Great Balls of...Paper?

Ok let's talk about something pretty today!

When the time came to think about aisle decor I was pretty blase about the whole thing.  I mean it's pretty and all but who really notices anyways, you know what I mean? So when Collette, our wedding coordinator, asked me what my plan was, I was at a total loss (seems to be my trend). I had pinned some inspiration quite some time ago, back when Mr. Farmer and I first got engaged (and when I was still using Pinterest) but I haven't even thought about it since then. 

The reason I haven't given it much thought? Because our aisle looks like this:

photo by The Florian Gardens via Facebook

It's a nice slab of cement. So the traditional aisle runner that I wanted to do was out. Cement and aisle runners do not get along very well. The wind gets a hold of it and creates ripples and creates a tripping hazard. I don't want Mr. Farmer to whip out his EMT training on our wedding day because someone fell. I would feel awful if someone hurt themselves at our wedding. No bueno. I would have loved to have one but logistics canned that idea and let's be real here, I would more than likely be the one tripping.

  My other fabulous dumb idea was this:

photo by Vienna Ramnauth

Isn't it funny when you look back at things you thought were interesting, only to look at them now and think, WTF MISS. BARN ARE YOU ON CRACK!?

This idea is pretty in theory but I would be way too scared of someone knocking it over and staining my dress or someone stepping on broken glass. Just looking at this now gives me anxiety at all the things that could potentially go wrong for an accident prone bride such as myself. *shudder*

Thankfully, I have a pretty awesome wedding coordinator who suggested hanging something from the shepherd's hooks that I could rent from them. Hey, I like the sound of that. Mama Barn had an idea and we went with it (to be fair I had pinned this project a while ago so it was a joint effort).

Photo via Pizzazzerie.com

I figured these would be the perfect thing to line our aisle with and would be fairly inexpensive to construct.

You need:

Paper of your choice

Hydrangea Punch

Pins

Styrofoam Balls

4' Styrofoam Balls - Photo via Ebay 

Ribbon

5/8'' navy ribbon photo via The Tulle Shop

These were pretty simple to make. All you do is punch and pin. Punch and pin. We used a slightly shimmery white paper and it looks pretty awesome in real life. There were some things that made the process a lot easier though. 

The first tip: It was faster if you punched a whole sheet of paper first

Mama Barn decided at the last minute to get some sequin to add to them and it really added a nice element to the flower. Everyone who has seen them loves the little detail. 

Once all the flower petals were punched it was pretty easy. Stick your sequin, pierce your flower and then fluff.

We decided to do two colors to add some contrast up the aisle, and to help keep costs down we used regular pins that Mama Barn already had in her sewing collection (not that it saved mega bucks but makes me feel better). The original tutorial suggests using the pearl topped pins but they were more expensive and they didn't come in a large enough quantity so you could spend some serious dough on the pins. I suggest if you are going to use regular pins make sure that the head is big enough to keep the sequin from falling off, if you decide to add the sequin.

We also flexed the petals a bit before we stuck them into the ball, especially because we only used one punch per pin, whereas the inspiration used two. The longest part of the assembly process was stabbing the needle through the sequin hole and then pushing it through the paper. 

This was the easy part!

We would push the flowers into the ball and when it was finished we would go over it again to see if there were any spots that needed to be filled in or pins that needed to be moved. The paper we used was just a sheet of card stock that we got at the local Michael's. We created 12 balls and it took the three of us (Mama Barn, MOH Fluff, and me) close to about 6 hours. I wanted to see how many pins each 4" ball would take and it was roughly 150 pins for each ball (you're welcome for that). Which means we went through approximately 1800 pins and punches!!

For the pink pomanders here we wrapped it with a fuchsia tissue paper before pinning the flowers down so that the "space" between each pin wouldn't be as noticeable. At the end we had extra flowers so we combined the colors to create 2 pomanders that will be used for the first rows at the venue. We figured this would be a good way to differentiate our VIPs. 

This wasn't a very expensive project as the most expensive part was the Styrofoam balls. I totaled my costs and I came to to $50.55. Mama Barn bought about $12 worth of supplies so the total was $62.55. Thankfully the weekend we worked on this project JoAnn's was having a great sale so we used coupons for the three trips we had to make (it always sucks when you run out of something). 

My final tip: Make sure you buy enough the first time around. It's easier to return stuff than have to keep sending your brother to the craft store with a coupon and picture (way to go bro, always willing to lend a hand).

We also decided to make another kind using a different kind of paper flower. I ordered some carnations from eFavormart for pretty cheap ($49.16) after seeing some people on the boards of WB talk about them. I ordered these before Mama Barn came up with her idea to use the punched flower pomanders, however they did not go to waste. We have decided to use these as decoration throughout the venue.

I ordered white and fuchsia and made 1 solid color and 2 mixed colors. The mixed colors will be given to our flower girls to carry.

As soon as our flower girl saw this she was so excited to carry it. 

All photos personal unless noted

So there ya have it, an alternative to an aisle runner. What did you decide to line your aisle with or did you forego decor all together? 

Barns on the Loose

Two weekends ago was my bachlorette party and Mr. Farmer's bachelor party. Since all of our close friends are standing up (and quite a few haven't met each other) we decided to have a joint party instead of separate ones. It worked out better for us and our friends to do it this way, and hey it's my party I can do it however I want. 

The Friday before the big day we packed Mr. Farmer, Best Man N, Bridesmaid K (also N's girlfriend) and me into my car for a 6 hour road trip to Wausau, Wisconsin, my hometown. We decided to split the trip up and spent Friday night in the Cities (Minneapolis/St. Paul). While I was busy stitching in the front seat, Mr. Farmer was busy snapping ridiculous selfies (at a stop light of course). 

K is such a good sport

In the morning we split ways and the boys headed towards Wausau while K and I headed towards Eau Claire. I had my "re-do" hair and make-up trial, which I will share much later I promise. After Jez successfully flipped my look from bridal to bachlorette K and I hit the road to join the others. Although before pulling into the hotel we did make a mad dash to Ulta, priorities people! 

We met up with the boys and headed to the hotel to begin getting ready. Some friends showed up early while we were getting ready but they were awesome and hung out until we were all finished. Clearly our hotel room was the place to be. We ate some chow where I was able to spend some time with Mama and Papa Barn as well as my bro. I don't get to see them much and Papa Barn works weekends so it's pretty rare that I get to see my daddy for more than a few minutes when I am in town, so it was nice to chat with him, especially the weekend of Father's Day!

So I am just going to go ahead and say our party is probably not at all unique to anyone and clearly not very awe inspiring but it was a blast and everyone had a good time, so I will spare you the play by play and just give you the highlights should you be curious. If you're not skip ahead no hard feelings.

MOH Fluff spearheaded a party bus rental and that's what we did (she did a fabulous job organizing everything, shout out to Fluff). So, bar hoping. Mr. Farmer and I aren't huge party people/bar flys but we certainly had one heck of a good time and I know our bridal party and friends did!

There was dancing:

N - BM K's husband M - Miss. Barn and BM K

Many photos with my special ladies:

BM K, BM KA, BM S, me, Fluff - Fluff and Me - Me and Fluff - Me and my Aunt M

Scavenger hunt shenanigans:

 Yours truly and BM K

Make a veil out of toilet paper? Check!

GM R

Enter the women's bathroom? Nailed it!

N

Drink a drink out of a boot? Done!

Yours truly 

Dance on a table? No problem!

Mama Barn and N

Have a member of the opposite sex give you a tattoo? Complete!

Mama Barn made a quick appearance as she dropped off my bro for the festivities and they nabbed her right away. Major Kudos to Bro Barn for making an appearance despite his huge social anxiety and social phobia (was a total trooper, I love him for coming out and about!). 

MOH Fluff came up with a 3 page document of tasks for each group, for a little battle of the sexes, boys versus girls. A photo had to accompany each task for it to be marked complete. The girls totally won for anyone who cares, girl power all the way! 

For those wondering I rocked a frock from Rent the Runway:

Kate Spade - Celebrate Good Times via RTR

Of course I cannot forget the amazing shoes I wore either. Mr. Farmer surprised me with these a few days before the party. Any man who can buy designer shoes (and ones that match) is a keeper in my book! It was a wonderful surprise and I am uber excited to find another occasion to rock these babies:

MOH Fluff gifted me some goodies, so I rocked the typical tiara, sash, and carried my "Suck for a Buck" bouquet with bachlorette pride. It was totally fun getting all dressed up, even if it was only to go out in little ol' Wausau, Wisconsin- it was still a good time and we owned it.

And of course the evening wouldn't be complete without a few photos of the Barns together:

All in all it was a fantastic evening with great people and we were incredibly blessed to have all of our friends come together and throw such a wonderful party for us.  It was also a great opportunity for our friends to get a chance to meet one another and for that everyone was grateful!

What did you do for your bachlorette/hen party?

**all photos personal**

Invitation Composition: Assembly

Our invitation suite was seriously a struggle for me but I couldn't be happier with how they turned out. Obviously they are my invites and I love them so if these aren't your style no hard feelings if you skip this one. As a reminder:

Let's just dive right in.

Our invitation suite was ordered from Rebecca from mycharmingprints on Etsy. She was incredible to work with and gave me 2 additional cards for no charge. She also changed the design to match the colors I requested, and oh yeah did I mention she did it all within 24 hours?! Honestly she is fabulous and I would use her again in a heartbeat. 

I printed our invitations from U-Printing because I had a coupon and heard good reviews. I would recommend signing up for email lists; they send you coupons or promotions and it's a great way to save some cash. I was slightly apprehensive since I don't know a danged thing about printing and whatever other nonsense they ask you about, but I was incredibly pleased with the outcome. 

The outer envelope was from Envelope Mall, in their Curious Metallics line, color Ionized.

 Now I printed these myself in our basement, where our printer is located. I laid them out to dry and then stacked them up until we were ready to use them. Do you see where I am going with this? Imagine my surprise when it came time to assemble our invites and some of the envelopes were already sealed!? I wasn't thinking about the fact that it was spring in Minnesota and very humid, especially in our basement. Stacking them like I did was a disaster waiting to happen. I spread them out upstairs and was able to salvage most of them but I did have to reprint some. So tip number one - make sure you have extra envelopes for mess ups!

Don't stack your envelopes for an extended period of time if you can avoid it. You don't want to have them seal themselves (there may have been cocktails involved after I realized my mistake - regroup and recharge and all that goodness). 

The inner envelope was another Envelope Mall purchase, the Euro Flap Stardream Metallic in Lapis Lazuli.

They are much darker in person. I wanted a dark navy and these did not disappoint; they had a nice shimmer to them too. I also used a wax seal with the same pattern as Mrs. Goat. I got the stamp and wax via a Weddingbee Classified ad way back in the beginning stages of our planning, knowing that I wanted to use it on something.

I followed the same instructions the lovely Mrs. Waterfall and many Bees before me suggested. Although instead of a plate we went with wax paper so we could get a bunch of them quickly and it worked really well. Sadly after making these my glue gun bit the dust (at least it waited until after I was done)!

We went with a stacked design because I wanted to keep everything fairly simple with just a few eye catching elements. Not to mention that throughout my research, I realized that I could run into a postage problem by having the pocket fold I originally thought about. I didn't want to have to spend more than I had to so this option worked best for us.

As you can see we added an envelope liner. I ordered silver wrapping paper as a way to save some cash and it worked out very nicely. Had it been the holiday season, or had I actually known what I was going to do earlier, I would have purchased the wrapping paper during the winter months to save even more money. For those looking to do an envelope liner, I would highly suggest using wrapping paper.

 I was a little apprehensive ordering it online, since the stock picture was not very detailed but I am very happy with it. For those of you wondering, we were able to get 30 liners for an A7 envelope out of 1 roll. Mama Barn figured out the best pattern to get the most out of each roll. I ordered 5 rolls and was able to get enough for 150 envelopes including some test templates. 

Breaking this down budget wise we did pretty well:

Outer envelope - Envelope Mall: $63.12

Inner envelopes Envelope Mall: $55.77

Silver wrapping paper - Paper Source: $61.57

Ribbon - Koyal Wholesale: $49.00

Forever Please Mini-Moo: $64.68 (250)

Invitation design - Etsy: $25 

Invitation Printing (3 different cards) - U Printing: $172.71

Wax & Stamp - $17.84

Postage - $216.05

Grand total: $725.74 for a total of 200 invites 

Total cost per invite: $3.63

This was still cheaper than anything I could order online, that I liked, and even though it wasn't a full DIY I am incredibly happy with the way they turned out and hearing how much our guests loved them only makes it better!

I owe a huge thank you to Mama Barn who actually assembled the bulk of our invitation suite. Since we live 6 hours apart (total bummer) she really wanted to do something to contribute and this was the perfect chance. Everything I ordered was shipped to her and she (and even my Bro) put together everything except the wax seal, the outer envelope, the stamp and sealing.

Did anyone else have any invitation headaches? Did you come in under budget with your invitations?

Invitation Composition: You're Invited

Now that my RSVP's are finally coming in (with the deadline nearing), I can safely share the full invitation suite with the Hive (finally I know). So with the awful designs and my frustration out of the way, I was ready to move forward with having a great invitation. Behold, the Barn wedding invitations.

You are formally invited......

Our outer envelope:

The inner envelope:

The view when you open the envelope:

Here is where we used our Forever Please love logo:

Our Invitation:

Our additional information card. 

Our R.S.V.P Card:

We put together an assembly line and it took Mr. Farmer and I about 3 evenings to finish all of the invites. Our setup may or may not have been the most organized process:

And here is all of the pieces separately (excuse our awful deck):

So there you have it! All of the Barn invitation parts and pieces. I have been receiving loads of feedback from my family and friends on how much they loved these. There is nothing better to a bride than hearing all of her hard work paid off! When guests message you to tell you that your invitation is beautiful among other compliments, it certainly brings a smile to your face.

 Up next I will break it all down for you.

What do you think? Did anyone else have quite the assembly line or lack there of?

Pretty Pretty Princess Syndrome

I promise I will get back to my invitation suite reveal shortly but something else popped in my head that I wanted to talk about. I know, I know I keep stringing you along with awful designs but I promise I will reveal soon. 

Let's discuss something that is very real in the wedding world. Most of us are in this world and even past brides can relate to what I am going to talk about. Nobody ever really wants to talk about it and most brides certainly want to avoid it. Well most sane ones anyways. I call it:

Pretty Pretty Princess Syndrome

What is this? It's a complex some brides get where they cannot see anything but themselves and their wedding. They have to be that special little snowflake and be the Pretty Pretty Princess. They lose sight of what they are doing and leave a trail of destruction along the way. Most of the time we call these women, bridezillas, and for the most part we just stay out of their way with the excuse "It's her day" instead of facing her awful wrath. 

Photo by Amy Doodle via her personal blog

Well truth is, it's not "her day". I mean it is but it isn't. There are so many people involved that some brides lose sight of what the day is all about. Bringing two families together as one. Joining a couple in matrimony. It's incredibly special but it is still just one day. We put so much effort into making this a special occasion and creating lasting memories that brides everywhere can experience symptoms of PPPS. I think it's safe to say that we all know at least one bride who takes it too far though and parades around throwing temper tantrums like a two year old. Urban Dictionary defines her as:

"One ridiculous spoiled b*tch that thinks she is the center of the universe, just because her "show" (the wedding) is 18 months from now(hypothetical). Everyone else in the world has to drop everything and come running in this prime-donna's mind. The marriage will not last more than a year".

Google defines it as:

bride·zil·la

brīdˈzilə/

noun

humorous

noun: bridezilla; plural noun: bridezillas

1. a woman whose behavior in planning her wedding is regarded as obsessive or intolerably demanding.

These ladies have reached the ultimate in PPPS and have totally morphed into an entirely different person! Alas though, there is a cure, stop being so damned ridiculous! Honestly though, during our engagement and wedding planning process we start caring about things that never had any importance to us whatsoever before. I know I have obsessed over paper, chair covers, and the right color navy on more than one occasion. Honestly, WTF Miss. Barn, who cares!?! I do that's who - and that's when I shake my head and move along because the inner battle I was having is totally ridiculous. 

It is never a bad idea to take a step back and realize that it's not all about you. There are so many moving pieces and so many people involved that yes, it becomes a stressful time in your life but it doesn't need to be made any worse by developing Pretty Pretty Princess Syndrome. If you catch yourself demanding things and start turning problem solving into pouting and complaining I think it's time to "check yo' self", like seriously, do it. The last thing you want to do is start hurting people that love you and care about you because you are so wrapped up in "your experience".

People other than the bride can succumb to PPPS too. It can be a bridesmaid, a groom, a mother, or any of the people involved in helping to make this such a joyous occasion. Because there are so many people who want to be a part of this exciting time, there are plenty of opinions and at the end of the day everyone wants your wedding to be amazingly perfect. The truth? It will be no matter what because it's a day where you are joined in matrimony to your beloved. How could it not be special?! 

I have put together a little list of Pretty Pretty Princess Syndrome symptoms for the bride-to-be:

1. Instead of compromise you demand

2. Something goes wrong and you instantly start blaming someone else

3. You get upset that everyone isn't as excited as you are

4. The thought of someone else's wedding instantly has an effect on yours

5. You must make people envious of what you did

6. Obsessive over the smallest detail and can't move past it

7. You have vendors on speed dial and call them weekly to "confirm" 

8. Other people are not allowed to make suggestions

9. Your groom has no idea what is going on

10. Your wedding isn't a fun experience anymore

I think it's safe to say that every bride has had a symptom or two of Pretty Pretty Princess Syndrome to varying degrees but the key is to realize when you are being unreasonable and move past it in a respectful, grown up manner. If you can't, clearly you are not cut out for marriage. 

This is a joyous occasion and it should be nothing but a wonderfully fun time in your life, but it's more than just your life involved. Nobody else should have an effect on your bridal experience, yourself included. 

And because I love you Bees check out Business Insider's 10 Most Horrifying Bridezilla Moments. Thankfully nobody I know has ever been this bad but needless to say it gave me a good laugh!

Did you experience Pretty Pretty Princess Syndrome? How awful is that article!?

Invitation Salvation: Third Times a Charm

So last I left you lovelies I had just gotten done sharing with you how awful my attempt at an invitation was. I hope you laughed just as hard as I did (I certainly laughed resurrecting those from my trash bin). Ultimately knowing that I had no choice but to get help, I turned to a photographer friend of mine who offered to give me a hand.

However yet again we failed. I couldn't convey what it was I wanted (which is difficult to do strictly through e-mail), and we struggled communicating properly. Why? Because I still didn't know for sure what I wanted. He created something I liked but I wasn't 100% in love with it. What did he create?

photo personal 

Nice but not exactly what I was looking for. Again another failure for the Barn invitation suite. So I didn't learn from my mistake and turned to another photographer friend who offered to help. He has worked for Macy's and Perry Ellis so I thought he would be able to handle this simple task no problem. He's a design genius! 

Yet again I was wrong. Because he is so good at what he does, he didn't have time to create what I needed on such a tight deadline. I wasted so much time attempting to design something and messaging back and forth with friend D that I barely had time to come up with something new. I don't blame him, he is busy and I was being picky. There were no hard feelings but it was failure number 3 in Miss. Barn's corner. 

 

photo personal

My invitation saga doesn't end here though! I knew that I was being unrealistic and finally turned to Etsy (finally I wised up). Every time I Googled invites I would wind up on Etsy looking at some invites for inspiration. I found one designer who had a lot of invites that I liked but when I emailed her she kindly told me that she was so busy I would have to wait another 3 weeks for any work to be done. Lady, I didn't have 3 days let alone 3 weeks.

 I figured with printing time, shipping time, assembling time and mailing time I needed 2-3 weeks to accomplish everything. I gave myself a deadline to order a design by and I literally had 1 day left when I finally found my saving grace. 

Rebecca Rogers from My Charming Prints

I wanted something that was elegant and simple. Something that reflected the movement very similar to the infinity symbol. By the time I finally turned to Etsy I had pretty much given up, so when I found her shop, I was so relieved. I sent my e-mail to the designer and I held my breath. Please let there be good news. She replied within 5 minutes and I had my invitation suite within 24 hours of initial contact. PHEW!

Rebecca was so incredibly easy to work with and her prices were unbeatable. She even threw in 2 additional card designs for me for free! There are not many vendors out there that would do such a thing, but she did. She really was my saving grace during my invitation debacle. With proof in hand I sent it off to the printers and awaited the package in the mail to begin assembling them. 

Please take it from me Bees, do not attempt something you are not cut out for. Do not enlist the help of friends when you are under such a tight deadline or heck don't even know what you want. Start searching for your invites early! I never thought I would care about a design so much in my entire life until I got to our invitations, which is why I was so pressed for time. I couldn't make any decisions which is why I struggled so much. 

Did anyone else press the deadline for your invites? Did anyone else's invitations cause them as much of a headache as mine did?

Invitation Frustration

Oh invitations, you sweet amazing, little danged pieces of evil! Let's go back to the beginning shall we?

I struggled with our invitations pretty fiercely. I love receiving them in the mail and I know how important they are - how else are your guests supposed to know what to expect? However, when it came my turn to start thinking what I wanted to do, I was kind of at a loss until I stumbled upon this image:

Proud to Plan Wedding Stationary via their blog

I had it in my mind that I wanted to do and create a pocket fold invitation suite. I was bound and determined to do our wedding invitations by hand. It was this stubbornness, (I blame my mama, at least that's where she says I get it from) for being the whole reason I had such a difficult time with our invitation suite. I was too stubborn to let go of an idea. I saw these and thought, hey I can create those no problemo!

You see, I am no designer, as I have alluded to in previous posts but I was convinced I could do this invitation myself and not only do it myself but do a square invite? Way cool. It was exactly what I had envisioned until I started doing my research. You see, thanks to the fabulous bees on Weddingbee, I discovered that a square envelope/invitation is considered "odd" or " not standard" for the United States Postal Service. What did that mean to me? Big moola spent on the damned postage, that's what!

If I wanted to use a square design I would have to fork over MORE money on top of the required postage to send the danged thing. Well if you remember correctly, we have a lot of people on our guest list, there was NO WAY I was going to pay extra for 160 envelopes simply because of their shape. We are already spending a lot on postage because of our large guest list; square envelopes were out. I am so thankful I found this out before I started designing these bad boys. For those of you considering square invites, heed my warning, be advised about the extra postage!

Knowing that I couldn't have a square envelope I decided to switch my gears to designing a rectangular invite itself. I knew that I needed to design the invite before I could move along to any other part of the invite.

 Seriously peeps, what I am about to show you is awful. Thank goodness I have enough sense to know that I suck at life when I "attempted" to create this. I give you for your viewing pleasure, Miss. Barn's attempt at an invitation:

Are you cringing? Because I am!

Clearly this was my first draft. I obviously learned from my first failure (or so I thought) and after refining it a bit I came up with this little gem:

Cringing again?! Because I am!

Every time I would modify my design I would do the unthinkable. I would Google invitations and find some other invite that I liked better. This went on for a good 2 weeks. Design something, Google something better. Re-design something, Google something better. Eventually I just gave up. I was SERIOUSLY running out of time (based on my calculations) and clearly, let's face it, I sucked! 

I really needed to turn to the professionals, so to Etsy I went. I still wanted to do our invites myself so I decided to find a downloadable invitation suite that I could submit to a printer. That way I still had some control over our invites. Seriously listen to me, don't bite off more than you can chew. If you don't know a thing about graphic design, don't try it. If for one second it crosses your mind and you think, well maybe I could try it out, I encourage you to look at my pitiful attempts above and reconsider. 

When it comes time to pick out your invitation suite you really need to decide how you want to tackle it. Do you want to:

1. Do the whole thing yourself

2. Only do certain pieces yourself

3. Let the pros do all the work

Once you figure out what route you want to take, STICK TO IT! Do not change your mind midway through. The whole invitation process takes a while as there are a lot of steps and a lot of pieces to worry about.  You don't want to waste a whole bunch of time changing your mind. Take it from me, do not let invitations consume weeks/months of your life as they did mine. Some times you need to let ideas go because they are unrealistic. Don't be unrealistic. 

Did anyone else have any invitation struggles? How awful are those designs?!

Rehearsing Attire

As I am eagerly awaiting showing of the Barn invitation suite, let's move onto something else fun!

Mr. Farmer and I went shopping the weekend of our anniversary and in order to kill some time before meeting a friend, we decided it would be a good time to pick out his rehearsal dinner attire (we were at the Mall of America, I mean hello?!). Mr. Farmer told me that he really wanted to get something that he could wear to the weddings we have coming up (my aunt, my cousin, BM S, another cousin, and PA C). We have a lot of weddings coming up!

We happened to be passing Hugo Boss when I made the suggestion, so we started our search there as we both saw a shirt we liked on a mannequin. Plus if we were going to shop at Hugo we might as well make sure it would be something that could be duel purposed.

Shirt via Hugo Boss

We were set up with a consultant right away and he phenomenal. He was incredibly knowledgeable and pulled all the right pieces to make up a perfect outfit for Mr. Farmer, all based around the shirt we liked best. He lead me to a seating area and promptly gave me some water while I waited for Mr. Farmer to emerge from the dressing room. He gave him a pair of shoes to try on with the outfit so we could get a feel for the entire "look".

We added this jacket to make his outfit a touch more formal. It's pretty awesome because it has a faux back (for lack of a better term), so you can see through to the outside from the inside, but not in from the outside. Confused?! That feature alone basically sold us on it as Mr. Farmer is always hot. Like always. I'm in a sweatshirt, socks, sweatpants, under a blanket and is he shirtless, wearing shorts and sweating to death. Opposites attract they say!

Jacket via Hugo Boss

This jacket is only available online in Germany, so don't be alarmed if you click on the link and it's in German. It's only available in stores in the U.S. (thank you handy "chat with a live representative" option, otherwise I would have never found that out.)

Anyways, we paired it with a slim fit pant as pictured above in navy. Mr. Farmer wanted some navy pieces for his wardrobe anyways, so this worked out perfectly. To finish the outfit off our consultant picked a red silk tie to match the shirt and he also picked a coordinating pocket square. I think he looks pretty darn spiffy, but I am a little biased of course!

crappy photo personal

For any of those guys out there who are reading and don't know, if you choose navy you are supposed to wear BROWN shoes. Now that his outfit was off at the tailors it was my turn to choose an outfit.

I knew all along that I wanted to go with something from Rent the Runway. I had used them for a date night dress and for my bridal shower and was really impressed by their service, so it was just a matter of narrowing down my choice. Also so many lovely Bees before me have had such good luck I knew this was the right route to go.

My first pick was this:

Erin by Erin Fetherston Anabel Lurex dress via RTR

However after reading the reviews, most girls with a large bust said the top looked funny. I debated whether I should just bite the bullet but decided nah I will pass. I didn't want to have to mess around with an ill fitting top all night long. Remember my pet peeve?

So I had to move along. I kept coming back to this little number though.

Carmen Mark Valvo - White Halo Dress via RTR

I knew that I wanted to wear a white dress because let's face it, what's more bridal than white? It doesn't hurt that it's a perfect summer color, (just don't be wearing it to someone else's wedding). When I showed the dress to Mr. Farmer he loved it and said I should go for it. 

Mr. Farmer and I love to dress up and since we obviously live on a farm, we don't get the chance as often as we would like, so this was a part of the process we were pretty excited about. I think we are going to look pretty fabulous, but what do you think?

What did you wear to your rehearsal dinner? Have you used RTR for any special events?