Beautiful!!!!! Kudos on letting your attendants select their dresses, and extra kudos on giving them such a gorgeous selection!:snap:

My sister did that too, let us pick our dresses, only she sent us all paint samples and we had to match the dress to the paint sample. We got just regular dresses and it was so very easy and we all looked fine. Beautiful stuff!

wow wow wow-

It all looks so amazing.....

Which reminds me- you had asked about the picture I took of the two of you dancing- sadly once I got it onto the computer I realized it is horribly blurry. :( If I find more I will PM you.

You and Teresa are so my go to girls for wedding stuff. I love your style- it's so timeless. You'll be lovely!

Very nice! :snap:

Gorgeous all around. :snap: My Maid of Honor made her own dress and I let her do whatever she wanted in blue. It came out beautifully and represented her much better than anything I'd pick. Your suits look great - is that silver?

I sooooo just SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEALED!

Awesome, awesome, awesome!

Beautiful beautiful!!

Just simply amazing! :snap:

Thanks, guys! It's nice to share these things with friends (and especially friends who won't be there, so I'm not blowing the surprise for people who will be there.)

It's not silver, btw, it's a very light ivory (but the layers and types of fabric make it appear sort of shimmery.)

So my family shower was this weekend, and I had such a lovely time. My sister Michelle (my matron of honor) played hostess, and themed it all around Italy, as that is our honeymoon location. Grape-covered arches, tuscan-style colors and centerpieces, even Italian music in the background.

Here's a view into the room:


Here we are, just arriving.


The food was deeeeelicious, almost all made by hand by Michelle and mom (yes, mom-- how she mustered the energy for all this I don't know. Though she made it through all right, she was so exhausted afterward. None of us wanted her to do so much, but nobody can tell that woman what to do.)

I don't have a good shot of the finger foods, unfortunately, but they were elegant and tasty. Hallowed-out cucumber slices with salmon salad or veggie puree, endive leaves with lobster salad or curry chicken salad, cheese- or mushroom-stuffed shells, bruschetta, spinach-stuffed cherry tomatoes, artichoke tortellini, mini quishe, veggie-filled filo puffs... nobody went hungry. Such foodies we are!

Here we are, enjoying the spread...


My brother served cappuccino (from his real Italian machine) and biscotti. My niece/goddaughter/eldest junior bridesmaid served Italian Ices, with real feathered ice and all kinds of different Italian sodas....


But Michelle's crowning glory was the dessert table...

Petit fours, bites of fudge, lemon curd tarts, homemade chocolate cups filled with chocolate or white chocolate mousse, and a cupcake tree. Sugar coma was a phrase used frequently that day.

Games were played, but they were of the fun, more-unusual variety (i.e. no dressing the bride in toilet paper.) My favorite was the "newlyweds" game, in which I had to guess Tom's answers to twenty questions. I did pretty well-- 13 right-- but the ones I missed were things like "how many shoes does Tom own" (I said four, he has five) "how many shoes does Heidi own" (his answer: "sighhhhhh. More than five.") Michelle and I, below, are in the midst of this game.


It was nice to spend time with my bridesmaids (and another close friend) as well.

Great pics!











You're getting married!