Forever Fridays [Link-Up]

First of all, can I just say I am BEYOND excited today?  Today marks exactly 6 months from my wedding day.  I really cannot believe in 6 months I am going to walk down the isle to the love of my life and begin our journey as man and wife.  I absolutely am so blessed! Here's just a moment in my life, and you can see why this man steals my heart, every single day.

When I asked him how much he loves me, I was picking at him.  We do this a lot with each other.  He is so playful with me in that way and I adore it.  So I was expecting some goofy answer back.  I got that and was floored.  He melts me.  I swear. 

If you've been around this blog for any length of time, you know Jenna.  And if you don't know Jenna, then that's my niece.  My one and only niece.  She is my family's angel since she is the first girl since I was born.  

Oh, and she looks exactly like me..  She is my mini me.  People confuse her for being mine all the time when we are out in public.  I used to correct them, but now.. Well, I just say thank you and go on.  They won't ever know the difference anyway, LOL!

So Jenna.. she was obviously my pick for my flower girl in my upcoming wedding.  But what for her to wear was the issue.  I knew I wanted her to be beautiful (duh!) and stand out.  I didn't want the plain jane flower girl dress for her because I feel like they are way over used.  

I was searching high and low, and actually finding things I liked.  But the problem was that everything I really liked, was like $100.  Now, $100 for a dress she will wear ONE time for like an hour.  It was not worth it to me.  So the plan shifted.  I started looking in thrift stores, discount stores, etc.  I knew if I found something I could even do my own thing with, that it would be worth the time to save that extra money. 

Well, it just so happens that a girl that works with my mom was selling two flower girl dresses.  So my mom brought them home with her and I swung by her house to check them out.  One was really cute, but too big for my little short mini me.  :)  So the other one was a hit, and only $20.  My cheap, budget friendly ways were paying off!  I knew when Jenna was wearing it, she loved it.  She spun like a fairy and said she felt "like a princess".  I knew then, this was her dress. :)

BUT, it was not the look I was going for, like at all.  It was filled with purple petals inside the layers and it really was throwing my thought process off.  So I went to Hobby Lobby to get some brown flower petals to replace those purple with since my wedding colors are lots of browns.  

Well.. leave it to me to want the impossible.  HL had ZERO browns, and silly me couldn't find any online either.  It leaves me wonder, am I the first person to want brown petals? Surely not..

So I had to put on my thinking cap again, and ya'll these days that's hard to do.  I have a million thoughts swirling through my mind at all times, LOL.  But I decided to go look at ribbon.  I found a wide brown ribbon that matches the bridesmaid dresses pretty closely, so I bought a roll.  

I finally worked up the nerve to start mending the dress this weekend, so here is my before/after shot. 

I really really love the way that the brown pops out against that white dress.  I also (didn't get a picture) worked on her basket.  I had some extra ribbon leftover, so I made extra bows on the basket so her dress/basket match.  I still have some extra ribbon and I'm HOPING to figure out a way to make maybe a flower for her hair out of it as well.

I really cannot wait to see my baby girl in this dress.  I'm hoping to get her back to my house soon and let's do another try-on so I can get another picture of her actually wearing it.

So, do ya'll like this? Hate this? Think I should add anything else? Etc.  I'm open for feedback!