Playing dress-up

OK- so after almost three agonizing months of shopping- both online and otherwise, I've finally found my two outfits for my dear sister's wedding in November. For some reason, this was actually harder than finding my dresses for our wedding- I mean, it's hard striking a balance between looking appropriately joyous- I *am* the sister of the bride, without standing out- I'm not the focus of the day, and not taking the attention away from the bridal party either- i.e. no pink or purples. In the end, turquoise and blues ruled the day and it came down to a 1930s-inspired silk dress from Banana Republic for the church ceremony:

It was actually Jude's keen eye that spotted it first when we walked into the store. It wasn't something that I loved immediately but after I tried it on, the vintage feel grew on me and I've come to really like the soft, floaty feel of the whole thing. It's not an intuitive choice for a celebration dress, but with the right kind of accesories, I could just pull this off :) In terms of shoes, turquoise is a tricky color to match, but I think I'll go with the peep-toe pumps I bought for my best friend's wedding a couple of years ago:

Picking the dress for dinner was a lot harder. Because there's an Oriental theme of sorts, I was tempted to get myself a traditional cheong-sam, but that could go so wrong so quickly that unless I was sure I could really pull it off, it wasn't a risk I was willing to take. Plus, I was hoping to find something on our trip to California, but since that didn't happen, it was JCrew.com to the rescue:

I fell in love with the dress the moment I saw it in the mail catalog but it was just too expensive and I couldn't justify buying it for any reason. And then it went on sale and I did secretly hope that I wouldn't find anything else just so I could get this instead :) It's a darling of a dress- sweet, simple, and vibrant enough without being garish. Just for that extra pop, I think I'll look for a pair of pink pumps just like these:

I'm excited :) It's just under a month away, the bride and groom seem all prepared, I know at least one of the three bridesmaids who's beside herself with excitement at the prospect of being a bridesmaid- again (she insists she was too young when Jude and I got married to really embrace the gravity of the experience...), and I tried to combat insomnia by writing my wedding speech at three in the morning the other day. I have yet to decide whether sleep deprivation did the speech good or bad- the happy couple will have to decide for themselves come November 8... :)