If I was a Southern Belle...

Last weekend, we went over to Oak Alley Plantation in Vachaerie, La., about sixty miles from New Orleans. It is a plantation which was built in 1837-39 and famous for its alley of 28 evenly spaced giant live oak trees. When I got there, the first thing I said was how beautiful would it be to have a wedding here! Well, I inquired and of course, they do weddings there. They even have little bed and breakfast cottages.

Absolutely gorgeous and a great story behind the "big house". Jacques Telesphore Roman had the house built for his new wife, Celina.

(Oak Alley Plantation website)

(Bray Danielle Photography)

Check it Off...

Since my dress arrived in November, I have been constantly looking for cool wedding shoes, but didn't want to pay a fortune. I would usually end up perusing MyGlassSlipper.com and ebay for them. I saw these on My Glass Slipper but alas found out they are last season and were sold out. Damn you!Then I started looking on ebay's site. I found a pair of Jimmy Choo and Vera Wang shoes for pretty good prices, HOWEVER none of them were my size.

A couple weeks ago (I am so sorry classicbride!), I found these on ebay and put in a bid. I thought they would work but didn't know for sure until I tried them on last night. Well they perfectly match my dress and I only spent 50 bucks (plus shipping). Yeah!

Some advice on if you start looking for shoes on ebay - make sure to narrow your search to your size only...l fell in love with the Jimmy Choos and even tried talking myself into thinking I could fit into a size 7 shoe. Also - start early when looking for shoes on ebay. I checked daily on ebay beginning in early November- and just bought these two weeks ago.

SEC-ond Again!

Ok...I am back from New Orleans! We will not talk about the Game. Up until Monday night, we had the best time! I had not been back there since 2003, so it was so nice to see the city and it looks like it is coming back. There is still crazy Hurricane Katrina reminders (ex: cars still in parking garages that were there before the hurricane hit and the owners have never come back to get them, etc...We even walked past a theater that has been abandoned and the posters in the "Now Showing" windows are plays that were going to be opening the week of Aug. 27, 2005. Just crazy). But the city has recovered very well and the French Quarter was just hopping crazy with LSU and OSU fans all weekend.

Other exciting news -yesterday was the one-year anniversary of our engagement!

Umm...Chocolate...

Continuing with the bridesmaids gift trend, how about a gift certificate to this yummy Chicago place - Chocolate For Your Body? Doesn't it sound so good and if you order the Bridal Spa Package, the bride receives a customized facial, massage, lash extensions, manicure and pedicure for free!!

Bridesmaids gifties

I have had a little ADD lately and instead of focusing on a couple things that I probably need to get done, I have been looking all over for the bridesmaids gifts - something that probably coule wait. I really love the idea of giving them a monogram bag and robe (my inspiration came from this knottie bio on Pearls Events blog). I found these bags on Fresh Ink. How adorable are these?! They had a ton more that I could totally see giving to my girls.

A Fellow Chicago Blogger

(photo from Imaginative Studio)

Yeah, Chicago! I love coming across another blogger, who hails from our great city - A Windy City Wedding. Welcome! (I have updated my earlier Chicago post). UPDATE: Yeah! I found another great Chicago blogger - It's A Jaime Thing! A big blog hug to you!

Another Wedding

Exciting news - My fiance's niece got engaged over the weekend! (Yes - his niece. He is the youngest of a very big family and his first niece is only six years younger than him!). Like me, she wants to get married all at the same place and not do the church thing. So it has been sort of fun to pull out my old files and hand over some of the sites that I loved, but couldn't do. She is teetering back and forth on getting married either in the city or heading out to the suburbs. I rattled off a couple downtown sites off the top of my head, but would love anyone else's input...She is definitely looking for something unique and possibly inexpensive (HA!).

Downtown Chicago

Cafe Brauer

A New Leaf

The Stadium Club at Wrigley Field (I am not kidding. My friend just went to a wedding there a couple weeks ago and said it was awesome!)