For my lovely maidens!

<*So the point of this post is mostly eye candy.... lots of pretty things that I would love to see become (or already are) part of my wedding!*>

There is going to be a total of 4 people in our wedding party: two for my side and two for Alex's side (minus the ring bearer and flower girl). While Alex may or may not have chosen who he'd like to stand with him, I have had the two people I'd like in my mind for quite some time.

The first being my maid of honor and best friend since 4th grade: Heather! She may not always be everybody's favorite person and I've even been asked what I see in her at times. We've been unlikely friends for forever though and we understand each other completely. I love her dearly and she is like a sister to me. The only issue we have right now is distance: I live in Missouri and she lives in Alaska.

Secondly, my other bridesmaid is my dear friend Jessica. While I've only come to know her over the last three years, she has been a better friend to me than some people I've known and considered my friends my whole life. She lives about 20 minutes away from me and has been a life saver for all this wedding business! Her oldest daughter, Samantha (who is 3 weeks younger than Landon) is going to be our flowergirl. (Below: Landon and Samantha 12 and 11 months old.) She is quite a doll and has recently become a big sister to Abigail, Jessica's second daughter. She and Landon together walking down the aisle on our wedding day will be an adorable sight! I can't wait!!

That being said, I've already gone ahead and picked out a bridesmaid's dress style and the flower girl dress. I wanted to incorporate both colors into the dress, so I went with sashes for both. I spoke to both of my girls, and they collectively decided they'd like to wear strapless. To be quite honest, I didn't mind what style of dress they wanted to wear, so long as it had our colors in it. Jess and Heather will be in brown dresses with a pink sash while Sammie will be in a pink dress wearing a brown sash. Beyond the dress, I really do not have anything set in cement for them. They will be carrying parasol's instead of bouquets, but as far as jewelry and shoes go, we are all still talking and deciding!

I have briefly been browsing through possibilities for shoes and the like, and came up with a few options. Nothing is going to be final for quite some time. Since the girls' dresses are knee length, they can pull off flats OR heels. Heather, being just shy of 5' tall, I'm sure will want some lovely pumps. While Jessica, being a mother as I am, will probably be more willing to sport a stunning pair of flats while she chases around her girls. Whichever they choose, my main concern is that everybody is comfortable and happy. The LAST thing I want is for people to feel pressured into doing something or wearing things they hate.

I was thinking about bridesmaid's gifts as well, and thought to myself, "Self, maybe since you can't decide on what to get your girls, you could buy their jewelry for them." "What a wonderful idea, self!! Where ever did I get a brain like yours??"
On that note, I started looking into bracelets mostly. I will be looking through several other options but above is a bunch of one's I've found on etsy.com (amazing website by the way!! Not always the cheapest stuff, but there are MANY things on this site that have reasonable prices and are absolutely goooooorgeous!) I like the pink ones more for Sammie, and the darker ones for Heather and Jessica.

Here is a picture of the flower girl basket and petals for Sammie. Ignore the aluminum foil box in the background please.

She will be the life of the wedding when she and Landon head down the aisle together spreading these beautiful cherry blossom petals.

This is Landon's ring bearer pillow with Alex's ring on it:
















This is the gorgeous parasol the other two will be carrying instead of the traditional bouquet. We thought it gave the ceremony a more asian-inspired theme like Alex and I wanted, as well as interlocking the cherry blossom theme with the design. It will also save us around $20! Yummy!!!



Isn't it to die for??? Another few simple, inexpensive ways to make this a cheap and chic wedding!