The One Where My Mom Wears a Dress

Although my mom is unquestionably beautiful, has flawless skin and a rockin body, she'll be the first to call herself a tomboy.

She grew up with 3 brothers, races motocross with my brothers, got her black belt a year or two after I did (at age 35) is an excellent shot with a handgun, prefers a stick shift and regularly hounds me to go skydiving with her. Case in point, she's awesome. She also raised 3 children, did all of the above, and went back to school to graduate with a business degree all at the same time. She's my role model in all that I do. She does not, however, wear many dresses! She jokes that the only real dresses she's ever worn were for prom and on her wedding day, and my grandma jokes she would've shown up in slacks to those too, if she could've!

I think she's plain silly, because as you can tell, she sure did enjoy trying on these!

My mom was 21 when she had me, her first child, so she'll only be a youthful 43 at the wedding. She was quick to demand that she not be put in any old 'grandma dress.' You know the type!

Cameron Blake by Mon Cheri

So off we went to the mall. The funny thing is, my mom was cursed almost immediately by the wedding faux-paux of white dresses. Pretty much everything she liked was some variation of white or cream! I kept my cool, obviously, and it became more of a joke than anything else. Besides, she insisted that people still dye clothing these days, which remains unconfirmed.

One such example was this, which we found at a BCBG Maxeria. I really did like everything about it except that it was stark white! We almost bought it too, "to dye it", until the store refused to honor a sale price, and then we left on principal.

That was the only contender from our first trip, but a second trip to Macy's at Northpark bore more fruit.

Check out that sassy hip! This one remains my favorite.

We liked everything about this one but the shoulders. Isn't that a bummer when one detail ruins the whole dress?

The attitude returns, and I loved this Calvin Klein dress! Mama Manatee didn't think it was formal enough, but it sure was slimming.

 Pictures definitely dont do this one justice. It was a very pretty light silver, not cream like in the picture. It also had sequins all over that picked up the light in a gorgeous way.

We ended up putting the silver dress and darker blue dress on hold, hopefully to return with MIL Manatee to see if we they find anything they both like!

I bet none of you believe that Mama Manatee doesn't like dresses either, the way she was sassing it up in her pictures! We had so much fun we forgot to get to the main mall to make a return before it closed!

Did you make a day out of 'finding the dress' for your mom too?

Video Killed the Budget...Until!

Disclaimer: I'm going to hope all of you love wedding videos of strangers as much as I do, because I've included a few!

Guys, I was just not feeling videography at first. I, like many others, thought it was just another expensive expense we couldn't afford. And I was perfectly happy thinking so! Until the lovely Mrs. Coach (or maybe Vanessa McKellar?) went and ruined it for me.

The first time I became even the slight bit interested in videography was after Coach posted about choosing her videographer, which happened to include this incredible piece by Vanessa McKellar.



The music, the love, the FUN! It was all captured so perfectly! And danggit, hive, I was hooked. Soon I was creepin all over the interwebs for more and more of these videos. Mr. Manatee found me several times cuddled up with my laptop and my comfy comforter (IKEA, you can make a mean goosedown.) with a single tear and the fear that our budget was out the window on this one.

Well, seriously, miracles happen. As it turns out, the woman that originally handled the Wedding coordination at our ceremony location passed the reins to a new coordinator. This coordinator met with us to discuss our membership and for the final word on if we wanted the sanctuary vs. the chapel. We'd been members for about 9 months at this time, and been attending faithfully. She was shocked that we still hadn't received any info about any member discount, and promptly gave it to us. And I swear. I danced. My eyeballs popped out of my skull. I kid you not, it was a grand cheaper than what we had been quoted for non-members. A G. One thousand dollars. I literally hugged the woman for releasing this information that made such a huge difference. Videography was on!

After checking out Ms. McKellar's website, it quickly became clear that no matter how the budget was coddled and stretched, it was just not going to happen with her. So I kept looking. The downside was that by the time we started looking at the beginning of June, we were no longer 'ahead of the game'. At only a year out from our wedding, we didn't have the pick of the litter anymore! It was a long process, but so worth it!

I initially stumbled upon Jeffrey Coombes at JChristopher Films. It seemed like a miracle, too good to be true. His prices started at $500. Turns out it was, since he was booked! However, remember that strategy I talked about about asking vendors if they could refer other professionals with similar styles? He kindly referred us to the talented Candlelight Films. Their videos were just as swoon-worthy! Their swanky website alone led me to believe that maybe we were back out of our budget. I was right.

Sarah + Kyle :: Coming Soon from CandleLight Films on Vimeo.

I told them upfront I was not looking for any type of discount, since June is prime real estate, and we all have bills to pay! Clint and Lauren were happy to refer us to the buried treasure, I Do Cinematics.

Now guys, I've said it before and I'll say it again (like with our wonderful photographer June Bug Company). If you glean nothing else from my posts let it be this. Get. In. On. The. Ground. Floor. 

 Matt and his now-fiance Claire were brand spankin new on the scene, but they had talent out the ears. Since we were mostly working on trust, they didn't have many videos to show me at the time, they were willing to work with us on our budget and got us an amazing package for an amazing price. Did I mention they are incredibly talented? They've recently been shooting a ton of styled shoots with some serious players in the wedding world like Southern Fried Paper, After Yes and Couture Events by Lottie. And did I mention they're already on the Black Book for Wedding Chicks and been featured on Ruffled Blog? Seriously. Talent. We met once and hit it off, and it was a done deal. I'm subscribed to them on Facebook, and every time they post some great news about their thriving business and recent engagement (yay!) I'm so happy and just a little more in love with them!


erica + jason // sneak peek from Matt McNeill on Vimeo.

If you havent figured it out by the videos I've posted, I adore the 'sneak peak', which are usually less than 5 minutes. I'm a strong believer in that your co-workers and acquaintances dont want to see a 300 picture album of your wedding. They dont even necessarily want to see a 12 minute video. But hey, under 5 minutes? Post that shiz on Facebook, on Twitter, wherever your heart desires. Flaunt it, its adorable.  

I hope I've been a videography eye opener like Mrs. Coach! Were any of your vendors a labor of research love? And wasn't it totally worth it?