wedding recap...still to come

so i had every intention of pulling together this awesome blog post tonight about this past weekend's wedding. instead, i got home from work, went for a run, took a shower and then passed out cold on my sofa for three hours. whoops. apparently i haven't quite recovered from all of the fun.
and it was so much fun. it was such a blessing being able to stand up beside gracie and aaron as they said their vows and support them in the promises they made to one another, and so much fun celebrating with them after the fact. almost everyone i loved was there, and we had a super time. i can't wait to share more photos, but in the meantime, i'll leave you with this one from their super cute, i'd-be-lying-if-i-didn't-admit-i-had-a-little-crush-on-him wedding photographer, zack hamby. enjoy and check back for more when i am able to manage staying awake like a normal person.

photo: zack hamby photography

here comes the bride(smaid)

tonight i did some serious searching for a dress for next week's impending nuptials. i haven't blogged much lately (sad), so in case you don't interact with me on a regular basis and haven't heard me talking incessantly about next week's wedding-of-the-decade, let me brief you. aaron is my brother. he is cool and stylish and has a swank job at one of charlotte's best architecture firms. he is marrying gracie, a girl he met while in college. she is beautiful, sweet, so smart and creative, and has the best manners of anyone i know. i get a thank you note for something almost every time i see her. and they're always the really pretty, fancy kind. the ones you get at paper source and want to frame. a + g are getting married in wilmington and it's going to be a big fancypants affair with lots of events.

first, let me say how MUCH i love gracie for choosing this dress for her bridesmaids:

isn't it gorgeous? (although the model is terrifying me.) it's lilly pulitzer (go figure) and the stripes are actually little golden threads woven into the fabric. it's one of those dresses i would see in the store and wish i had a reason to buy. now i have a reason and it's going to be mine forever after. i can't wait to wear it. seriously. i LOVE it.

i'd like to say i'm just completely amped about next weekend (because i am), but there's been a little sadness too. i would be lying if i said watching aaron and gracie walk through this process together hasn't made me jealous about the fact that i'm not getting married anytime soon. and insecure. no one wants to be the groom's-single-older-sister. ew. so naturally i've been putting a lot of pressure on myself to have some fab frocks for all of the festivities. combine that with the fact that i'm ridiculously cheap, and i've been having a time finding anything i like. i hit nearly every store at southpark mall tonight. first, a few thoughts:

1. what is with all the one-shoulder dresses? they were cool last year and aside from an occasional re-wear, i'm seriously over them.
2. never in my life have i found so many beautiful white/ivory lacy dresses. why does that happen the one time that it's inappropriate to wear such a dress?

3. why did this supremely perfect dress (alice + olivia) have to cost so much? if it had been up to me, i would have bought it and been done.
4. why do dresses cost so much and still fit so badly? i'm a size 6-8 here, people. pretty standard. most of what i put on was horribly unflattering and just fit poorly.

i had all but given up when i stopped in ann taylor on my way out of the mall. um. when did ann taylor become awesome? i think i might have found a new favorite store. i liked nearly everything in the place. color, neutrals, work wear, weekend wear. everything. i went a little crazy and tried on much more than dresses. look at all those goodies! that blazer was the best thing ever and if anyone wants to buy it for me, i'll take a size 6.

i ended up surprising myself by falling in love with the bright pink deconstructed sheath dress. (even before i realized it was 50% off). let me say that these images above from the site do no do it justice. it is gorgeous and modern and so flattering. and totally unfussy. it has that oh-i-just-threw-this-on-and-look-fabulous air. after wearing it around the dressing room for a while soliciting compliments from anyone who wanted to give them, i walked out of the store with a fantastic rehearsal dinner dress. 

in a perfect world, i would style it up like this. given that i own nothing even remotely similar to these items, the likelihood that i'm going to pull it together in less than a week is probably not great. i may have to get creative with what i've got. the good news is the sock bun is always cool and won't require any planning or effort.

in other wedding weekend fashion news, i plan on picking this little number up on monday at ivy & leo by my office. that is, if no one has bought it yet. i've been stalking it for a couple of weeks now and the verdict is in. i need it.


much more wedding goodness to come. for real.

photo credit: 1.brightyoungthoughts 2.lillypulitzer 3.nordstrom
 4. @cdcote on instagram 5/6.anntaylor 7.polyvore 8.designerbagsanddirtydiapers