Spotted: Brilliant Idea, Nailed

As many brides know, Essie nail polish can’t be beat. Their simple design, vast array of relevant shades and their no-chip reputation make Essie the queen bee when it comes to painting your nails and toes. Spotted: the perfect wedding day colors shown on the Wedding Collection display at Pure Beauty on Fillmore Street in San Francisco. They also package a mini set of four colors for $12.50; what a thoughtful idea to hand out to your bridesmaids as part of their gift from you. After all, just like we can’t have enough black shoes, we can’t have enough pale nail polish colors either!

To take a peek at the line, visit The Wedding Collection.

Spotted: Robyn Rhodes, Jewelry Designer

Robyn Rhodes is a natural, making jewelry as a hobby since she was 12yo. Eight years ago, she complimented her aunt on her necklace and thought "I can do that". This inspired her to pick up her old hobby and begin creating unique pieces for friends and family. Thus, her line was born.

Robyn says designing for brides is one of her favorite challenges. She loves to create pieces for a bride’s biggest day, andtakes her creative process very seriously: “You don’t want to overshadow the bride and her dress.” Her basic take on creating wedding jewelry is that she wants her clients to wear the jewelry over and over again. Think: timeless and classic.

What can you expect when working with Robyn to create one-of-a-kind pieces for your big day? For starters, Her attention to detail and her love of neutral stones that you will be able to wear for years past your wedding day. She also loves to layer, giving people the impression that it took you forever to get the look, when in actuality, it took about 30 seconds to put on.

“It is important for me to designs pieces that you can wear all different ways, so you get the most out of your RR piece,” she says. “I am always coming up with new designs, so every time someone logs onto my site, they will see something new!” One last note: all her materials are made in the USA. We think that’s pretty sparkly.

To view her beautiful collections and for 20% off, visit:
http://www.robynrhodes.com/

Mention code: RRFANS

Julia's Fashion File: Bubble Gum, Be Gone

Having been a Maid Of Honor myself, I know that shopping for bridesmaids’ dresses can be a bit tricky. Lucky for me, the bride chose an elegant, affordable dress that I still like to this day. However, ‘tis not the case for many maids and matrons out there adorning bubble gum pink mermaid dresses or who-knows-what-else down the aisle.

I have three rules when it comes to bridesmaid dress shopping:

• It should be affordable by today’s standards. Not everyone has the money or the desire to drop upwards of $300 on a dress that they'll more than likely only wear once.

• It should be a style that will flatter all of your bridesmaids’ body types. Consider allowing your bridesmaids to pick their own style of your chosen designer and color.
  
• It is always a plus when your bridesmaids can use the dress again. It’s a long shot, but there are so many fashionable bridesmaid dresses out there these days.

After doing a little site searching, I came across this fantastic site for dresses: http://www.bridesmaids.com/. One (affordable!) designer in particular, Bari Jay, really caught my eye. I prefer a sassy short-length bridesmaid dress, and if I had to choose between some of the designs from this site, I would be a happy woman. The charmeuse, strapless bubble dress with a front twist bodice in green is my favorite style, but I also love-love-love the petal-detailed strapless dress, because it's so different from the stuff I've seen and it's completely wearable outside of a wedding.

There were also a few floor length designs that caught my eye. My favorite is the gown with the overlap bust and brown band but for longer lengths (on top), I found myself actually liking most of her stuff.














These designs are proof that there are definitely endless options to have classy, modern, beautiful bridesmaids… without stealing your thunder.

XOXO Jules