finding the dress

Like most people, I've gone through phases with clothes I wear. The black phase, the skirt phase, the pink phase, the jeans phase (I'm still in this one).
I have a bit of a love hate thing with clothes shopping. I love the fabrics and patterns but generally dislike my pear shape and find it quite difficult to find things that fit me well. I'm a size bigger on the bottom than on the top so things that fit my hips tend to gape at my bust and vice versa, and because of this I tend not to buy clothes often.
I've been invited to 3 weddings this year and my jeans and floppy tops just won't cut it, so dress shopping has been thrust upon me. I never buy dresses - the last one I bought was my wedding dress - prior to that, I cannot actually remember buying a dress. I wasn't really looking forward to this  shopping experience so was pleasantly surprised when it wasn't actually as painful as I thought it would be:

1. Phase Eight, 2-3. Monsoon, 4-6. Kaliko

You can spot a bit of a theme here can't you. 50's style prom dress suits my shape and I love the bold floral prints.
I am now the proud owner of 2 of these dresses (1 and 2) which should sort me out for all 3 weddings. Thankfully no one from the first wedding will be going to wedding two or three so I can safely do some dress recycling. Now all I need to think about is shoes, bags, hair etc.

what a relief

I am massively relieved to have finally sorted out dresses for my bridesmaids. It was really turning into quite a chore honestly, and that's not how it's supposed to be in my book.
These are these dresses that we have chosen, although we will have them in Navy:

We looked at and tried a lot of dresses - but we all felt that these were the best, in terms of fit and quality. They are by Mori Lee - as US company.
There is a serious gap in the UK market when it comes to bridesmaids dresses. Most of the dresses I have seen come from the US - and they do it so well in terms of style and choice. My only real gripe is that (as with many things) they are double the price in the UK. I looked at all kinds of options of buying from the the US and shipping to the UK, but once you add shipping and import taxes you lose the benefit.

I ordered the dresses from this UK shop - and I couldn't recommend it more highly. It's an unassuming little shop on what can be best described as a residential road. Their website is easy to navigate, has the right amount of info and good pictures, and the shop owner is a really lovely lady - often making helpful suggestions to help me find the right thing.

I must confess - I also bought wedding dress no.2 whilst I was in the shop today. I have been having a little wobble about dress no.1 (a bargain purchase made many months ago), so I'm now definitely spoilt for choice. Apparently it's quite common for brides to buy two dresses.

This is one of the dresses that I tried - I think it's lovely, but it just wasn't the right type of dress for my body shape. I looked like I'd just been tangled up in a parachute!

wedding shenanigans

This week really seems to be whizzing by at great speed, and my mind really has been on one thing - the wedding. In the past couple of months there really wasn't much to do in terms of the wedding, but now the time has come that decisions need to be made and things need to be confirmed and it all seems to have happened at the same time.
Bridesmaids dresses are proving tricky. Having tried countless dresses, we have found 2 different dresses that would be perfect together. Job done you'd think, but no. Aside from the dresses being quite expensive, the lead time on them is 16 weeks (as they are proper bridal gowns), and we don't have 16 weeks until the wedding (scary thought!) so I've started again on the dress search and have been looking all over the internet for the last few days to try and find alternative options.  I think I have found an alternative - I now just need to get the girls to try them. In the meantime, I'm keeping everything crossed for them fitting and looking lovely.

In other wedding news, today I had an email from the designer who is making our rings, to tell me that they are ready to ship.Wooohoo.
Here they are:

I'm swooning at their loveliness.
Now I must away and pay for them (hmm, not swooning so much at that part), and then they can be shipped. Exciting!

dresses and kitties

It's been scorching this weekend - so much that I got burnt even with factor 30 suncream on. It's nice to have good weather of course, but I would have liked it a bit cooler on Saturday when I was in London, with my bridesmaids looking for ideas for bridesmaids dresses. We tried on lots of dresses and styles and came away with a definite colour in mind - slate/pewter/mocha - and because we are having a winter wedding - something that looks a bit icy.

This dress was one of the first we tried on and a definite favourite of my sister but wasn't right for both my bridesmaids who are very different shapes and heights. I'd also be happy to have the dresses made but haven't got a clue where to start looking for a dress maker. Can anyone recommend a really good seamstress in south of the UK?

Here's a little something I was working on before the weekend:

Stevie was really not looking very impressed with the new cat in the garden: