Bella Bridesmaid Open House

This Saturday, October 3rd, we will be having an Open House! Please stop by anytime between 2pm and 5pm to take a look at the new store and see the transformation, schedule an appointment or just get more information. Since we will technically be by appointment only moving forward, we are taking this opportunity to invite anyone to just stop by for one afternoon. Bella Bridesmaid opens this Thursday, October 1st and we are currently taking appointments. Our hours will be Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday - 11am-5pm, Thursday 11am-8pm and Saturday 10am-5pm. For more information please contact us at kansascity@bellabridesmaid.com or 816-361-5700. Or visit the website at http://www.bellabridesmaid.com/!

Hope to see you Saturday!

Ashley and Taylor

This is the wedding of Ashley and Taylor Hankins on August 16th out at the Loose Park Rose Garden. We were so lucky to have the wonderful team of Josh and Jenny Solar to photograph the whole thing. We were in between flooding rain that had be going strong all weekend. They caught a 20 minute break of the downpour to say their vows.

Taylor could hardly wait to see his bride. Needless to say he was thrilled at the sight of her.

Just as the officiant instructed Taylor to kiss Ashley the rain started pouring down! It couldn't have been more perfect timing.

They were such great sports about the rain that day. They made it safely to their car and on to the rest of their evening.

The night ended with family, friends and beautiful send off as husband and wife!

Before and After

After three weeks of renovations - here is our most up to date before and after. We still can't believe the transformation!

Before...

After....
We started installing the flooring last night and just for the record, lock in laminate flooring IS NOT as easy an everyone says it is! Hopefully by the end of this week we'll be able to share images of the finished product - at least for the build out phase.

Bella Buildout Update

The past week and a half has been CRAZY! Our painter was scheduled to arrive this past Tuesday so last weekend we had some major work to do to get ready for him. All the walls were up and the major construction finished, however we had lots of "finishing" work to do. Our Labor Day weekend was filled with finishing trim (my favorite!), fixing the stairs, fixing little imperfections and the biggest challenges - electrical and building the shelves. In many of the pictures you see Joel and John working on our future dress racks. We decided (after much debate!) to scrap the old shelves and build new ones. The new racks they made are awesome and they did a really great job! Our painters finished up yesterday and last night we started prepping for the the floor installation which is today's big task. I've got pictures of what the store looks like now that I'll post later today. You will not believe the difference!

Thank you to everyone who gave up part (or all!) of their Labor Day weekend to help - Our dads - Doug, Steve and Tom, our husbands - John and Joel, our good friends and other family - Chris and Ryan and my mom Kathi for planting our beautiful new flowers and providing nourishment! Check out the pictures below.

Construction Update

Vandenberg.O'Neill Wedding

With the new store under construction and a busy wedding season underway, we've been bad about posting on actual weddings!

We're going to try and change that. To kick things off, here are some images from Corinne and Tom's big day! We were hired by Tom's mom Mary Etta and I have to say, she is one cool mom! Mary Etta put her heard and soul into this wedding and it turned out to be amazing! It was classic in its tradition, but modern in all of its detail and personal touches - including lots of "subtle" Irish undertones (the colors were orange and green - like the Irish flag!). The day was so much fun - even on my side of things. Corinne was one of the most calm and collected brides I've ever worked with. She just truly enjoyed herself the whole day. And Tom was great as well - he just wanted Corinne to have her day.

Here are some details of the event:
Photographer - Kdog
Florist - Blue Bouquet
Church - Visitation
Ceremony Music - Panapolli Trio
Reception - Hobbs Building
Reception Music - Three Dollar Band; Reddell Productions
Cake - Take the Cake
Hair/Make-up - Be Chic

As I said, Corinne was totally calm the morning of the wedding. I love the anticipation captured here.

Notice the green bridesmaid dresses - they had orange shoes! Again, so much anticipation!

I just absolutely love Visitation. I think the church is amazing from the courtyard to the sanctuary, its just stunning.

I love this shot by Doug from Kdog. Bride. Groom. Church. Married.

After the ceremony Tom & Corinne and the wedding party went and took pictures down by the Hobbs building. I love the artwork in the background.

Blue Bouquet did an awesome job. I love it when brides put color into their bouquets.

Tom and Corinne's grand entrance was so great. As they walked up the ramp into the patio at the Hobbs building, the Three Dollar Band was playing traditional Irish jig music. They followed Tom and Corinne into the building and played as they cut their cake. It was awesome and totally set the tone for everyone to have a great time. The band played out on the patio through dinner and beyond and had everyone up dancing (including a traditional Irish dance performed by Mary Etta!)

I love first dance moments.

Thank you for allowing us to be a part of this wonderful event!

Bella Bridesmaid Build Out Progress

Here is a slideshow of the progress over the weekend. We have a little work left to do before the painter arrives next week but we're making tons of head way! Thank you so much to everyone who helped out!

Build Out Day One

Yesterday was the first day of build-out for Bella Bridesmaid. Originally we weren't supposed to start until today but we got a surprise by getting the keys one day early! So, we're happy to report that we are officially ahead of schedule :). The space used to be an interior decorator's show room. There is the front space and the back space that are separated by two walls but not closed off from each other. The plan is to remove the wall that juts into half of the front room and move it back to be flush with the other existing wall and then separate the two spaces with french doors so that we have a clearly defined space for both Bella and Soirée. Plus there are lots of "interesting" walls and overhangs all of which need to come out. Future plans include new paint, new flooring, shelves and much, much more! Here are just a few pictures of our first day - we got SO much done!

Before: This is the front room of the store looking from the front door in

Before: This is the store from the back of the front room looking out onto Oak street.

Stopping for dinner. Thanks mom for the great food!

During: The first cut into the wall.

After: This is the front room of the store looking from the front door in - but with the wall gone! Now you can see back into the future Soirée space.

After: It got pretty dusty in there so I wasn't able to take as many good shots of the front but you can see how the overhang (one of the "weird" walls that we can't explain) is going to be removed making it one big open space.

Thank you to our manual labor or "stud finders" as they like to call themselves - John, Joel and Ryan. You guys are amazing and we really, really appreciate all that you guys are doing (this was at about 11pm last night)!

Day two starts in about 45 minutes and we'll be sure to share more pictures of the progress. Feel free to stop by and visit - 6205 Oak Street - but don't come without a sledge hammer.