Dress: Self Portrait [runs small], Similar in Black, Similar in White | Shoes: Jimmy Choo [old], Similar [runs a bit small], Similar

Photography by: Carmen Evans

 Happy Tuesday! Thank you all so much for your kind words about COF x MJ yesterday, I truly feel like I have such a friendship with you all and so each little word of encouragement was more uplifting than you know. It was so funny, last Friday we were at lunch with my mom and sister. My sister was commenting on how strong blogging communities are. She works with YoungLife and mentors high school students and so she is always talking to them about the online world. Naturally, we know there is a ton of negativity in social media from comparison to keyboard bullying. I think with blogging you can see a dark side to that even more and sometimes it can scare you about all the negative impacts. But she also was talking about how beautiful social media can be with the community. She made a comment saying something along the lines of how COF readers remind her of the Taylor Swift group of friends {which you may love TSwift or despise her, but I think most would agree she’s a girls’ girl with her group!}. It made me laugh, but it really is true. I feel like we are all friends and when I am on my friends’ blogs I get that exact spirit of camaraderie. That may seem like the cheesiest analogy, but she had a great point. And while she mentors young girls weekly and really tries to encourage offline community within their pockets of friends, there is quality friendship and support to be gained through women online. How amazing that we can connect to people in both ways?! All in all, from the bottom of my heart, thank you for your support you always give me! 

Currently, I’m in New York for some meetings and on the plane there, Ashley and I were hunting down dresses for my best friend’s upcoming wedding. It’s a black-tie optional wedding in spring, so I feel as though there’s quite a bit of leniency in color choice and therefore the options seem endless. I always find that overwhelms me far more than say a wedding in the winter. I know that means jewel tones or black! April weddings feel like I’m staring at the Cheesecake Factory menu. So. Many. Options. Or maybe we were just delirious from our 3 a.m. wakeup call for our flight?! Have you found any spring black-tie optional dresses?!

But as we were hunting down dresses I came across a few “Look for Less” dresses I had to share with you all.

First off, you may remember this dress I wore last year! I love it for a more casual spring wedding. It sold out in a week and many of y’all were bummed you couldn’t get your hands on it. A nearly identical option just came in stock and while it is $185, many options that look like this are designer and run around $500.

The photo above is a actually a little peek at my new website! It’s launching in spring, but I had to share that I found a look for less with this dress in white and black. I posted this to Instagram last week and the white sold pretty quickly, so I wouldn’t wait on that one. I was so tempted to share a few more of these images, but I know I want to wait for the full reveal.

I hope these options give you some inspiration with spring dresses and follow along on my Instagram Stories to see a few things we are doing in NYC!