dress up

today i went with my bridesmaids to the wedding shoppe on grand ave for my first official trying on of wedding dresses. i had previously been so excited for this day but last night and this morning i became very intimidated, overwhelmed and anxious about it. it turned out to be a good time and i had a great experience at the wedding shoppe. if you're ever going there, be sure to ask for savanna; she was awesome!! & she came from alterations originally so she knew a lot!

i was fearful of not finding a dress that i loved and that i really wanted since i don't want a traditional dress. but savannah found me great options and i learned what i like on my body and what i don't like.

at this point all i'm going to say is that i did not purchase a dress today, but the likelihood of me going back to the wedding shoppe for a purchase is good. :)

that being said i will not be showing any full dress pictures (to keep my fiance from seeing me and in surprise.) these pictures are of some details i like(d) of some dresses but are in no way any indication of what my dress may be. :)

photo credit to the AMAZING gina zeidler who i could not be more thankful to have as a bridesmaid!! i am so thankful for her and to have her and her beautiful ability to photograph situations around at times like this. she's that big, real, truthful, tell-it-like-is, view from the photographers side that i NEEDED to be there with me! i couldn't have done this without her; at least not as well. thank you sooo much gina!!! love you tons!!

now, for the pictures: here are some of the pics i brought along of dresses/details i liked.

our wedding is very much diy (do it yourself) and i am loving fabric flowers lately, so the flowers on this dress are a great detail to tie in!

here's savanna helping me into one of the dresses that had to go overhead (for some reason i much prefer stepping into dresses :]).

i was smitten with the back of this lace dress! and the back of most of the dresses for that matter :) i'm pretty sure i asked if i could take all my wedding pictures backwards

the bottom of said lace dress.

yes i'm a black clothing girl. and yes i did wear black undergarments :)

to be fair, it's all i had

the sparkly-ness of this dress was beautiful but the dress is so not my style.

but as my mom says, i do kinda look "chesty" in this one :)

peeping my ring next to some flowers!!

the thought is to sleep on it, see how i feel after some time goes by and we're going to another bridal shop tomorrow. we'll see were tomorrow takes me! :)

i also need to thank my other 2 bridesmaids for sticking it out with me!! meg: thank you for being there! for taking all the dresses off the hangers and zipping me up! and thank you for telling me i looked pretty in all of them :) i know that no matter what i choose, you'll like it. :) love you lots!!

and to my momma, for being there and taking the dresses when i needed you to. and for your input although it was much less then i expected it to be :) i'm glad you had some help this time figuring out how to strap up/zip up the dresses ;) love you bunches!!

lil twin kitties

i once again got to accompany the greeders (minus dave) to a small school kids carnival. summer (5) was her typical energetic, social butterfly, so we didn't see too much of her, but the twins were fun to play with and follow around.

last year, when meg and i took them they were far too little to do much of the actual games and things, but this year (once they came out of their shells) they were able to do most of them. it was so fun to see how much they've grown and see them interact with other people.

there is a self use face painting station and last year meg had the great idea to paint their faces like kitties, so i did the same this year because it was soo cute!

skye, the almost 2 year old kitty :)

and here's ty ty, the little blonde kitty :]

we actually got them to stand still, together and smile for a picture!!

that's a great accomplishment!!

i was determined to get a picture of meg with her twins since she's always the one taking the pictures. and the opportunity came for me when the twins were enthralled with a baby :)

my mom came along this year and she had a great time too. she even got to teach ty how to putt :) love their faces! must have been a great shot!it was a good time although very exhausting! :)

mommas & daughters

last week, 2 of my longest friends and i decided we needed to get together for another dinner.

as we were trying to figure out a day and place, i remembered that all 3 of our mom's (also long time friends) were getting together to celebrate my mom's birthday.

so i pitched the idea of surprising them at their dinner and it went over well. so we did and we had a lovely mother-daughter dinner at granite city in eagan.

we have all known each other for so long and it was great to catch up with just the girls :)

wine, food and laughs were had by all. :]

closet master

i love, love, love to organize!

especially when it deals with in the home things or paperwork!

therefore, i always jump at the chance to help out gina with her house and her closet. i have organized her closet in the past, but always for get to take pictures. i remembered this time!!

before #1: this is probly the worst i've seen her closet and it doesn't help that they had their ceilings redone and the guys had to take apart a bunch of her shelving. also for that, she has to take all her stuff out of it; it got put back in like this:

gina helped a lot more this go-around and i think it helped a ton to have her telling me exactly how and where she wanted things. it also makes me more hopeful that the closet will stay organized for a while... :)

so the left side has her shirts hung and color coded. then on the back wall her dresses also color coded. and her jeans and most worn pants folded up on the shelf.

and then below that is a shelving unit she previously had in her office but wasn't going to use anymore. so we went and got fabric bins to put in as drawers. these house all the little & messing clothing items she has. gina is a very visual person so we wanted to be sure that anything that is easily disturbed and less likely to stay neat could be hidden in drawers thus giving the appearance of the closet still being clean. then the right side is her cardigans hung and also color coded, and some of her most used bags/purses hung on the end. after i left, gina went back and got more bins to house her workout gear, and those now live on the shelf above the cardigans.

behind the camera in the previous pictures is this shelving unit which she already had as well with more bins. this shelf is more for her accessories and jewelry. this will probably need a few more items to keep it all organized and settled but is a huge step forward!!

i am so proud of how the closet came out and gina even indicated that she thinks it's pretty close to the perfect closet that she had the container store design out for her that would have cost about $1000. soo exciting. and i had fun and enjoyed doing it!