Semi-DIY: Flower girl dresses and headbands

We are having two flower girls. They are both pretty young, so I don't really expect them to behave like older flower girls would, but they are both just so darn cute that at the very least I'd like to have them in pictures wearing their cute outfits.

I scoured the internet looking for the perfect flower girl dress on a budget. I really didn't want my friends (or myself) to have to pay more than $30 for the flower girl dresses.

I happened upon the girl's department in JCPenney yesterday and saw that all of their "special occasion" dresses were on sale. SCORE! There were several that I loved, but then you factor in the prices and the sizes available, and the choices were definitely narrowed down for me. However, I didn't want to be impulsive. I knew that I had recently been sent at least one coupon from JCPenney in the mail. So I didn't buy them then. I came home only to discover that I actually had 2 $10 off coupons! Yay!

So, today while I was off work, I went back to JCPenney. The choices I liked were still there, and I had my coupons in hand. One dress was the front runner, but it was also more expensive, and there were still things I'd want to change about it. In the end, I decided since I wanted to make changes anyway...  might as well go with the cheaper dress.  I enlisted my MOH (my sister) to come with me so that we could use one coupon on each dress.

I ended up getting the dresses for $11.99 each! They were originally priced at $54.99 so this was absolutely a bargain! I got two flower girls dresses for under $25! The one I bought looked like this:

They are ivory (which I love) and they have a lace-looking embroidery on the skirt (which I also love). However, I'm not loving the flowers on the front AT ALL. I mean, if I had to... yeah, I could deal with them. But I'd rather not. So, they looked fairly simple to remove. I figured at $11.99 a dress, even if I messed them up it wouldn't be that upsetting.  So, I removed the flowers on the front, and also the sash/bow that started on the sides and tied in the back.  Then I added a brown ribbon to correspond with our wedding colors (the hot glue gun is my BFF) and I ended up with this:

I love it!!! It is a completely unique look? No. But where else could I have gotten a dress this cute for only $12?!?! I've also already made headbands for the flower girls to wear. I love the headbands too! They are my favorite part and I can't wait to see Olivia and Brianne wear them. I'll have to do a tutorial for this one soon.