tutu or dress?

Originally, my plan I was set on was having Julia wear a tutu for the wedding. My inspiration came from this photo

{Style Me Pretty...I think.}

 

I fell in love with the tutu idea. Julia would be comfortable, cute, princessy, etc. I liked the fact that it would be different than the normal flower girl outfit. I found some other weddings with flower girl tutus and couldn't get over how cute it would be for our wedding. So, the search began. I found lots of different options online, but most tutus were the wrong color, too fluffy, or not the right length. My mom found one while in San Francisco that she bought, but it was too pink. I found a really cute one on etsy, but it had to be a custom order and couldn't be returned. My hopes for the tutu were dwindling. We did talk to one seamstress {who is actually altering my dress} that said she could make one for us, but that seemed a bit overboard...! 

 

I didn't give up hope on a tutu, but I started searching a bit more for dresses. All along I knew that if we had to do a dress, it wasn't going to be a typical flower girl dress. My first stop was Crewcuts/J.Crew bridal {of course}! We ordered this dress thinking it might work out.

Julia tried it on and of course loved it, but I disliked it from the moment I saw it. The color was off and it just wasn't formal enough for our wedding. Plus, the top part is sewn in odd ways and you could see the stitching keeping the fabric in place. So needless to say, that was shipped back against Julia's request. And the search continued. Shortly after we returned this one, I found another dress from J.Crew that looked perfect online. It is even has "vintage" in the name {which is a theme for our wedding}. Too good to be true? Almost...

 

The color is perfect! Matches the peach on the BM dresses perfectly! It's more formal than the other dress, but not too flower girly. And I love the detail on the shoulder....

Sold. I found the dress I wanted her to wear, but there was one small problem. There was a little tear on the seam of one shoulder. I took it into J.Crew to return it and order another one on the "red phone". {If you don't know about J.Crew's "red phone", you should! Free shipping when you order from the store AND I can use my teacher discount.} Long story shorter, I returned the dress and reordered another. But the guy on the phone said there was only one dress left. This made me nervous and made me think I should repurchase the dress with the flaw. The ladies in the store said I didn't need to buy it back, but they'd keep in on hold for two days until I heard for sure that the new dress had shipped. Close to the end of the 2nd day, I figured out {from calling customer service} that in fact the dress in her size had sold out and it wouldn't be shipping to me. Ahhh, I freaked out! I immediately called the store and thankfully they hadn't returned it yet. So, I went back and bought it {again}. They fixed the flaw free of charge. Phew, dodged a bullet on this one!

I can't wait to see Julia in the dress on the wedding day. She's going to look so grown up. She will be going with us the day before the wedding to get her nails done for the first time! And my hair girl will be doing something a little special for her. The make-up artist even said she could give her a little special blush or lip gloss to make her feel special. She's going to love it! I'm having a hard time finding shoes that I like for her, but the search is on. 

While I'm kinda sad that the tutu idea didn't work out, this dress makes me feel good thinking about how perfectly it fits into the whole theme of the day. And my cute fiancé informed me that the bottom of the dress is kinda like a tutu...which is true! :)