,

Flowers For Dreams

Rain, rain, go away come again another day. Unfortunately, that’s our mood this dreary Monday morning. After sitting in the rain for 12 hours at Farm Aid last weekend and 2 straight days of rain here we are feeling bogged down and gray. Luckily for me, I had amazing weather as I headed to Oktoberfest with some friends at my Alma Mater. The weekend was completed with a bluff hike, trying numerous Oktoberfest style beers, my favorite parade and more laughter than I can even explain. We always joke because we essentially end up wearing the same “uniform” every single year. My roommate and I go back and forth on what we should wear only to settle on nearly the exact same thing we have worn in years past. 

Jenilee was supposed to have a relaxing weekend until I talked to her Friday and her plans promptly changed! She headed to Lake Geneva to see our friend Sophia. Sounds like they had a wonderful night catching up before she jetted over to Chicago to help our brother move. Cue me checking my insanely busy schedule to figure out when I can get down to see his new place. 

As we sit amongst this gray and foggy weather we are so thankful to have this beautiful, bright, bouquet from Flowers for Dreams to bring us some colorful cheer. They are a Milwaukee/Chicago flower company that can typically deliver same-day bouquets. Not to mention their price point couldn’t be more on point. Can you actually believe this bouquet is only $35? Yeah, neither can we. I enjoy some of their beautiful arrangements every week at my second job. We were also so excited to run into their cute flower truck at Jazz in the Park earlier this summer. You can see how adorable it is here! 

We also loved learning about how they started out; which was to hopefully upgrade their college eating a little bit, as well as to buy some backpacks for low-income students that they tutored. Make a little money, make a difference. We are here for that mission statement. 

This specific bouquet is part of their lovely fall collection and is called Vineyard. You can also pick from harvest and fall. We had a hard time making a choice because they are all so uniquely beautiful. You can add a free handwritten card, take comfort in 25% of the profit going to charity, and know you are going to put a huge smile on someone’s face when you send one of these bouquets. 

To touch on this outfit quick I am back at it again with my Height Of Fashion Denim. They also just dropped a new collection of tall items if you’re in the market for a blouse, jumpsuit, dress and so much more! I added in this tall eco sweater with our favorite; balloon sleeves. This is our first piece from their ECO line meaning it is made with 54% recycled polyester. We’re thankful to see such a big company starting to shift its thinking, hopefully much more to come. And to tie it all together I am so happy to finally be sharing these snakeskin beauties. When I ordered these during the N sale I told Jenilee I think they are the nicest shoes I own, and I stand by that. 

We have begrudgingly started to accept fall over here. I just realized how many sweaters we have coming up to share. However; some of these end of selling out before we can get your eyes on them. Do you want us to start sharing sneak peeks of stuff we have purchased before we can shoot it? 

Outfit Details

Click here for exact denim from Height of Fashion

/0 Comments/by
, ,

Wedding Guest Dresses: Fall/Winter Edition

This has been a much-requested post! I think we all can agree that picking an appropriate wedding guest attire can be very trying at times. A lot of wedding invites use ambiguous wording at best to describe what to wear. Then you show up at the wedding and find people in a wide variation. It can make you question, did I read the invite wrong? Did they? Obviously there is plenty of room to interpret the dress code as you’d like. Plus, it’s our prerogative as we all appreciate being able to showcase our individuality through our selections.

With that being said, Caitlin and I have a few unwritten rules we typically abide by. We would rather show up overdressed than under dressed. Hopefully, we can help you avoid standing out for the wrong reasons. As tall women, we’re noticed first when entering a room as well as on the dance floor. While I’d love for that not to be the case on the dance floor, I definitely don’t mind people noticing me when I took the time and care to dress well and do my makeup and hair nicely.

The second rule is mainly about length. I don’t like to worry about showing too much leg at a wedding, so you’ll typically find me in a midi dress length. Caitlin feels the same way, especially when you attend the ceremony in a church. It feels a little disrespectful to show up with something that you could wear to a club. Personal preference for us though. So if you like to show a bit more leg, this might not be as helpful to you. Definitely not against the use of cutouts or showing cleavage, because all of that can be easily covered in a church with a wrap or a cardigan etc. And we, of course, go by the unspoken rule of NEVER wearing white or a primarily white printed dress.

So without further ado, let’s jump in and break it down by dress code!

Casual

Let’s say it’s a courthouse wedding, or maybe a backyard wedding. Something a bit more lowkey or maybe they did a destination wedding and are doing a party now they are back at home. This is the easiest because it really isn’t a typical wedding attire. You can show up in whatever you’d like! 

Semi-Formal (Cocktail/Dressy Casual)

This is where it starts to get a bit blurry on the rules. Clearly, you can’t show up casually dressed, but that’s still not easily translatable on what you should wear. Even at my job currently which is business casual, there is a WIDE array of choices that are “accepted.” When I say accepted in parentheses, it’s because I’m not sure a lot of people know how to discern it themselves let alone govern others choices! But I digress here. Basically, here is where we start to err on the side of dressier than more casual. Unless the dress code says casual, leave the leggings at home. It’s still safe to choose a print on your dress.

Cocktail

This route is pretty similar to semi-formal. Men would be in a suit, and the hemline can be from mid-thigh to mid-calf. There’s no need to avoid maxi dresses if you’re so inclined. Jersey fabric will be a clear no-no, you’ll want something with a stiffer fabric to dress it up. Definitely don’t need a gown. We wouldn’t do a floral for this dress code, but you can still go with some brighter colors. 

Caitlin is wearing this dress for the pictures, click here for the link. It’s the perfect Fall color.

Formal or Black Tie Optional

Here is where most people have a lot less experience. I know that between Caitlin and I, we’ve never attended a formal wedding. This is sad to me because I’d love an excuse to buy a ridiculously gorgeous full-length gown. But I know a lot of other women must be attending them because we spot a lot of amazing options when we’re online shopping. Floor-length is not expected, even with black tie. You can go the cocktail length or still midi length but a bit more subdued on color (ie no pastels, no prints typically).

Destination/Beach

Guest choices can run the gamut on options for beach weddings. Where men can get away with pretty casual and just wear un-tucked button-down shirts, we still have a plethora of choice. Where it might seem obvious to choose flowy, I’d be careful on length as a lot of beaches I’ve seen weddings have a lot of wind to contend with. If you go flowy you might want to stick with maxi length. However, this is an opportunity to get a bit bolder on color choices and/or patterns! If you go shorter, you might want to keep it tighter fitting, either body con or a shift.

Bridesmaid Duties

There’s bound to be opportunities for you to be asked to be a bridesmaid. While you may end up in a dress you don’t love, at least a lot of companies give the option to add additional length to fit our height. That’s a tall girl pet peeve of ours, however. They will add a specific length to the fabric, which costs extra money. Then if you don’t actually need that specific length, then you have to pay additional money to get it tailored. So now you have to spend more money than most. If you’re able to choose your own gown, we definitely recommend buying a tall option if possible. Tall tip: If the bride to be chooses a shorter length dress and it’s too short, ask if they offer the same style in floor length and have it hemmed. Caitlin did this last summer and it worked wonderfully! 

General Tall Tip: To see more options filter by midi length on all sites rather than only by tall and you will see hundreds more! They likely won’t fit like a midi but they will still be plenty long. Also shopping out of season and planning way ahead when a wedding is on the horizon will help you get a great deal on most dresses! 

Shoes

We hear you bemoaning the lack of shoe options, and we don’t blame you because our options are definitely limited. With that being said, we did some legwork and found some options up to size 15 available on Amazon. You can check out our picks at Amazon here. Please know that we get a commission by you clicking the link and purchasing any items. We try to provide a value for y’all to make your life a bit easier, so we appreciate your support and understanding on this! We’ve also attached a widget of other shoe options as well for larger feet. Some small businesses that aren’t available to link through the widget include CoIX shoes, and Smash Shoes for some beautiful dressier options.

/0 Comments/by
,

Can’t Be COIX About Fab Boots

Popping in here on a Friday to just share some Fall outfit inspiration! It all started with me winning a pair of COIX shoes. All I can say is enter every contest you’re interested in! We both do it relentlessly and tag each other on Instagram and Facebook or wherever it’s available and it pays off.

I had heard about COIX shoes through a couple of other tall and larger shoe size bloggers we love to follow. We were intrigued to hear about a shoe company that was started by another tall duo out of the United Kingdom. Their plan was to cover larger shoe sizes only, which is super exciting for us to hear. We wear size 11 (Caitlin) and 13 (Jenilee) respectively, so you know our choices are limited. 

So anyway, I won any pair of shoes and immediately knew I had to get my hands on these gorgeous cognac boots. They have a 4-inch heel, which I’m hesitant to buy myself normally. I tend to gravitate towards lower-heeled boots that I can wear comfortably for extended periods of time. Plus with our heavy Wisconsin winters, we need sturdy boots for slippery conditions.

But every year I lust after all of the higher heeled options. So when this opportunity showed up, I didn’t pause, I just went for it! I shared them on Instagram stories when I first received them, but they are gorgeous in person and high quality. They came with a cloth bag for storage in the off months, which I really appreciate. I’ve only worn them a couple of times so far for short periods, so I can’t speak to the longevity wear. An updated review/report back later will be more appropriate as we head into the boot season! 

As for the rest of the outfit, I have been loving headbands as you can tell from earlier this year. But when I saw all of the pearl options, my extra-girly loving side was singing “mine mine mine.” So I caught a sale and grabbed this headband. Having a large head, I will note that it doesn’t quite go low enough below my ears but I can bobby pin it better in place as well. The sweater has puff sleeves and is tall, so basically I’m set. You can catch me in all the sleeve detailed sweaters for life. It’s those girly details that just make me feel the most me!

Have a wonderful weekend y’all! Here is the link for the boots and check out COIX shoes here for a bunch of other beautiful options.

Outfit Details

/0 Comments/by

What’s Black, White, and Makes you feel like a Million Bucks?

After the last two weeks of four day work weeks, we’re feeling this week stretch out to the fullest. It’s always that simultaneous feeling when you’re looking forward to something, that the week goes by so quickly and so slowly! Does anyone else feel like that? We’ve been anticipating Farm Aid all week long. There have been so many messages back and forth about logistics. What we’re eating, when we’re going, what we’re wearing… you get the picture. 

In typical fashion, there is rain in the forecast. So the discussion of what to wear is tempered with, should I buy this inexpensive raincoat and wear rain boots? Should we all buy the same raincoat and match? Our Mom will be shuddering to read that last sentence, haha. She cringes anytime we wear matching stuff. We get a kick out of it because she used to love to have us wear matching items. Now we like to do it for pictures because it shows you how it fits on different heights (and we think its funny). I know that’s what we always appreciate when we’re shopping, is seeing it on different shapes and sizes to get a better picture of how it will actually look.

Plus we have very similar style preferences, so we end up buying a lot of the same things. In some cases, if we know we won’t be wearing it regularly, we tell each other that we’ll just share. Then we can pass the item back and forth and double the use! That’s one of the best parts about having a sister/Mom who are pretty much the same size as you.

The list of items we like to pass around is top-heavy with dresses. Dresses, especially for special events aren’t going to see a lot of wear. I’m always happy to let them take a look at my options for weddings because I like to see the cost per wear drop. Vice versa, I’ve borrowed dresses from both of them many times to avoid spending needless money. 

Work dresses often get much better mileage being mixed in with the rest of the wardrobe, but it’s still another great item we can share. But the bottom line is if we admire something in each other’s closet, then we’re always glad to share. What I’m getting at, is that I can’t wait to borrow this stunning dress of Caitlin’s. 

Once she “spotted” it (like we’ll ever stop with the puns), she was immediately impressed with the cut. It wasn’t sleeveless, AND it didn’t have any cutouts on the back or stomach to disqualify it for a professional setting. The midi-length was perfect as usual, plus despite it being animal print she already cut her teeth on this snakeskin dress if you missed seeing it here.

So obviously she snapped it up, and then once she received it she was smitten. It fits like a dream! The draping across the stomach is artfully done to emphasize the waist while also concealing any areas you might be self-conscious about. Plus the twirl-ability is clearly off the charts! Caitlin has been in full-on dress mode recently, because why wear pants when you can be free, comfortable AND chic? You can wear this during the summer and easily transition it to the Fall and Winter by adding a jacket or blazer and eventually tights and/or boots. Black and white are seasonless and we’re here for everything about this dress!

/0 Comments/by
,

Leaf (Lake) Effect

The seasons’ change is upon us, and with that comes the glorious colors of Fall. Take any back road highways in Wisconsin and you’ll probably find Mother Nature showing off her astounding range of color. Nowhere is this better exhibited than up north by our lake. We’re seriously anticipating our trip up to Eagle River for Cranberry Fest. I’m sure the whole drive will be a wonderful display of God’s creation. 

A lot of times when the season starts to change you might not think of lake life as much. I know for us specifically, we’re typically visiting the lake the most in the summer. However, the rest of the seasons can’t be counted out. It’s a sad Autumn if we don’t make it up north at least once. We still like to bundle up and go out on the boat if it’s still in the water, or at the very least have a bonfire in the yard where we can look out across the lake. I still remember sitting on the dock last year basking in the warmth of the sun on a beautiful day. 

Basically, lake living is to be enjoyed year-round. Even in cold Wisconsin, we make the most of our seasons with different activities. You might not be able to bike as easily in the Fall, but you sure can enjoy a walk through the woods. As mentioned above, it’s bonfire season and getting wood chopped is also best done in cooler temperatures. Then you stay warm during the chopping, and you’re warmed by the fire later! 

Sometimes there is nothing wrong with just being in the vicinity of the lake. Those rainy Fall days are some of my favorite times to get cozy underneath a fluffy blanket and sit with a great book and soak in the tranquil atmosphere. There is nowhere better than the lake to rejuvenate your mind. Katherine (owner of Lake Effect) always talks about the healing properties of water, and I think that extends to being near it as well. You don’t even have to immerse yourself, just sit and gaze at the water and I always find myself at peace.

The best part is becoming at peace with the changing of the seasons. While we’re clearly reluctant to bid summer adieu, the lake certainly helps us welcome Fall with open arms. How can you deny the beauty of Fall? It’s such a transitional feeling season, and you can never quite tell when Fall has reached the apex and will devolve into Winter. Meaning you must enjoy it while it lasts! There’s something beautiful about the heat of the sun in Fall and the chill of the crisp air combined.

So get out there and enjoy the weather in whatever way you can! If it involves special seasonal drinks, or if you start to bake something special as the temperatures drop: we want to hear! How do you enjoy Fall?

Click Here to Visit Lake Effect Co.

/0 Comments/by