Groom's Attire

 

My husband is always a well-dressed man, and I was so excited to see what he chose for our wedding day. After several months of searching and trying on many different suits and tuxes, he decided to go with a dark grey Black by Vera Wang slim-fit tuxedo from Men's Wearhouse. As the groomsmen were going to be coming to Nashville from Louisville and Cincinnati, working with Men's Wearhouse made it easy for each of them to schedule their own fittings in their city. To differentiate Jermaine's outfit from the groomsmen, he wore a matching grey vest, along with his own black tie and white dress shirt. The groomsmen had champagne ties, and we really liked the contrast. We didn't get a photo of them, but I found Jermaine some awesome cuff links with dragons on them from Etsy, which he loved!

This was probably around the time when I realized the boutonnieres were still in the room where the girls were getting dressed! Ha :) My Grandmum's necklace also spent the day in Jermaine's car as I had left it at home before the rehearsal!

He's just so darn handsome!!

The emotions hit home as I walked down the aisle!! Here we go!!

 

When he warmed up later in the evening, the tux looked great with the matching grey vest showing, and allowed Jermaine the freedom to dance the night away!! 

Photo by Flashtastic Photo Booth

Wobble baby!!

I posted about our newphew's outfit here a few months back. Little grey suits are so sweet!!

I love my man, and am so happy that he's got some pieces of clothing too that are his special 'wedding day' items!

xoxo mrs dobbins

Bridal Attire

Photo by Five By Five Photography & Design

As a budget bride, I had long thought that my 'dream' dress would be out of reach. After watching 'Say Yes To The Dress' on many a Friday evening, and scouring the pages of bridal catalogs, I knew that my tastes were slightly (!!) higher than what I thought was reasonable to spend. I was thrilled when I found this dress with a sweetheart neckline and a full, layered tulle skirt on the David's Bridal website, well under my $1,000 pricepoint. With only a five-month engagement, and a rush needed for a petite order, I made my decision on this dress VERY quickly - less than two weeks after we were engaged! While my Mom wasn't able to come down from Canada before our wedding, I was very thankful that Jermaine's Mom was able to be with me when I said yes to my dress! With an aggressive workout strategy, I took the risk of ordering my dress several sizes smaller than I was measuring at my fitting, despite strong objections from the staff. While it may not be for everyone, I knew that especially with my 5'1" frame, losing any weight would result in a drop of several dress sizes. I was thrilled when my dress arrived and needed only slight alterations - and it was too large!! I used two separate full slips underneath my skirt to increase the fullness, which also meant I didn't need to have the dress hemmed. I'm so happy with my decision and loved wearing my dress on our wedding day!

After months of searching, I found this gorgeous gold sash on an Etsy shop Love Like Style several weeks before the wedding. I love the intricate designs of the gold lace, and it ties in the back with lovely tan ribbons that cascaded down. I've worn it on several occasions since and love having that element of our wedding day to accessorize with.

Another Etsy find, la Boutique Isabelle provided my lovely lace headpiece. The simplicity of the lace was something that I loved, and I was happily surprised to discover that the ribbon ties on the headpiece exactly matched the gold sash I had ordered. I'm so glad I could find items that were unique and fit not only into the vision I had for my bridal attire, but the small $50 budget I had allocated for these items.

One evening last fall, Jermaine & I were driving through Louisville and happened to go past a bridal shop I hadn't seen before, Afterglow. I let out a very loud GASP when I saw this veil in the window and then had to quickly reassure Jermaine that he wasn't about to hit something! I went back a few weeks later with my sister-in-law and found that it was not only still there, but on sale! The veil is cathedral length, slightly off white, and has a darling ruffle along the edges. I opted to keep the extra length as I loved the extra volume it added.

 

My shoes were gold herringbone TOMS. I have been in love with these shoes since the day I saw them (several years ago!) and knew I wanted to have them for my wedding. Being stubbornly unwilling to buy ANY wedding items before we were engaged, I almost missed out on having these shoes, as they disappeared from the TOMS catalog one month before Jermaine popped the question. Imagine my delight when they reappeared one month before the wedding!! I ordered a pair immediately - and then the post office lost the package. A second pair was ordered, which DID arrive in time, so I was able to walk down the aisle in my dream shoes!

PS - how CUTE is my little flower girl and her dress?! She had matching gold TOMS too!! Love her!!

xoxo mrs dobbins

J&J

 Photos by Five By Five Photography & Design

I'm still in LOVE with these yarn letters that I made for our wedding. Super easy, almost free, and a lovely pop of green in our cocktail hour space. I simply traced the letters and ampersand out on some thick cardboard, then cut the shapes out. The 'J' letters were quite easy to wrap with the yarn (which was leftover from the jars I had made), only needing a small amount of glue on the backside to hold the ends.

The ampersand was another story!! I actually had to cut out the small portion in the middle, and then made another cut along the top left side of the loop to make it easier to line the yarn up. After wrapping with a mixed beige yarn and gluing the ends underneath, I took a popsicle stick to join the pieces back together along the back side, tucked the ends of the popsicle stick into the yarn and glued everything in place.

We have these fun letters up on our mantle now - along with several other wedding goodies!! They're another reminder of the wonderful day we had celebrating our love for each other.

xoxo mrs dobbins