The Dress Rehearsal Recap

Last weekend, we hosted a fabulous event called the Dress Rehearsal here at our Gainesville store. Brides came in to put the whole look together with the help of some amazing local vendors. We even had a couple photographers come in to take a few shots of the girls looking gorgeous!! Check out some of the pictures that were captured during the event and a list of all of the participating vendors.
Our wonderful vendors:

Trunk show: Lori London Accessories
Hair: 6th Street Station
Makeup: Lauren Brochu, Mary Kay Cosmetics
Photography: Green Flamingo Photo & La Dolce Vita Studio
Cakes & Treats: Posh Pastry
Flowers: Crevasse's Inc.

Sneak Peak at Couture Accessory Photo Shoot

This is a sneak peak of an amazing photo shoot that took place at our Winter Park store. The photo shoot is featuring our newest accessory arrivals and all the different looks for the wedding day. Photographer, Caroline Johnson took the photo shoot to a whole new level with creative shots of the different looks for brides. Beautiful hair and makeup was done by Makeover Station. They create the perfect hair and makeup looks for any style of bride.

Accessories might seem like such a small detail to the wedding planning, but in reality they can bring a bride's look all together for her wedding day and can be part of some of the bride's favorite pictures.

A bride wearing a simple gown can pull in feathers and cage veils to create a more modern look or a bride wearing a gown with beading can transform her look with crystal hairpins to give her subtle, elegant look. Solutions offers some of the best accessory designers such as: Erin Cole, Lori London, and BelAire Bridal.

Our Brides Featured in Gainesville Magazine!

We just got the February/March 2009 issue of Gainesville Magazine: The Wedding Issue and were excited to see three of our brides featured in the magazine!

Lindsay Levkoff & Stephen Ziegler Married Nov. 1, 2008 at Sweetwater Branch Inn. They met while working at a local bike shop in 2000 and rode off after the wedding on a bike too! They showed their individuality with special little details important to them. The bride wore hot pink and the decorations at the wedding were hot pink too.

The next couple featured was Matt Tarver & Megumi (Meg) Yoshioka-Tarver married December 31 at the Haile Village Center. The sweet couple from two different cultures came together in a Japanese-themed wedding. They met in Gainesville on match.com, while both earning PH.D's.

The next couple was Sarena Mueller & Basil Jones married November 15 at Kanapaha Botanical Gardens. Their wedding was beautiful and green too! The couple's vows included a commitment to reduce, reuse and recycle.

Congratulations to all the couples! We were so happy to see them in the Gainesville Magazine!

Trends We Love: Feathers!

Nope. They aren't just for the birds anymore. Feathers are showing up all over the chicest weddings! A soft white or ivory feather can add an ethereal touch to a bouquet, or when used as a hair piece. Feathers can also be used to add a pop of color and texture to centerpieces and boutonnieres. Some of the most popular feathers used are peacock, ostrich, and pheasant feathers. Many different types of feathers can also be dyed to match a particular color scheme.



Lori London has some great accessories with feather accents, such as the hairpin shown above. She often uses them to create beautiful hair pieces that look similar to flower petals. Some of these feathertasic pieces will be available during the trunk show the 17th-19th in our Winter Park salon, and the 24th-26th in the Gainesville salon. Come check out some of these unexpected design elements!

xoxo. Marissa

Solutions Bridal Dress Rehearsal coming up soon!

Come join us for the Dress Rehearsal on April 24th-26th...See the whole look come together with Free Bridal Hair from Sixth Street Station hair salon located in Gainesville, Florida. Sixth Street and Mary Kay will be doing makeup trials as well.

Do you have your photographer for your wedding yet? Green Flamingo Photography and La Dolce Vita Studio photographers will be here to give you all kinds of information!

If anything can melt your stress away, this will do it! Certified Massage Therapist, Joann Perryman (lic #21305) will be in the store giving complimentary neck massages. She specializes in bridal relaxation.

Posh pastry will also be here, with some amazing goodies!
And last but of course not least, there will be a Lori London Accesory Trunk Show....that you just can't miss out on! There is a special sale too, first accessory is 10% off, second accessory is 20% and third acessory is 30% off.

See you there!!

Sixth Street Station official website and myspace website:
http://6streetstation.com/location.php#hair
www.myspace.com/sixthstreetstation

My First and *ONLY* Bridezilla Moment

When wedding planning hit the small screen with shows like TLC's Say Yes to the Dress and WEtv's Platinum Weddings, a negative word given to stressed out brides became a household term...

...Bridezilla.

Source.

As a bride-to-be, I have tried everything in my power to not give anyone a reason to call me a bridezilla. I try not to give my bridesmaids and friends a hard time and I try very hard to include my fiance's opinion in every decision I make. However, even the most careful of brides is bound to have a slip-up.

Mine happens to be extra embarrassing. I was getting my hair cut and highlighted for my engagement shoot. I had heard great things about the salon, but I had never met my stylist until that day. I was in the chair and making conversation, when the topic of my wedding came up. I went to say "my bridesmaids" and it came out "my brideslaves!" I'm pretty sure I turned a thousand shades of red! If I had known the girl better, I probably would have tried to play it off as a joke. Well, it didn't happen quite like that and I just sat there awkwardly.

Here's to hoping that I won't embarrass myself like that again over the next 4 months before my wedding. Wish me luck! :O)

Go Tea

International, Award-Winning Garrett Nudd captured our simple, elegant tea length wedding gown for the Fashion forward shoot in Central Florida Brides Magazine.

The dress has a darker underlay that allows the lace to pop from the contrast. Tea wedding gowns are such a great alternative if your the practical bride that doesn't want to deal with the long train or have the traditional wedding gown. We encourage all of our brides, no matter how casual the wedding, to still get a dress that makes them feel like a bride. This gown does just that. You don't want to purchase a dress that you could wear just any other day. The Watters dress shown could also be used as a reception dress. Its fun, flirty and comfortable. Can't go wrong with those three things. Come visit Solutions Bridal today to try it on!

And you thought you had it bad....

Just the other night I was speaking to one of my friends about her bridesmaid dress. She loves her dear bride very much, but not so much the dress. The bride has nine bridesmaids and to try to accommodate 9 different style and bodies was nearly impossible. She really wanted to keep them in the same dress to keep more focus and variety in the flowers. Basically, the bridesmaid dresses worked as a nice backdrop to the gorgeous fresh flower bouquets.

My friend understood that she was the bridesmaid and not bride so ultimately it wasn't her decision. And then she admitted that it wasn't horrible and it could always be worse. I agreed, it could always be worse. This sparked my memory of a website one of the consultants found years ago. UglyDress.com. You have to check it out. Bridesmaids all over have submitted their most horrifying experience of being a bridesmaid. Its sure to make you laugh and take you back a couple of years. I rest assure you, non of the dresses displayed on the site are available or found at Solutions Bridal. So, if your bridesmaid, I promise your Solutions Bridal Bride won't end up with one of those!

After doing some research on bridesmaid dress disasters I came across a $5,000 contest at The WEtv.com for the ugliest dress. That's right, an opportunity to trade in the ugly for cash! The picture shown appears to be in the lead.

Officially married. Now what?

Just when you think your big day finished your list may not be complete, just yet. The honeymoon is over and your back to work. Your photos and thank you's are sent and received but what are you going to do with that gorgeous dress? Luckily for you, we can help. Why not keep it as long as you like. We offer a cleaning and preservation process that will perfectly seal the inch by inch cleaned dress. You can simply drop it off with us and we will take care of the rest. The box can hold up to three items to keep those memories from that special day for year to come.

The Semi-Annual Store Swap is Here!

If you are looking for bridesmaids dresses we have a great event going on in both our Winter Park and Gainesville stores from the 4th to the 12th of this month. The stores are trading some of our most popular styles from Jim Hjelm, Vera Wang, Dessy, Amsale, and Watters. The best part is that the dresses will all be 10-20% off!

Some of the great new dresses that we now have in the Gainesville store are this Jim Hjelm...


...and this dress from After Six.
Hope to see you in the store soon!