Thrifting with a Pro

What do you get when you cross an elephant and a wiener dog?

This thing! And it also serves tea and comes with it's own tea cups!

Seem familiar? That's Goodwill for you! I've always been a pro at finding novelty Goodwill items--if you're a regular on the blog, you may remember a few of the treasures I've found including:

The one stump mannequin with the stylish sombrero.

This high school photo and face mug (which now lives in my cupboard).

These pimpin' coats.

I'm starting to thrift more for clothes and home decor--Goodwill seriously has the best stuff! I've bought kitchen and wall decor, clothes and so much more at a fraction of their original price. This college student/thrifty bride sure can't beat that! 

On Sunday, my mom and I had the pleasure of shopping with the fabulous blogger and professional shopper DeeAnna Soicher--she was wonderful! She helped me shop for my wedding rehearsal dress as well as glass jars and canisters for the candy bar at our reception! 

Here are some highlights from the trip as well as some thrifting tips that Dee gave me. 

We started our day off at Deja Blu, the fabulous new Goodwill boutique in Cherry Creek (Denver). Oh. My. Goodness. The store is beautiful and the brand name clothes are gorgeous (and inexpensive which I LOVE)!

Front of the store--so cute!!

Folks, it was not easy deciding on which dress to buy--so I ended up buying three.

Our wedding colors are red and black so I was automatically drawn to this dress--this is the winner for my wedding rehearsal dress.

I didn't like this dress at first.. because I wasn't wearing it right. Luckily, DeeAnna was there to the rescue to show me how to wear it. It is gorgeous and really hugs my curves in all the right places. I've designated this dress as my Los Angeles dress (side note: we're going to Anaheim for our honeymoon and are heading to L.A. on one of the days--I'm so excited!! I have always been a huge movie and pop culture buff and I defy anyone to ever beat me at Scene It but I'm very modest about my vast knowledge of all things Hollywood so you wouldn't think it...

The classic LBD--I play to wear this do dinner on one of our Cali nights.

Cute, right?

We then continued our thrifting adventures at the Goodwill on Broadway--I had no idea that Goodwill stores could be so big and dazzling (I'm used to shopping in tiny, small town Kansas Goodwill stores)! Dee told us that the store is actually an old historic building, complete with brick walls and pillars.

View from the front of the store.

The book corner--I LOVED this!

DeeAnna and I made our rounds looking for candy canisters and she offered several thrifting tips that I will keep in mind. Her biggest tip (which an amateur like me needs to remember) is when in doubt, throw it in your cart. You never know when somebody might grab something you were looking at seconds earlier and you can always change your mind if you don't want it and put it back. I have had an experience where I couldn't decide if I wanted something, left it, decided I had to have it and returned to find it gone. Ugh. Don't let this happen to you!

DeeAnna and me--my mom and I both LOVED her outfit!

I'd like to thank DeeAnna for taking the time to shop with us--if you haven't already, check out the Thrifting Denver page for more tips and tons of thrifting/decorating/dressing/DIY tips!

Party, Party, I like to Party

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