Dessy Gowns is a larger company that carries a few different lines.
Dessy Collection- Bridesmaids and Flower girls
After Six- Bridesmaids and Flower girls
Alfred Sung-Bridesmaids and Flower girls
Lela Rose- Bridesmaids
Sandals- Destination style wedding gowns (no one carries these in MN)
I found a Sandals gown that is super cute and they boast their affordability on their web page. You can order a sample to try at home for $35- and you can have the sample-on-loan (what ever they have available closest to your size) for 2 business days to try it on and make up your mind. This is a really cool idea. The return shipping is also included. There is a $20 per day late charge if you take longer to return the dress- which they probably track online and after 5 business days they charge you the full amount of the gown. Plan wisely!
They can be found at:
Flutter Boutique-Minneapolis (After Six, Alfred Sung, Lela Ros)
Dena Marie- Roseville ( Dessy, After Six)
The Wedding Shoppe- St Paul ( Dessy, After Six, Alfred Sung, Lela Rose)
Glenrose- Plymouth ( Dessy, After Six, Alfred Sung)
The Wedding Chapel- Crystal ( Dessy, After Six, Alfred Sung)
Rush's Bridal- Minneapolis ( Dessy, After Six, Alfred Sung, Lela Rose)
Bridal Accents- Savage (Dessy, After Six)
The Hope Chest- Ham Lake ( Dessy, After Six)
Bella Bridal Boutique- Woodbury (Dessy, After Six, Alfred Sung)
Little Bridal Shop- Rogers ( Dessy, After Six, Alfred Sung)
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Mestad's Webpage redo
Mestad's has updated their webpage. I just wandered over there at random and wow- a huge improvement! It looks so much more professional than before (but maybe in part because of the browser I tend to use it didn't look as great as it could have).
Mestad's always has something going on it seems- trunk shows, engagement parties- so I like to check their website. For example- this weekend (January 22-24) the Rochester location is having an Allure trunk show and the St Cloud location is having an Emerald trunk show- purchase your gown at either and save 20%. It's always nice to have some extra cash in your pocket that you weren't anticipating...
Mestad's always has something going on it seems- trunk shows, engagement parties- so I like to check their website. For example- this weekend (January 22-24) the Rochester location is having an Allure trunk show and the St Cloud location is having an Emerald trunk show- purchase your gown at either and save 20%. It's always nice to have some extra cash in your pocket that you weren't anticipating...
Friday, January 22, 2010
Invitations
We had found a cute invitation we liked at an online retailer. Now, they're gone. That might explain why I never received the sample I ordered. Bummer. So it's back to perusing wedding invitations. Buying online can be scary. How do you know what you are going to get? What will the paper quality be like? Will they really match the mood of your celebration? Or your colors? So many concerns and things to consider!
There's always the option of designing your own. Which could be fun- but after the time and energy involved- maybe it would make sense to just buy or compromise. For example- I like pocket invitations- where the invitation is on one side and then the informational cards are in an folder pocket- making everything easy to keep together for guests.There aren't that many pocket options out there so I'm considering purchasing the invitation and then making the pockets and insert cards myself in order to save about $1000.
I've also found it may be tricky to find the colors we are hoping to use- yellow, white, aqua, turquoise, and green. So I've been debating using a solid color such as gray or some variation of for the invitation itself and then make the pocket cards and pocket color more interesting.
To digress, it's hard to know what kind of quality you're going to receive when ordering online. Here are some helpful things I found while online yesterday.
Dawn's allows you to order 3 samples for free. It's really more of a request so that people don't get too greedy I think. Which is also good because it forces you to ask yourself- which ones am I most interested in? (I requested 3)
Get Married also allows free samples and there is no cap on the number to request. (I requested 4 samples) Hopefully I will receive the samples I requested- I'm a bit skeptical since this is the same site that I requested a sample from before and never received.
Ann's Bridal Bargain's also does free invitation samples.(There was only 1 I was interested in).
Wedding Paper Diva's charges $1 per sample. Not every style is available to sample. I have 25 saved to my favorites list and will enlist my fiances help to narrow down the selections. This is the website I am most impressed with for number and variety of invitations.
Exclusively Weddings allows 5 samples to be ordered at no charge. I chose four.
I also stumbled upon Hello Lucky a very cool invitation line- they're based out of San Fransisco and London and you can see how this reflects their designs. Samples are $5 and the package prices are a bit more than other websites- but they will work with you to really personalize your invitations.
Minted is also a great new site I stumbled upon. They have trendy modern designs and a lot of color options. Samples are $25- whoa. However, the $25 is credited towards a future order. Phew- at least that's something! Also- I'm a member at UPromise- so a portion of online orders is credited back towards future education expenses- so why not line your future kids pockets for college a little bit? 4% of your purchase goes back to your UPromise college fund. I saved 6 favorites on this webpage- but again- will consult with the fiance before anythings ordered! They also have super cute return address labels.
Fine Stationary samples are $2. There are over a 1000 invitations to choose from Fine Stationary also has the UPromise benefit of getting 8% back!
Every dollar spent on samples is one less dollar for other things.
There's always the option of designing your own. Which could be fun- but after the time and energy involved- maybe it would make sense to just buy or compromise. For example- I like pocket invitations- where the invitation is on one side and then the informational cards are in an folder pocket- making everything easy to keep together for guests.There aren't that many pocket options out there so I'm considering purchasing the invitation and then making the pockets and insert cards myself in order to save about $1000.
I've also found it may be tricky to find the colors we are hoping to use- yellow, white, aqua, turquoise, and green. So I've been debating using a solid color such as gray or some variation of for the invitation itself and then make the pocket cards and pocket color more interesting.
To digress, it's hard to know what kind of quality you're going to receive when ordering online. Here are some helpful things I found while online yesterday.
Dawn's allows you to order 3 samples for free. It's really more of a request so that people don't get too greedy I think. Which is also good because it forces you to ask yourself- which ones am I most interested in? (I requested 3)
Get Married also allows free samples and there is no cap on the number to request. (I requested 4 samples) Hopefully I will receive the samples I requested- I'm a bit skeptical since this is the same site that I requested a sample from before and never received.
Ann's Bridal Bargain's also does free invitation samples.(There was only 1 I was interested in).
Wedding Paper Diva's charges $1 per sample. Not every style is available to sample. I have 25 saved to my favorites list and will enlist my fiances help to narrow down the selections. This is the website I am most impressed with for number and variety of invitations.
Exclusively Weddings allows 5 samples to be ordered at no charge. I chose four.
I also stumbled upon Hello Lucky a very cool invitation line- they're based out of San Fransisco and London and you can see how this reflects their designs. Samples are $5 and the package prices are a bit more than other websites- but they will work with you to really personalize your invitations.
Minted is also a great new site I stumbled upon. They have trendy modern designs and a lot of color options. Samples are $25- whoa. However, the $25 is credited towards a future order. Phew- at least that's something! Also- I'm a member at UPromise- so a portion of online orders is credited back towards future education expenses- so why not line your future kids pockets for college a little bit? 4% of your purchase goes back to your UPromise college fund. I saved 6 favorites on this webpage- but again- will consult with the fiance before anythings ordered! They also have super cute return address labels.
Fine Stationary samples are $2. There are over a 1000 invitations to choose from Fine Stationary also has the UPromise benefit of getting 8% back!
Every dollar spent on samples is one less dollar for other things.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Where to Find: Birnbaum & Bullock Gowns
B&B gowns are available exclusively in Minnesota at:
Mestad's- Rochester
Where to Find: Sincerity Bridal
Shops that carry the Sincerity Bridal collection are:
Jewel's Bridal Boutique- Delano
The Wedding Shoppe- St Paul
Our Shop- Stillwater
Where to Find: Stephen Yearick Gowns
Stephen Yearick is, in my mind, synonymous with pageant gowns. The NY based designer also does wedding gowns.
His gowns can be found at:
The Pageant Shop by Michaels in New Brighton
The Wedding Shoppe in St Paul
Color Scheme... Groom is on board
On Monday, MLK Day, my fiance and I had the whole day to spend together as neither of us had work or school. It was so much fun. We went to the mall of all things- and while we were there we checked out Macy's tie selection. They really do have a great selection of ties. I was trying to show him what I was thinking about doing for bridesmaids dresses and then what to do for the groomsman's ties. I was happy when he liked my idea of charcoal dresses with sashes of different colors from our color palate- he thought it was a fun idea. Yay! We also looked at what tie patterns and colors he liked. It was so much fun and reassuring that he likes the colors we've chosen.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
