We’ve officially moved!
Come on over to the new Red Lips Bride blog for new content, as well as everything from before now!
Adrienne
New Blog Comming Soon!
Soon Red Lips Bride will be moving to .com If all goes well, .ca will divert there, but my skills in this type of this are… less than idea, so its a work in progress. Check out the new blog at www.redlipsbride.com
Ceremony and Reception location chosen!
Hi everyone, I just wanted to give you a quick update about the wedding planning. We have finally chosen a location for all of it. We’re host both the reception and ceremony at the University of Toronto, in the Multi Faith Centre aka Koffler House is located at 569 Spadina Ave in Toronto, Ontario. This location is most perfect because of the cost of renting the space (a mere $200 + $185 custodial fee for serving food) for the day. The location has a small kitchen (no stove) and additional lobby space for people to linger in while we rearrange the room between ceremony and reception.
Its a new, modern and sleek room with wood paneling and a beautiful back-lit onyx wall. Check out the photos!
Lovely Blog Award
I happily, and very proudly, accept my “One Lovely Blog Award” from The Lisa Freemon Pages!
http://lisafremontpages.blogspot.com/
But of course i must comply with the rules of receiving such an award, and they are:
Accept the Award
Post it on my Blog
Post the name and link the person who has granted the award
Post the award onto 15 other newly discovered blogs
Notify the Bloggers that they have been awarded
So here are my chosen :
I don’t actually follow 15, so here are a few!
Make your own dress?!
I just wanted to make a quick post to share with you all a fantastic dress I’ve found!
Its a convertable dress, that is a circle skirt (short or long) with two long (9 foot) straps that are used to make the dress unique each time you wear it. I first discovered it at Two Birds Bridesmaid, and it sells for between $270-310, depending on the hem type.
This isn’t too expensive, however, my budget doesn’t allow that much money for my wedding dress, never mind my bridesmaids. So check this out! You can make this dress yourself! Rowena, at the Rostichery gives easy direction to make this dress yourself, because its a classic design that lots of people have done.
I’ve done some calculation and to sew a long full length dress you need
about 12 yards each, however because of the length of the straps, and being able to but 4 straps out of a 9 foot section of fabric, you could make 2 dresses out of 16 yards! If my bridesmaids agree, I’m going to make them each one, sp
ending only $50 on materials each ($100 for the 16 yards, which gives me about $6.50 to spend per yard, and that’s totally doable!
I’m definetly going to try it on myself first before I pass it over, because I might make one for my wedding dress, in a satin stretch fabric with a sheer overlay. Awesome? I think so!
Rule #1: Don’t try anything new!
So in an effort to get more options and traffic to this site, I decided to be ambitious and try to make the switch to my own webhosting service… I was wrong. I couldn’t not figure out for the life of me how to make it work!
So for those of you who came to Red Lips Bride yesterday and found her down, I apologize, I swear, I won’t try anything new again!
Thanks for reading!
Adrienne
Where to find the time?! Wedding planning amidst real life
During the month that I had off between summer school and my new academic year, I began to plan my wedding. It was perfect because I worked part-time and planned a wedding part-time. However, that balance could not last for long, because it’s too good to be true!
As of this week I’m enrolled in my first year of a Masters program, which as it turns out, it lots more work than my undergrad, but I suppose I should have been expecting that. Between balancing a part-time job, frequent volunteering and my academic responsibilities, my blog and my wedding planning have taken a back seat. So how can I make this work?
Here’s what I’ve come up with to help on the way:
1 – Stay organized: This is so important for planning a wedding in general, but the last thing you want to be doing is wasting time finding your resources and contact information, when all you have time for is making that one phone call, or sending that one email. You can help you stay on top of your priorities and things to do with time saving software as well. I recommend iWedding on the iPod touch or iPhone, and also iDo for your computer. There is also My Wedding Organizer and My Wedding Companion, neither of which I have tried. All of these softwares are around $30 and can save you time and money in budgeting and setting priorities.
2 – Create “Wedding Time”: Maybe you’re like me and you’re slow to get moving in the morning. If you brain isn’t functioning enough early (or in my case late) morning, you may have enough mental fortitude to browse the internet or respond to those emails. Try to integrate your Wedding Time into your relax time – I personally find wedding planning very enjoyable! Also, a lunch hour is a powerful thing. In my case, it’s an hour between classes, or before I start work, but if you might normally waist that time, use if as Wedding Time instead.
3 – Delegate: If you have a wonderful Maid-of-Honour like I do, ask for her help and give specific tasks to her that you feel comfortable being out of your hands. Once you have the location, let her choose the linens or table decorations. Have her choose her own dress and help you choose one. Also, there is some you are about to marry that may or may not have a stake in the success of this wedding. Get your fiancé involved.
4 – Relax a little: If you don’t have time to plan it all to be perfect, be realistic and change for vision accordingly. You are no superhero, you’re a person with a life to lead. Wedding planning can be a full-time job, in fact for some it is, but for you and me, it’s just another thing to incorporated into our lives, so treat it as such.
Vintage Fashion Resources
I’ve come accross a few excellent resources to help to create DIY projects, or give you inspiration.
This Vintage Sewing site has excellent resouces about the foundations of vintage garment making, but what particularly intrigued me, what the direction on how to make a birdcage veil. Although the directions aren’t too specific, its clear, its not too hard to do, and you don’t have to pay $50+ for one.
If you’re extra creative or know someone who is, you can consider makeing your own wedding dress. There are lots of vintage inspired patterns to use like this one, a Vera Wang Vogue pattern. This one is out of print so if you want to pick it up, act fast. Alternates include this spectacularly backed wedding dress with train, also from Vogue. This Butterick dress is very simple, but really has the vintage glamor look that I’m looking for!
For style inspiration and to make sure you get it right, check out Diamond Dame, a vintage lifestyle and fashion reference. It has a great 1930′s fashion guide for men and women, and I hope with inspiration like this, by bridal party and guests would all be willing to dress the part.
Hope these were useful!
Vintage weddings that happened to someone else!
Vintage weddings are not uncommon. Who wouldn’t love the sleek elegance paying homage to a time period and style in their wedding.
For those of you planning your vintage wedding Offbeat Bride is a great resource. For inspiration, pictures of other peoples weddings, this is one of the best sites around for fund, creative or funky weddings. Some are budget, but others aren’t to just bare that in mind when looking at the photos.
Chelsea and Keith’s Rockabilly/Psychobilly wedding was done on a budget of $5000! They really got creative with the fashion and made the whole experience their own!
Crissy and Andre’s Vintage Glamor wedding is done so beautifully! It was held at the Egninton Grand, a beautiful (but pricy) venue here in Toronto. Trust me, I looked into it, and it is so out of my budget it hurts. However, if you have the money to spend on the look of your wedding, this art deco old theater is a great place to have it.
A more recent addition (today) to the Offbeat Bride site is Lottie and Clint’s Vintage Inspired wedding. Although this couple used lots of vintage fashion, they didn’t carry it to everything in their wedding, but added aspects of the vintage look. This is a great alternative if you don’t want to over do it. They even used Dia De Los Muertos cake toppers, awesome, although I don’t know how vintage that is.
Hope you found this inspiration inspirational in imagining the look of your wedding!
Vintage Wedding Fashion
Choosing clothing for the wedding can be just as hard as choosing a theme or setting a date. It may seem easy, but the if you are going to stick loyally to your theme, it can be a challenge.
I’ve descided to have my wedding in the 1930′s Hollywood Glamour theme so fashion is everything! I’ve found an awesome site that I’m probably going to buy my dress from, because their fashion hits the nail on the head when it comes to my theme.
If you look at my Theme setting post, I show my inspiration for the 1930′s Hollywood glamour theme, which includes starlets like Grace Kelly, Veronica Lake, Rity Hayworth and other beauties. These dresses are all inspired by these fantastic women!
All of these dresses are available from Unique Vintage, a store and web store that specializes in vintage style new dresses. These images have been used with their permission.
This first dress has a fantastic neck line, with a sweetheart style, and a great, vintage mermaid bottom. But not too mermaid. Plus that accessory is to die for! Paired with that fascinator or any lacy or feathery one, this is quite a sight.
This is a very unique dress, and one that I’m seriously considering for myself. The front is plunging, so you have to be confident, but the back is really what sells me on this dress. It has a fantastic little train, so it really has that wedding look to it. With simple jewelery, this is a perfect wedding dress.
I would pair this with pearls or a long thin chained necklace.
Like the previous dress, this one is really all about the back. The simple front should be sold with accessories, and the back left to do its thing. However, like the previous dress, this back line may cause issues for those who require support and can’t go bra-less. If you have ideas, please let me know because I’d love to be able to wear this, but I don’t think tape would suffice.
Lastly, this dress is simple, but hold true to all of the vintage glamour styles, by providing a classic one shoulder look and a small train. The sheer fabric at the back which is the train plays with fabric shines and adds a lot to this simple dress.
These are some of the wedding dresses I’m considering for my wedding. If you have thoughts, other sources or ideas, please feel free to send them my way. I’ve been having a horrible time choosing because the options are so great!
In addition to the dilema about my dress, is my bridesmaids. Its easy to choose a dress for yourself (says the girl who can’t choose one) but its very hard to choose a dress for your friends to wear. There are a couple of schools of thought about bridesmaids dresses.
1 – Choose a colour and perhaps a general style for them to follow, and let your girls choose their own dresses. I think this is the easiest, and if you want to have a say in what they are wearing, maybe go shopping with them, or give them a few options
2 – Choose a dress and a set colour and make them wear it. It is about you, but this can be a little cruel, depending on the colour and style. Not everyone looks good in the same dress, even if the dress is fantastic. Body shapes can play a big role in how the dress looks on your bridesmaids.
3 – Choose a dress that has multiple colour options. This is like Option 2, but they can choose the colour, however this may look a little hodge-podgey.
I think I’m going to opt for Option 1 myself, as my sister (my maid of honor) has a very specific criteria about what she is willing to wear. Which is a nice way of saying she’s picky. But I want her to be happy, and I don’t want to be a controlling bride, so she can choose her own style of dress.
Although this post has been a little selfish, all about my dress, I intend to share my ideas about the bridesmaids dresses and also, men’s fashion, which can be a challenge, so I have to do some research.
Enjoy window shopping!
