It's in the bag

One thing I love about planning this wedding is the intense amount of pretty things I get to look at. All of the diamonds, and flowers and loads and loads of that amazing fabric. I usually want to wrap myself in it in the aisle of Joanne's and never leave.

But as far as outfitting myself, I'm still working on that. I have my shoes (the yellow flats with the rosette, yay!), and a beautiful bracelet that my mom gave me last Christmas. I'm not going to wear a necklace, because I don't want anything to take away from my dress. So right now I'm looking for some cute little earrings.

You know, as well as I try to remember, that we are having a budgeted wedding. Times are tough, and we just don't have the extra for me to spend a few hundred bucks on a pair of earrings I'll probably only wear once, and a clutch that may be broken out only a few times, especially if it is white. Then something huge, monumental even, hit me: Bag, Borrow or Steal! You've heard of it. It was mentioned on the Sex and the City movie, when Louise from St. Louis was renting a Louis Vuitton by the month, for a pretty good price. It was working out for her, so why wouldn't it work for me?

Bag, Borrow or Steal rents all sorts of purses, jewelry, watches and even sunglasses. The name brand bags boast of LV, Gucci, Chanel and tons of other top brands names, but what I'm really interested in is the bling. I never anticipated to wear any "real" jewelry for the wedding, other than my engagement ring and my bracelet, but how could you resist these for only$94 a week

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Those are Vera Wang Aqua Bow earrings. Ninety-Eight pave diamonds are in those amazing little suckers. I. AM. OBSESSED.

Alas, I am in love, but with a retail price of of well over $3,000 I know that I will get attached. Even at $94 for a week, just 7 short beautiful days, I will sob at the idea of the Vera Wang Aqua Bow earrings disappearing to the next bride forever. So, for the flip side of this I tried my hand at a little research. A cheaper alternative to diamonds: Cubic Zirconia's, duh. And a cheaper alternative to platinum: silver, and a cheaper alternative to a $3,000 plus price tag, $29.99 (and that's even at the top of my budget).

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I know that they aren't exactly the same, but they are pretty darn beautiful still. Simple and elegant and cheap.