And the dress winner is...

  Forever 21. It took me like 30 minutes to find 2 of the 4 dresses. Then I stumbled across the 3rd by mistake. Sadly, the maroon-ish dress looked like PJs in person. I didn't even try it on. It was sad. You can see it again here. 

   I then headed into the dressing room and was given the ONLY stall without a working light fixture above it. *sigh* I know everyone loved dress #3 and I did too. However, there should be a disclaimer that if you're over 5'7, you shouldn't wear it. The "waist" came up to my bust line almost.

   There I was. Ready to board the "Good Ship Lollipop". A little too precious for my 5'10 frame. I tried on a gray lace dress with the same shape but worse. I did not photograph that. You're welcome.

   And the winner is...

   It just worked! I'm thinking black opaque tights with black pumps. Retro style. Or maybe just no tights and black flats? Guess we'll see when October 1st comes. And special thanks to the bride, Alix, for weighing in!!! You guessed it after I had bought it! Good eye, kid.

Options. Of the dress persuasion.

   I love getting dressed up. I have a wedding next weekend and I'm thrilled to get all fall-style dressed! But I haven't decided what look I want yet. I found a couple adorable choices at Forever 21 (one of my faves). This wedding is partially outdoors and the reception is in a classy restaurant right in my town of Woodbury! (yay Alix and Cliff!!)

I saw this first one at the store last week. LOVED it in person but didn't have time to try it on. Super-duper cheap. Thoughts? Maybe with some black pumps and black jewelry?

Found here!

Found here

This one is nowhere on the site, but I saw it in the store. So it exists!

 here, of course.

I realize they are all very similar, minus the gold + black. So help a sister out. What do you think? They all feel very "Autumn Wedding" to me, no pun intended. That's a lie. I totally meant it. Help me anyway, though.

The gross thing on my dress

   Some of you may have noticed I posted pics from the wonderful wedding this Saturday...but none with me in them. Weird, right? No. I wanted to make you all wait. I wouldn't even tell my 13 year old cousin, Lea, what I chose to do.

   Let me begin by saying that there is nothing like being in a hotel by yourself. It's so peaceful and relaxing. I sat on a fresh bed, Kindle in hand and housed a Subway turkey, bacon and avocado 6 incher. Then I took a nap. It was just amazing. The room was the prefect temperature and sunny. I was in my glory! It was nice considering I couldn't sleep well, though I had my bed at home to myself because my husband was with his BFFs pre-wedding. I was up at 5 that morning (Probably residual anxiety from my own wedding planning). Then I got ready in the hotel and pretended I was a hollywood starlet.

   The final outcome. I took a few pics of myself and then my mother did as well when I stopped at her house between the church and hall. Did I go curly or straight? The answer is both. By the end of the rehearsal my hair was a curly ball of FRIZZ. So I blew it straight and then curled it!

  I was happy with the results and thank you all so much for weighing in! It was brought to my attention by a friend that the short hair straight pics weren't awesome. So I think the curl was the biased vote. 

   The wedding was beautiful. The bride looked like Cinderella, the groom let all his guys wear ball caps to the reception. There was a DJ and live acoustic singers to perform the country version of "Heaven". It was all very pleasing and personal to the bride and groom's tastes. My Aaron did the best man speech which he had spent hours preparing.

   I forgot to bring in the photo booth pictures we all took. That was the party favor and it was SO MUCH FUN! It was a great night and congratulations to Wes + Kelly!

   The down side to the black dress I wore. It was like wearing PJs and I loved how it looked. However, on the ride back to the hotel in the shuttle Aaron dumped all his luggage on my lap so he could get in. We then just left it there. Upon entering the elevator my sister in law, Laura screeches and points at the front of my dress. "What's ON you?" I look down and to my horror there is a baby slug sliming around the front of my beautiful dress. Aaron flicked it off and it landed on the door to the elevator. Everyone got a real kick out of it appearing and disappearing each time the door opened.

Hello Sluggy. Brought to you by Sanrio.

   The grossest part was his remnants that he left on my new dress. I'm mortified to walk into my cleaners and say "Hi, can you get slug off my dress?"

   Freaking disgusting. I tried to wash it off with cold water yesterday and it just reactivated the slime components and it went everywhere. I will never feel bad again if I step on a slug in my walkway outside the condo  after a rain storm.

   XO    Autumn Van Weir