesterday was my best friend's bridal shower. I am the maid of honor so I feel like I've been thinking about this shower for ever! I'm so glad it finally happened and everything went well. I was really lucky because the bride's mom hosted the shower in her beautiful backyard (and we had an 80 degree day in April!). She did a ton of the work involved and her bridesmaids were SO creative about decorations, appetizers and even creative games. I had to include a picture of the gorgeous flower arrangements and adorable favors (the cute little purses with chocolate in them). These were BOTH done by the amazing future sister in the law. I've seen so many weddings where the sister is law is pretty uninvolved and this girl is in college, so she has even more reason to stay in the background. But not this amazing future sister in law! She has spent months making all these favors herself. She is amazing!
Now I really want to make my best friend a picture frame with the invitation from the party and the picture of all of the bridesmaids. I just have to do some research because the invitation is a weird size for a picture frame. I'll post a picture if I ever figure out how to do it :)

As part of our Wedding Gift, Summer Groom's Mom graciously offered the services of a close friend, Leanne Savaro of Quaint Correspondences for our wedding invitations. Working with Leanne was an absolute BLAST! She loved my ideas and helped me in every way to have the invitation of my dreams! Her custom creation, mixed with bits and pieces of things I had found on the web, came out perfect. I HIGHLY recommend her to anyone looking for paper products of any kind! www.quaintcorrespondences.net

We scheduled cake tastings with 3 bakers in Rhode Island one day and 2 bakers in Massachusetts the next. Here's a tip - do not schedule more than 2 tastings at a time. I felt like throwing up at the end of the day, and I love sweets!

Below are the bakers we had cake tastings with:
Corby Cakes and Cookies
Diane's Delectables
Konditor Meister
Montilio's Bakery
Sin Desserts

We went with Konditor Meister. Their prices are very competitive and all the cakes we tasted were moist and delicious! We chose Chocolate Mousse and Strawberry Grand Marnier.

Below is the design we wanted. We are using buttercream frosting to save money.



Below is the order of bakers based on how much we love their cakes (best first):
Montilio's Bakery
Konditor Meister
Corby Cakes and Cookies
Diane's Delectables
Sin Desserts

Below is the order of bakers based on their prices for the cake we wanted (lowest first):
Diane's Delectables
Konditor Meister
Corby Cakes and Cookies
Montilio's Bakery
*Unfortunately, I informed Sin Desserts that we found our baker before we even got a price quote from them. I'm sorry.

For a detailed review on each baker including prices, click here.