Bling Bliiiiiiiing

I am a beautiful jewelry gal.

I am not a kitchy, trendy jewelry gal.

Don't get me wrong. I have a few pairs of funky looking earrings (that I almost never wear), but primarily, I love the silver/white gold with diamonds/stones type jewelry.

And vintage or intricate jewelry is by far my favorite style.

So in considering my jewelry for the big day, obviously I've been drawn to vintage(looking-I'm on a budget!) jewelry. That's why I have been drooling over this month's Martha Stewart Weddings magazine! Just look:

There are quite a few in there that are just darling. But need I remind you of how great MY ring is?!

Okay, now that I got that our of my system... ;)

I have been looking for jewelry to wear with my dress, but my problem is I have this thing. Maybe it's unique to me, I don't know.

I cannot stand wearing BOTH a necklace and earrings for any occassion. It's just too much going on! And stud earrings look silly on me because I have along neck. I'm a chandalier earring girl. So do I do earrings and not the necklace? And what if the necklace competes with my veil or doesn't match the beading on the dress or what if there's soooo much beading on the dress that even earrings would compete.... Or what if my 90-ft train.... ??

Okay, so some of that was to throw David off the trail when he inevitably reads this blog. But do you see my point? I have major OCD issues when it comes to wearing jewelry, and I just want it to look pretty without surrendering my comfort.

So the necklace and earings are on hold. But there is something else I absolutely love and want more than you know....

Again, from Martha, some of the most beautiful bracelets ever! I love the top one in the middle, the top one on the left, and the bottom one on the left if it weren't turquoise. For a bracelet, if I have one, I'm going big or going home. How glamorous are these?!

Finally, I've made one other decision: Hair jewelry!

I love my veil and don't want anything to detract from it, so I've decided that in my "change" from the ceremony to the reception, I'm gonna make like a rich bride. Instead of having two dresses (which I believe is ridiculous in one nite anyway), I'll have two hair pieces! My veil will be for the ceremony only. Then I'll take the veil out and add in a beautiful piece of hair jewelry to glam things up after hours!

My picks so far?

Tigerlily jewelry has some incredible pieces. I'm not totally decided, but just look at their loveliness!

And these are just the combs! Look at the headbands!

Drool....

Now, for my maids I'd love to do something like this I found via Mackenzie on Something Old, Something new.

From PenelliBelle on Etsy

I love love LOVE the side clasps! I don't know if this is something that will work with the dresses we have picked out right now, but I love these!

That's all the jewelry pron for now!

She's got the dress!!!!

But no, you won't be getting pictures this post!

Last weekend I took a trip up to PA to go dress shopping with my mom, my sister-in-law, and my mom's best friend (who is basically a second mom to me).

We decided we'd travel to Pittsburgh for some non-corporate shopping and I made an appointment at a store in the Strip district called Carlisle's of Pittsburgh. With a reputation like "America's Oldest Bridal Salon" how could you go wrong, right?

Anyone that knows me knows that once I get my mind set on something, I'm a stickler for getting what I want. So when I walked into that salon at 11am, I knew what I would be getting. I'll spare the details here, to keep it a surprise, but I flat-out told my salesperson, Cathy, what I would be looking for. She made a couple of suggestions right off that I shot down immediately, and I'm not sure if she was impressed or put off by it!

I probably tried on 8 dresses, tops.

I found MY dress within an hour.

I tried MY dress on once, then again, then once again after one more crack at the racks.

Cathy added the perfect veil (a type I had in mind in all my internet research) and that was it!

My sister-in-law snapped a couple of quick cell phone pics (what would we do without technology?!) of the bust of the dress to get jewelry ideas.


It was pretty much decided quickly, and everyone who came agreed. In fact, my second mom barely let me get 3 steps out of the dressing room before she cried out, "That's the one!"

Needless to say, I'm pretty excited. It's been ordered and will take about six months to get into Pittsburgh. That'll be about the time I head to PA for a bridal shower, so I'm picking up the gown and bringing it back to Charlotte for any alterations.

Now, what to do about shoes? ;)