How to wear it?

When we got married at the courthouse I had my godsister do my hair. She created many loose curls in it and I just clipped my Hawaiian Plumeria flower on the left side as it means you are taken. It was a way for me to honor his mom.

I like it, it was simple and worked great with our civil, unplanned wedding and having no veil.
So that made me think, why not work it out the same way for the wedding and have the girls do my hair? It seems like a good idea and helps to stay within budget.

I still can't decide what hairstyle I want for our family wedding. The strapless gown calls for an updo that would beautify the cut.
The season calls for something that covers the shoulders a bit.
My personal taste tells me I don't want my hair in my face.

If the loose curls worked well for our wedding I did have some issues with it though. The first being that my hair is so thin and straight that it does not hold any haircut unless you put a gazzillion pins in it, by the evening most of the curls were gone. The second part was that I had hair in my face.

Now I've veen looking around at possible options. I do not want something too formal. Some loose hair here and there would have my preference, and because of the veil and the "no hair in the face" I need it attached somewhere.
So here are some of the styles I liked on theknot.com, the only part is: if I go for any of those styles: I'll need a hairdresser.
My hair is now below my shoulders, almost at armpit level.

The half up-do:
The few curls make it romantic, it's loose enough not to look strict. We could probably pull off this one on our own.

http://weddings.theknot.com/ODB/themes/realweddings/View.aspx?type=1&id=24420

An other half up-do
Again very loose so that it doesn't look too formal.

http://weddings.theknot.com/ODB/themes/realweddings/View.aspx?type=1&id=13626

Curlz
This is the one I probably dreamed about as soon as I started thinking of weddings. Those curls are just gorgeous, feminine, defined and yet a bit loose. I love the few strands of hair going down too.
But how long would it take to do this? And would it hold?

http://weddings.theknot.com/ODB/themes/realweddings/View.aspx?type=1&id=14038

The informal updo
It has a touch of simplicity to it, and yet it's sophisticated and beautiful. I do not have a brooch to put in my hair though. The bride described her hair to be just like mine so it's duable.

http://weddings.theknot.com/ODB/themes/realweddings/View.aspx?type=1&id=20023

Original bun:
I love the way the hair is attached in the back. It's very unique and can probably handle not to have flowers at all. I would definitely need a hairdresser to make sure it holds throughout the day. It fits our outdoor wedding too.

http://weddings.theknot.com/ODB/themes/realweddings/View.aspx?type=1&id=20805


How are you going to wear your hair. Did you choose the style for it's look or for the practicality?

I'll have it cutstom, please (part 2)

I left you at the moment when I opened the door of Blue. It was a Saturday morning and the store was calm. I could here some sounds upstairs but no one came to greet me, so I silently moved aroudn and used the opportunity to look around without being questioned by the sales assistant.
After a few minutes, someone came down. He presented himself as the assistant of the jewlers and took time to show me what they had and answered most of my questions.
I tried a few beautiful rings, some thin, some larger.

Here is a sample of their work, all copyright to Blue.

As you can see there is definitely creativity involved.

At that point I knew I wanted texture, so I was attracted by the brushed rings, the hammered silver bands and the engraved ones. The assistant told me that it could be difficult to do a thin hammered ring, so I took that option out of my mind. It didn't matter because my eyes go caught on this:
A diamond engraved band. I didn't want a diamond though, but thankfully the assistant had a few simple band with the hand engraving to show me. I tried it and well loved it. I liked the yellow tones of gold and the contrast it made with my ring. However my husband's opinion was also important, and this ring was twice what I was thinking to put in my wedding band given our budget so I decided to come back with him.

The second visit was a fiasco. We were on our way out of town, I was expecting a wedding shoes delivery from UPS and stalking my phone to hear from them and knowing I was stressed, my husband didn't say a word when all I wanted was to hear his opinion. All he said was that white gold matched my engagement ring better.
But after I calmed down we talked in the car and though more about our options. I did still want a mix of golds so when he came up with the idea on his own I couldn't help myself from dreaming about a 3 level ring, with an engraved center.
We came back the next week and takled with the actual jewler.
It was quickly obvious that my idea was not feasable for them.
The engraving would dissapear when they would "melt/attach" the 3 sections together, not to mention that that technique is super expensive.

I was ready to just settle for my pretty engraved ring in white gold, but I played with the rings on my fingers a little more and we decided that a white gold and an engraved yellow gold ring looked pretty together as the yellow gold was framed between the e-ring and the other one. I loved it. There was the option to get the middle one engraved and instead of getting them together like one ring, the jewler could do a two point attach in the back. There would still be a little space in between but they wouldn't move. Since the e-ring would be separated from the rest anyway I wasn't bothered.

However, again the budget price put a halt on things: it would be a thousand dollar. Ouch! But I loved that idea so much.
So what we decided was to get the engraved ring now as a wedding band and that later on we would add a white gold band and attach it. That girl loves the idea. The hubby said "Thanks!" pretending to be trapped in a "buy me later gift".

I decided on the green gold verstion (it has more silver and zinc than copper added to the gold), it looks more like the medieval gold and I love it. What I love too is that this is all recycled gold and my little eco-friendly mind sure is happy with it.

Here is what it looked like with a way too big for my hands ring:

On the way to the car I told Hubby: "We could have this second ring for a special occasion, like having kids.." I paused and then said "Do you want to have kids now?" Yeah, I'm a girl and I can't wait to have my rign.

How was your wedding ring shopping process? Did you already plan to have an anniversary ring?

I'll have it custom, please (Part 1)

I didn't have much of a saying in the choice of the engagement ring. I remember once talking with him about it, way before we seriously thought about getting married. At the time it was my opinion that it should be a diamond ring. Time went by and I became more open to other options, I think I would have loved a ruby or a sapphire ring. Ruby is my birthstone and I just love sapphires.
But when he went down on one knee, it was with a white gold, princess cut diamond ring and I couldn't have cared less what it was made of, I loved it for what it meant.

We decided not to exchange rings for our civil ceremony. We wanted to keep some of the meaningful moments of a wedding to share with our families on our big family wedding day. So I didn't even bother thinking about what I wanted until a few months ago.

At first I though about a simple gold band just like my parents and my grandparents had (source):

And yes I wanted yellow gold because I like the contrast between white and yellow, also to me it represents two different people uniting their lives to each other.
The simple gold band was also great for our small budget wedding. But of course I couldn't settle on it.

The more I thought about it, the less I felt satisfied with the plain band. Yes I could not find something else. Most chain jewelery only have either plain bands or diamond bands, nothing in between.
I knew I wanted gold, but I also realized that I wanted texture like a mix of brushed and shiny gold. They did not have that.
So I went and searched online.
There was one ring I kind of liked: a 14k Two tones ring, 3.5mm wide. It was a little bit over $200 and came from www.weddingbands.com Link.

But I still was not entirely satisfied. So I went around town to check out jewlers who make their own rings.
First I went to Jewels That Dance, it looked quite posh. The sales person even asked me if I was here on vacation and I was like "No, I'm local". It made me feel like it was there only for tourists and that they didn't feel like the local people could afford their work. Indeed I could not. But the attitude really threw me off. And while there were a few pretty rings, there wasn't anything I really wanted to try either.

The only other place in Asheville that I knew to make custom jewelry was Blue, in Biltmore village. Many times I came by their door but was too late to get a sneak pick of their work. Finally, one saturday while my hubby was at work, I pushed the door open.

...to be continued

Have fun with the Rules at Kelly's Closet

Hubby, no peaking! If you're smart you won't look down and spoil the surprise!

Moving in to the US to be with my husband has motivated me to blog, at first to keep my family in the loop and then just to share my experience as an expat with others. Therefore I started searching other French expat's blog in the US. It's thanks to that, that I found out about Kelly's closet. A fellow expat (Froggie) found her dress there and recommended the store.
So I went online and looked it up.
I fell in love with their way of thinking. Want to know why? Well read the rules posted on the website:

Source

Play dress up? That's exactly what I've been wanting to do. Be positive about yourself, don't say you're fat? How come those rules are not posted in every woman store already? It's just a dress and the partner is more important? Agreed.
This all philosophy that is advertised for from the start made me smile and feel so excited about going to the store. I didn't know if I would find my dress there but I knew that I wanted to.
My fellow expat had found a dress for $500 and told me that while they do have expensive things they also have options for smaller budget and that you are not looked upon for not buying the pricey items.

Just in case though, when I called to make the appointment, I mentionned the price range I was looking for. The woman on the phone told me it would not be a problem that they had items in that price range.
Already in good spirits from a better shopping experience at David's Bridal I was so excited to go to Kelly's Closet. It's located in Little Five Points in Atlanta and the area could not be cuter and more fitted to the store.
The windows and doors are painted a light yellow, the store is bright from natural sunlight and screams happiness. Just looking at the windows from outside I knew I was going to have fun just by looking at the dresses there. The store has two parts: one with street clothes and the other is the bridal shop where you can only go with an appointment.
They never take more than three brides at a time and while it's not a big room you never feel crowded, there are two sofas for the bride's crew, tasty decoration and the dresses are well organized on the walls.

My assistant, Kristen, quickly welcomed me and told me that I was allowed to try any dress I wanted. I could try every single dress in the shop if I wanted, it wouldn't be a problem. No dress limit like every other place I had been to. I explained again my budget limit, she was honest with me and told me most of their dresses were in the higher ends, as high as $7000. However they had some dresses under $500 and while I looked around she would bring them in the dressing room for me. She also told me that I was welcomed to try the expensive dresses too, as long as I made sure not to fall in love with the ones I knew I couldn't buy.
While she want looking for budget dresses my SIL Kalisa joined us, the fun could begin.

I knew right away the first one I wanted to try. I was out of budget, but there was no way I could resist it, it had caught my eye and my SMIL as well: a Suzanne Ermann dress.
While you technically can not take pictures in the shop, our sales assistant closed her eyes when I explained that my Mom was in France and that I wanted to share the experience with her. We didn't get all the dresses on camera though.
An other thing I loved with my sales assistant: Kristen came in the dressing room with me, and while some brides might feel uncomfortable with it, I was oh so happy to have someone helping me put every gown on.

I loved that dress. It was so much fun to be in it, I felt very unique and absolutely adored the bottom of the dress. I was not 100% in love with the top though and it was out of budget anyway. But oh so fun.

Dress: Suzanne Ermann

This one was very greek goddess like, but it had one slight problem: from the side I looked like I was pregnant. Err no thank you, not yet. I think it might be a Nicole Miller but I'm not certain.


Now I have to tell you the story of how I found The dress. You see, Kristen brought in a few dresses from the other side, but then she brought me to one of the small dressing rooms. There was a rack there with a bunch of sample sale dresses from the last season, every tag had punches marking the discount on the price. Kristen looked through and selected about 3 dresses within my price range and then told me to look myself in case she missed something. I looked and my eyes caught a piece of lace, I grabbed the tag and looked at it. It said 99.
-"99? As in 99 dollars?" I asked not believing it could be right.
-"Yes it is" she said smiling.
If only for the price I had to try it.

And so I did, along with other dresses: a silk mermaid gown, beautiful and I loved the fabric and the $99 price tag, but I felt that I couldn't move enough in it. A stunning dress that made me feel like Wendy's mother in Peter Pan: 1900's style, glamours, sleek and out of price, not to mentioned that it felt more like a cocktail dress than a bridal dress to me. There was a vintage style Claire Pettibone with tulle straps. All beautiful but not quite the one.
In the middle of all this was the One, my $99 dress. It had three pieces: the crinoline, the dress and the corset style top. It had a trumpet shape just like I wanted, it wasn't a diamond white color, just like I wanted, it had lace, a lace up back and I felt good in it. It also had much more train than I was planning for and it was strapless but for once I let go of my initial ideas because I just felt so good in it.
I couldn't help myself from playing with the lace. Indeed the lace is set up in funky ways, hanging down in some spot and covering a beautiful dupioni silk top. The skirt gives a floating effect and yet follows my curves in flattering ways.

I bought my dress there and then, along with a veil that was about as much as the dress itself. It needed a few alterations of course, and I could have had them done at the store, but it was a bit of a drive for me and I figured I could find something closer.

So here is the One ( I had to try it again at the end and didn't want to take it off). My SIL told me that the dress looked fun and creative just like me.




The original price tag was $3650, I bought a dress 97%off! The whole experience seemed like it was meant to be. The dress is by Linda Britten, an Australian designer.

I can only recommend Kelly's Closet to all Southern brides. If you are looking for something unique, great customer service and a fun experience this is the place.

Kelly's Closet
1649 McLendon Avenue NE
Atlanta, Georgia 30307
kellyscloset.net

Did you have an unusual experience finding your dress? Did any part of your planning made you feel like something was meant to be?