Bridesmaids.

I have 7. And each of them are beautiful, creative and stunning in a variety of ways, live all over this great world, and each are experiencing different phases of their lives.

Kim my sister-in-law (living in Malaysia) is my Matron of Honor, Amanda is pregnant with baby #3, Domenica is currently opening a restaurant in the California wine country, Arwyn is finishing up school at Texas State, Heather is in Colorado editing and snowboarding, Kristen has become a regular on Fox news, and Brandi's blog and business are exploding.

So because I have such a unique set of women standing with me on my wedding day, a unique plan had to be set into place. And that plan is more like having no plan really at all because unleashing them to be as wildly creative as possible is the best idea ever.

So I sent each of them a personlized Bridesmaid Booklet with a schedule, fabric samples of blues I liked but wasn't partial to, their dress tag, personal comments on dresses, shoes, hair and accessories (found written underneath the fabric samples) and a note thanking them for being part of the experience. Early on, I found this photo and thought "Hmmm, not everyone has to match! And not everyone will want to wear the same style dress!" So I let 'em loose. Last week I was in Hobby Lobby and found these brilliant orangey red flowers, so vibrant and LOUD. I couldn't shake the color out of my head and began scheming... And on Saturday, we found this dress in a magazine my mom sent me, Brandi named it Chartreuse, Domenica's eyebrows raised approvingly, and I said "Yes, okay! Let's add the CHARTREUSE too!!"

This is the dress that started all the wild talk. Click on it to get a better idea of the color. I googled it and love this definition: "A half green, half yellow color; it is precisely halfway between green and yellow, so it is 50% green and 50% yellow. It was named because of it's resemblance to the green color of one of the French liqueurs called green chartreuse."

I'm ecstatic about how this is all coming together, how crazy and free we get to be with the colors and details. Makes it WAY more fun.

Not sure about shoes and jewelry just yet, but I know we'll have another collaboration session and come up with something incredible.

How does all this play into wedding decorations and centerpieces? I'm still sketching out all of those ideas, but I will tell you we have great direction and I'm already collecting things from thrift stores all over town :)

We have a girl's weekend planned in April and my dream is that it will be a time for us all to be together, laughing, hiking, cooking, resting and being.

And because so many are out of town, we have another girl's night scheduled for Thursday night before the wedding. Friday morning I scheduled a photo shoot with the incredible Cody Bess. I thought this would save on time Saturday before/after the wedding and would also give us more time to hang and do something fun.

Cody and I both share a deep admiration of Annie Leibovitz and have this vision for my photos with bridesmaids:
As for me? I'm not telling you anything about my dress just yet, but I will tell you for my Something Blue, I'll be wearing these :)

Clementine is my favorite jeweler and made these from Lapis Lazuli, used by Cleopatra for eyeshadow.

So that's all for now, I think? I'll post more fun stuff as we decide! Looking forward to brunching and thrifting with Kristen on Saturday, a very productive day that will be I'm sure :)