Vendor I Heart: Origami Bijou

With all the recaps of my wedding and my recent giveaway, it's been awhile since I've had a post about a featured vendor that I love.  I decided it was finally time for one again when I was contacted by Origami Bijou, who wanted to know what I thought of their line of modern jewelry and was interested in offering a special discount to my readers!

I immediately headed over to their website and was enthralled with their work. They create really unique, modern pieces of jewelry (earrings and necklaces) that are perfect for special occasions or everyday wear. 

I love their heart collection, which is much more subtle and creative than your traditional Tiffany's heart line.  The earrings and necklace set would be lovely for bridesmaids or a bride looking to add a romantic touch to her wedding.

Another one of my favorites was their modern alphabet collection, which would be great to customize for a bridal party. I should also note that they offer most of their pieces in silver and gold. Here is a gold necklace with my initial:
 

For someone looking for a more dressy or classic look, they also sell a pearl collection.  One of my favorites is the lotus flower necklace pictured below, which I could totally picture wearing to an outdoor garden wedding:

And last but certainly not least, no Cape Cod Bride would be complete without wearing something from their nautical line! Preppy brides having a coastal wedding (like me) will adore their sail boat collection, which features pieces such as this:

The best news is that the company is offering an exclusive discount for readers of Cape Cod Bride.  From now until April 5th, enter capecodbride as the coupon code during checkout and get 15% off all orders! Enjoy :-)

The Dress Reveal!

Hello bloggers! I'm so thrilled to be back in Chicago post honeymoon and able to regularly blog again! I'm still waiting for the photographs from my photographer, which we should have by next week (yay!), so in the meantime I have decided to finally share my wedding dress with you!

I was one of the brides who chose not to post anything about my dress before the wedding because I did not want my now hubby to sneak a peak and ruin the surprise. I'm really glad I waited, because he told me that he could have never imagined my dress and he was so excited to see me in it for the first time on our big day. The dress is called Fanal, and the designer is La Sposa. Here are pictures of the front and back of the dress from La Sposa's website.

This dress is in the color oyster, however I ordered mine in the more traditional ivory. I bought my dress a small bridal shop called Wedding Belles, LTD, located in the suburbs of Chicago. I had visited several other shops in the Chicagoland area before making this boutique my last visit. I did all of the shopping for my dress in one weekend, and was very eager to find "the one," since my mom had flown out from the Cape to help me.

I should explain that this dress was not at all what I had in mind when I envisioned my wedding dress. For one, I was vehemently again wearing a strapless dress, as I had visions of it falling down and being annoyed by pulling it up all night. I also imagined myself in a very simple sheath, more like a beach dress, with out any fluff or pouf, like this cute J. Crew number:

The La Sposa that I purchased, though, was the last dress I had tried on at the store, however, and once I put it on I had "The Moment." This is the moment where I knew this dress, regardless of the fact that it was strapless, satin, or anything else I had abhorred, was meant for me. I loved how the ruching across the body made it more ornate without having to add beading, while being still simple and modern, and how slimming and tall it made me look! Plus, the heavier material did end up being perfect for my winter nuptials. 

Overall, I couldn't be happier with my decision, and everyone genuinely raved about how perfect and lovely the dress was for me. I will be waiting to receive my wedding photos before posting any pictures of me in the dress. However, here a some pictures I found online from Feather Love Photography of another gorgeous bride who recently rocked this dress in a surprise wedding (how awesome is that, btw?!) in the same color as I have!