BHLDN On A Budget!

Like many women, my heart swoons whenever I step inside Anthropologie. Sadly, I cannot afford to shop there regularly, especially on a grad student budget in the middle of a recession! However, I was thrilled to recently learn that the team behind Anthropologie decided to venture into another one of my passions, the wedding world, with their new store, BHLDN.

A great feature of the BHLDN website is that it offers more than just a shopping experience for brides. It includes free interactive experiences to help inspire you while planning your wedding, and provide another great way to procrastinate ;-) For example, I took a fun quiz called "What Kind of Bride Are You?" and discovered that I am a Romantic Nostalgic bride, which was a very accurate portrayal of my vintage Cape Cod wedding. The website also offers MoodBoards, aka inspiration boards, where you can view their products based on themes or color palettes, or even create your own board!

Disclaimer: I guarantee you will love everything BHLDN offers, but like it's sister store Anthropologie, products from here do not come cheap. Since one of my goals is to provide wedding inspiration for brides on a budget, I have scoured the site and chosen the best wedding attire and accessories for budget-minded brides.

Here are 2 boards featuring my favorite dresses, that are all an amazing steal at $1600 or less!

Finally, another great way to incorporate the romantic, unique, and vintage products BHLDN offers while not breaking the bank is to carefully choose more affordable accessories for your big day. Here are my top picks:

Images from center, then clockwise from top left: Choose a lovely silk hat/birdcage veil for a vintage vibe ($120); Love coasters provide a romantic touch ($14 for 10); Don polka dot gloves for a unique look ($40); Brighten up your fete with colorful straws ($6 a pack); Eat your cake with a pair of engraved love forks ($24 a pair); Serve treats on lovely pedestals ($68-$88); Statement earrings are great bridesmaid's gifts ($66); Accessorize your cocktail hour with love stirrers ($22 for 24); Use adorable mini teapots as escort card holders ($52 for 6); Glam a simple pair of shoes with colorful pom poms! ($25 per pair); Choose simple but sophisticated letterpress invites ($26 for 8); Chalkboard vases make unforgettable table numbers ($18); Faux flowers are a great way to save money without compromising on style ($32 for 5).

New Color Combo: Charcoal & Emerald

I'm going to be a bridesmaid in a September wedding in which one of the wedding colors is charcoal. While the bride is doing a lovely combination of charcoal against soft pastels, I also love when this dark neutral is expressed with bright pops of color, such as canary yellow, featured in the image below.

However, lately I prefer unexpected color combinations. So I came up with an emerald green and charcoal palette, offset by the cool crispness of white.

What are your favorite unexpected color combinations for a wedding?

The Ultimate Prep: A Seersucker Wedding

Nothing says New England preppy like seersucker. This fabric is perfect for summer or beach weddings due to it's breathable, light cotton composition. While it's traditional color is blue, seersucker can now be found in an array of pastels, as well as neutrals such as khaki.

As soon as summer rolls around, I love pulling out my seersucker clothing and accessories, such as my vintage Kate Spade purse (also great for a bride on her wedding day!).

Seersucker would also be great as a wedding theme for brides looking to host a classic, preppy wedding. If you're fiance objects, just tell him that real men wear pastels, and he'll be thanking you when he's not wearing a traditional tux in 90 degree heat!

Finally, find some creative ways to incorporate seersucker into your wedding theme, such as customizing your wedding cake with stripes:

Cake by Cake Girls

A Pink Palette

Much to my dismay, I am almost out of my favorite perfume, Flowerbomb (which I of course wore on my wedding day). So I decided to turn my obsession with this pink perfume into an inspiration board for all you brides. This board combines a few of my favorite things (J.Crew, peonies, candy, and horses).

Happy weekend everyone!

Wellies Under Your Dress?

Ok, this might sound crazy, but I'm considering getting a pair of Hunter boots to wear under my wedding dress while outside. Although I bought a pair of navy heels, I realized that satin peep toes might not be the most practical shoe to wear outside for traveling and pictures during the middle of winter in New England.  As I want to take photos outside and don't want my nice heels ruined by the mud or snow, and need a new pair of rain boots anyways, I thought, why not get a pair to wear under my dress? I think it could make for some cute pictures as well, and I love that Hunters are available in a plethora of adorable colors (though I would probably order traditional navy ones to match my colors).

Even better, I found cute shiny boots and white ones to go with your dress! The colorful shiny ones would also be great for bridesmaids to wear as well, particularly if it happens to rain on your wedding day. As the Boy Scouts say, always be prepared!

I though maybe this was a weird idea (and perhaps it still is), but I felt that I could validate my craziness if I found other brides who wore these at their wedding. To my surprise, I did a quick google search, and found another bride who had the same thought as I!

So what do you think? Am I totally crazy? Or is this practical footwear for me as a winter bride to keep my dancing shoes clean and pretty?

My Shoes!

As a frugal bride, I had several requirements for potential wedding shoes, the foremost of which was price of course.  In addition to being cheap, they needed to be comfortable, have low heels or be flats (for the height and comfort factors), and be navy blue.  Wanting navy shoes, combined with my limited budget, was what made my quest for affordable footwear the most challenging.  Had I been willing to spend a lot, I could have gotten any of these:

Yet, I think every couple on a budget has to choose what they are willing to splurge on and what compromises they are willing to make.  I knew that because my dress will go to the floor that my shoes will rarely be seen, so expensive footwear was not in the cards for me. I didn't have a price in mind per se, but I went to DSW and found a pair by Caparros that met all of my standards.  They were navy and comfortable, their heels were only 2.5" tall, and I like that they have a little rhinestone accent that will match the rest of my vintage style jewelry.  Best of all, they were on sale and under $50.

Fall Inspiration

I live in the middle of the city, which offers many wonderful advantages, but one downside is that I don't normally get away often to appreciate the beauty of nature.  This weekend, however, I took a drive through the country to visit my fiance, who was out of town for work.  Along the way, I passed a pumpkin patch.  Other than reminding me of fond childhood memories of fall and Halloween, I was really struck by the beauty and richness of the orange pumpkins.  Orange has always been one of my least favorite colors, so I never considered using it for my own wedding colors (plus I'm getting married in the winter, so it would not really be appropriate).  But after feeling inspired by the beauty of this wonderful fall color, I decided to make an inspiration board with pumpkins as my theme.  Now that it's complete, I'm starting to feel jealous of fall brides!