Weddingbee Blog

Sure, e–photos are pretty and fun, but what about using them to try out vendors/your skills before the wedding? Mr P and I call this “getting the most bang for our buck”. Sure, we were “trying out” our photographer, but we were also trying out an Etsy dress maker, my DIY skills for a hair flower (more on this in an upcoming post!), a makeup artist, and our skills (or lack of) in front of the camera.

my illustration of the dress

E-photos gave me the perfect excuse to order a 1950’s party dress from the Etsy dress maker who is at the top of my list for a custom wedding dress.

Back in the beginning of August, I started chatting with a dressmaker (more on her later) on Etsy about a wedding dress and possible e-photo/rehearsal dinner dress. I was 90% sure that I wanted a tea length 1950’s wedding dress but wanted to try the style on before committing. Also, it sounded like a great idea for a cool engagement photo/rehearsal dinner dress (can you say double duty!). We designed a grey tea length dress with a yellow and white cummerbund. The dress has a yellow petticoat to make it poof—oh, so much fun! I walked away with this fabulous dress and petticoat for around $200 including shipping. Before you choke, let me remind you that this dress will also double as my rehearsal dinner dress. (Plus, I got a steal on the shoes!)

Femia of porshesplace outdid herself! The dress is gorgeous. I’ll let our professional e-photos do it justice in a later post, but I can give you a sneak peek of the petticoat.

There is something about a petticoat that makes you feel girly.

Lovey love love the star stitching on the hem…

So, what does a gal wear with such a kick a$$ dress? Some killer heels, of course. I figured that since I wasn’t going to wear these heels that much (e-photos, rehearsal dinner, maybe a time or two after that) I didn’t need to sink much money into them. I discovered Urban Original, where there was a wide selection of yellow pumps. I bought two pair, both for under $20—not knowing which color yellow would match the dress better.

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The first pair ended up being too dark for the dress, so I went with the second pair, which were a perfect match for the dress. I should note that I didn’t expect these shoes to be exceedingly comfortable. I don’t wear yellow that often, so they just had to be pretty.

With all this fanciness, what was Mr Pretzel going to wear? Dark grey slacks with an off white button French cuff shirt and a light grey vest, similar to this grey vest. He also changed into a more casual off-white button down, grey vest, and jeans.

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Don’t worry, we also planned to change into more casual clothes (and some Chuck Taylors, of course) for a little variety. Planning our outfits was fun, but most of all we were looking forward to getting some coaching on how to take photos. We are truly awkward in this department. We’ve been practicing, and we’re doing better. (Thanks Tyra!) Just taking more photos together really helps. We’ve realized that Mr Pretzel squishes himself down to be my height (5′2 to his 5′11) and thus gives himself 3 chins, and that in fully body shots, I like to turn my widest parts square to the camera. Hopefully only 1 chin showed up for photos, and I kept my widest parts looking thin. LOL…

I can’t wait to share some of the locations in Seattle that we used as well as some super cool props… yes, I said props.

Did you use e-photos as an excuse to try out some things for your wedding?