One really great part of visiting David’s Bridal was that we found the bridesmaid dress!

WOO!

I knew I wanted the girls to wear dark purple, preferably a-line, and not floor length. Other than that I didn’t really care. After I was finally freed from the the grip of the Wedding Industrial Complex, the mothers went off the look at mother of the bride dresses and the girls and I headed over to the bridesmaid dresses. I gave them my requirements and we started looking. After a bit I went to check on the moms. When I got back I was informed that they had voted that the dress would not be strapless. Fair enough.

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We’ve been tossing around ideas on what we could give the boys as a thank you gift for being in the wedding party. Some of our favorite ideas are cigars & cigar holders, or flasks. The problems there are  that 1. they don’t all smoke cigars, and 2. half of them already have flasks.

Though I argue – can you ever have too many flasks?

All that aside, I know cufflink sets are a popular groomsmen gift. I don’t know if the boys would actually use them, yet, but I’ve been checking them all out and I’m starting to get attached. We could get half of the guys these Philadelphia Eagles Cufflinks:

Ok, these work for everyone but one guy. I don’t want him to be mismatched, so maybe we need to go in another direction. I’m sort of partial to these Homer Simpson Cufflinks, hehe:

So what do you think? Has anyone else given cufflinks as a gift? Did they love it?

This past Sunday, we headed over to FSIL’s house so we could hunker down in The Eagles Nest and watch Donovan McNabb get the crap kicked out of him

Despite that bad news, I’m thrilled to report we have our final bridesmaid! NEPA Groom’s sister loved her card and happily said yes. So we now have:

Bridesmaid E – a frequent (and sometimes sarcastic) commenter here at Nepa Bride Blog.

Bridesmaid L – you’ll find us about once a month out on a coffee date, dishing on the latest gossip found via the Facebook.

Bridesmaid M – my future sister in law.

Maid of Honor M – we’ve known each other since we were 5. That’s 20 years. Ridiculous.

This leaves us with one groomsman to officially be asked. If he ever actually picks up his phone, we’ll get that taken care of! I’m happy to be one step closer in this whole process. Step by step my friends.

Betcha didn’t even know I was gone! That’s the magic of WordPress my friends – scheduling. Thankfully I didn’t screw it all up this time.

It was a short trip away to visit some of NEPA Groom’s family. He officially asked his brother to be our best man! Yay! Here are a few nuggets of wisdom I collected from that long weekend, just for you:

• The first indicator that you’ve hit the real South is when all the tables at Cracker Barrel have malt vinegar on them instead of ketchup.
• Always hit the potty at each rest stop. You never know when the next potty will arrive.
• If you’re engaged and you hold someone else’s baby, be prepared for a fire storm of photos. Your parenting skills are already being evaluated.
• The seats in a KIA Sorento are NOT comfortable. Don’t rent one for a 10 hour drive.
• Bring your iPod/cell phone/whatever charger.
• Forget the GPS, it doesn’t know what it’s doing half the time.
• After a while, put down the camera and just enjoy the time with your family. If you spend all your time documenting the trip, you’ll miss everything.
• Dogs + beer = WIN:

I’m extremely proud of myself for this find, if I do say so myself. I decided I’d like to do a candy buffet for our favors pretty soon after I started looking at wedding blogs & magazines. It’s waaaay too soon to start buying candy (would you like some MOLD with your jelly beans?)

I met my friend, Bridesmaid L, at St. Nick’s bazaar on Friday, and we hit the jackpot in the flea market. I picked up these 4 glass jars for a grand total of $3.50. Yessssss. L helped me carry them, in the rain, across the parking lot and then over the guard rail and across Pennsylvania Blvd. back to my car. I gave them a good scrubbing and have tucked them away for safe keeping.

I also officially asked L to be a bridesmaid after our trek in the rain. I had planned to all along, but I couldn’t think of a better (or funnier) moment. She’s very excited and already planning the bachelorette party. I mailed my card for Bridesmaid E a couple of weeks ago since she lives in New York, so I’ve got 3 confirmed girls! I’m just waiting for the right moment to ask FH’s sister to join the party.

Did you ever find wedding decor in surprising places? Or has any of your wedding party gone above and beyond for you? I feel really lucky to have these ladies by my side!

Phew. This week totally kicked my butt. Thankfully, I’m only working 3 days next week. Then it’s time to set off some fireworks!

I had dinner with my best friend on Wednesday night and asked her if she would be my maid of honor. She was thrilled, though she was a little nervous too. Neither of us have been in a wedding before. In fact, neither of us have even attended many weddings! It’s all pretty new to us, but I’m sending her some sites like Wedding Bee and Style Me Pretty that I think will help her get her feet wet. I know they helped me!

Next up, I have a bridesmaid that lives out of state that I’m asking to be in my wedding party. I mailed her card yesterday, so she should get it early next week. I’ve only hinted that she’s got mail on the way, and I’m still not sure if I should hint further or just let her be surprised.

Has anyone else ever asked out of town friends to be bridesmaids? How did you go about ‘popping the question”?

Even though I still haven’t asked my bridesmaids if they’d be in the wedding party yet, I’m thinking about what kind of cute gifties I can give them. I scored some CUTE little black & white damask bags in the dollar bin at Michael’s last week that I want to fill with things for them to start:

They’re not very big, but I thought they could hold some beauty supplies, like nail polish, files & trimmers. I love the shades in the OPI Fairytale Brides line, and there are some good shades in their Sephora line as well!

Now I’m off looking for other bridesmaids gifts that I can include with this little bag. Favor Warehouse has some cute things that I could personalize with our wedding date (once we have one!). These bath salts would go perfectly with the gift theme I have in mind. They have a ton of custom labels, but the sample one, with the black & white swirls, actually matches perfectly!

I’m still looking around to see what I can find on sale. Buying some of the beauty gifts this early might not be the best idea just in case they have a limited shelf life, but at least I’ll be ready to go when the time comes!

What kind of gifts are thinking of getting your bridesmaids?

I was SO excited to get these in the mail yesterday. I ordered them from LittleLadyCompany on Etsy. I’m hoping I find my crafting genes as we get closer to the wedding, but I know the paper goods are out of my realm. I worked with her over a week or two to customize these to fit me. She was fantastic and went around digging up shades of gray and purple for me. They’re so cute – I don’t even want to give them up, LOL. Take a peek:

HEEEEE. FH is away until Sunday night, and I want him to see these before I give them away. Cannot wait.

Did any of your early wedding purchases leave you feeling giddy like this?

Hoo boy. This is a tough one.

Like most people, I hope, I’ve known a lot of incredible people during my life. I’ve been struggling with the task of which ones to ask to be part of my wedding party. This is one of those decisions that could quickly get out of control and turn into this:

Ack! You can’t even see the people in this picture. The size of this wedding party will probably end up being half the size of everyone even invited to my wedding. So I came up with a few simple rules for myself:

1. People who are willing to help & get crafty. I will be asking, so brace yourself.
2. People who don’t live terribly far away. Almost all of mine are local, luckily.
3. People who don’t have small children or other commitments that would make this difficult. FH’s sister in law would be a good choice, but their new daughter was born premature, so I don’t want to burden her with a big responsibility. We do want to ask her to do a reading or a similar task, because she’s special to us and we want to include her.

Your rules may differ, but I think it’s good to realize these kinds of things before asking people. What kind of qualities did you look for in your wedding party?