Hayley Paige at Bella Bianca Bridal!

March 7, 2013 | No Comments

There will be a Hayley Paige Spring 2013 Trunk Show this weekend at Bella Bianca Bridal Couture in Chicago, IL! Bella Bianca is a brand new bridal salon in Chicago and needs to be on your bridal list of places to visit. While your there this weekend, you can say hi to Guindon, Anya, and Jordan while viewing the rest of the latest collection. Please call 630.627.4027 to make your appointment!

Need further incentive? Every gal that mentions this blog post will receive a complimentary cut edge veil at the length of your choice, along with an additional 10% off your gown purchase! Hope to see you there!

Spring Bridesmaids Dresses

March 4, 2013 | No Comments

With it now being March, we here in the JLM offices are itching for the warmer weather! Here is our selection of bridesmaids dresses that would be the perfect accent to your warm weather Spring nuptuals:

Jim Hjelm Occasions style 5331

Jim Hjelm Occasions style 5257 

Jim Hjelm Occasions 5273

Jim Hjelm Occasions style 5243

Jim Hjelm Occasions style 5324

March Trunk Shows at JLM Boutique

March 1, 2013 | No Comments

Happy Friday and happy March 1st! We have a great lineup of trunk shows this month at the JLM Flagship Salon in West Hollywood, CA starting this weekend with Lazaro and Tara Keely! We are almost completely booked, so if are interested in an appointment- book now! Lazaro is so excited to meet you!

Also- this will be his last trunk show for the Spring 2013 season, so if you’re loving his latest collection- make your way on down to 352 N Robertson Blvd and say hello!

One Shoulder Wedding Dresses

February 27, 2013 | No Comments

We love a good one shoulder wedding dress here at JLM Couture. These dress styles are especially great for brides who don’t want to worry too much about accessories. Here are some of our recent favorites:

Alvina Valenta style 9316

Jim Hjelm style 8317

Tara Keely style 2250

JLM Flagship Salon Sample Sale

February 22, 2013 | No Comments

Hello Lovely Ladies of Los Angeles!

With our Sample Sale well underway, we wanted to remind of a few quick things:

1. Merchandise is “as is” and all sales are final.
2. We know you love the men in your life, but please- …leave them at home! (This is due to privacy issue’s with our other brides)
3. No alterations are provided.
4. We are working on a first come, first served basis.

We are so excited to see you all and look forward to having you!

Jim Hjelm Occasions Catalogs Are In!

February 21, 2013 | No Comments

If you are looking to order our Jim Hjelm Occasions Bridesmaid Catalog, you are in luck. Head over here to place your order!

#1 Love Story, Our Valentines Day Couple!

February 14, 2013 | No Comments

It was our first Holiday season at our new condo and I really got into Christmas (decorating, music, everything!) We spend both Christmas eve and Christmas Day with our families which we love doing but we decided to do our own little Christmas together at our place on 12/23/11. We had decided to do a fondue dinner so it would be mess free and we love fonduing! So the night started out some wine (of course) and Adam had bought a beautiful huge red rose center piece. We decided to do our stockings (in mine was the movie Bridesmaids) then have our dinner and then do our presents.  Adam came up from downstairs with 6 ornaments boxes and said that he had some help with making my present this year….

 He put them all out in front of me and he anxiously kept checking the bottom to make sure they were in the right order.  He started then by saying the ornaments represent a timeline of our life together (we had been together for almost 6 years then.)  He opened the first one and on it was hand painted a picture of our WIU mascot and underneath said “our beginning” (where we met).

The next one was a painting of our dog Jax and said “our pug.”  With each ornament too he had told a story and explanation of the meaning of it, like how Jax was our first big responsibility and so on.

The third ornament had a hand painting of the Chicago skyline on it and said “our move”  It was after we had graduated and got jobs in the city (actually right across the Chicago River from each other).

The fourth ornament said “our home” on the bottom and had a painting of our condo building we had bought that last year.

He sort of ended at that and said this is about where we are at now, then opened the fifth one that said “Our Future” with a question mark; this is when he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him!

After hugging and crying and enjoying the moment he opened the sixth box with the final ornament that said on one side “Adam proposed…” and on the other side it had a picture of the ring and said “December 23, 2011 Erika said yes!

 It was truly the best thing ever and could not have been any better! I had started crying when I opened the Jax one (I’m a little obsessed with him.)  He had another present for me under the tree which I opened later and it was a pair of ugg boots which he explained was in case I get “cold feet”  He had also planned for my sister and her boyfriend and two of our good friends to come over and celebrate after the proposal too!  The next day on Christmas eve was so fun to celebrate with family! He had bought my Dad the Father of the Bride dvd too which he loved! I had also actually made him put all the ornaments in the box and re-propose about 45 minutes after the original because it was so great!

On May 25th we are getting married and I will be wearing a Jim Hjlem gown.  I purchased it at VIP Occasions in Elmhurst, IL!

JLM Couture Love Story #2

February 13, 2013 | No Comments

The ultimate love story. We actually met 8 and 1/2 years ago and we’ve been dating for 8 years. He lives just a few houses away from mine and I never knew he existed. Believe it or not, we met on the internet when his cousin, who was also my friend, introduced us. Unfortunately, when we started talking, I was on the verge of entering another relationship. When I started that relationship, my fiance refused to speak to me. And in the 3 days the other relationship lasted ( yes 3 days!), I realised how much I missed him. I knew that he offered so much more than the ’3 day wonder’ :). So we just talked for about 6 months and then decided to give it a try. Its been 8 years since! I think I knew that he was the one for me was when I saw that unconditional love from him when my dad was diagnosed with stomach cancer. Every single day he made those trips to chemo and radiation and back. When my dad was too ill to move, I saw my fiance sleep on a sofa half his size just in case my dad needed to be moved in the night. I saw him ask my father for his blessings to marry me the night before he passed. I also saw him stick by me when my father passed, refusing to be moved just to make sure that I was going to be ok. I still see him here today, standing by me no matter what. And on December 21st, I’ll see him at the end of the aisle, waiting on me to marry him in my gorgeous Lazaro gown! I hope you enjoyed my love story and even though its bittersweet for me, I know that I have someone who my father approves of and that means the world to me. I have someone who can almost fill those shoes my dad left…

JLM Couture Love Story #3

February 12, 2013 | No Comments

Whitney and Micah traveled around the world to meet each other!  In February 2007 Whitney Hassett and Micah Norton met in the same study abroad program, American Institute for Foreign Studies, on their way to Sydney, Australia for a semester.  Whitney was a junior studying at Providence College in Rhode Island where she is from.  Micah was a junior at St. John Fisher in Rochester, NY (about 2 hours North of his hometown, Elmira, NY).  While members in the same study abroad group, they also happened to be neighbors in their town house complex, Macquarie Village at Maquarie University.

After a few weeks of dodging feelings for one another (let’s be honest you go to Australia to meet an Australian!) Micah and Whitney finally admitted to having feelings for each other! Ask any friends of theirs from Macquarie and you’ll get the typical response from Whitney “I do not like him, we’re just friends!”  That game could only be played for so long….

After leaving Fiji (a quick stop over from Sydney on the way back to the States)… they started their long distance relationship. Whitney back to Providence College and Micah off to St. John Fisher for the final year as college students!  Micah was playing his final season of football, Whitney busy student teaching.  Directly after graduating in 2008, Whitney took a job teaching 1st grade in NYC while Micah accepted a management position at Wells Fargo…. the distance continues.  After about 2.5 years of 6 hours of distance, Whitney (amidst a tearful ride home from Toronto – the most perfect birthday weekend ever – Micah surprised her with a weekend in Toronto to see her favorite band, U2)… a light bulb switched on. “I’m moving to Rochester, NY” – Whitney told her family and friends.  Sure enough…. January 2, 2010 Micah and Whitney packed up a big UHaul, towed her car up to snowy Rochester, NY.

About two months after Whitney moved to Rochester… Micah got transferred to Buffalo! Back to distance!  Fortunately this time it was only an hour, and even more fortunately, it didn’t last.  Micah quickly returned to Rochester and accepted a job as a Commercial Real Estate Leasing Manager.  After finishing her Master’s in Literacy at SUNY Geneseo, Whitney accepted a 1st grade teaching position at Discovery Charter School.

Dating was fun in Rochester and not having to worry about traveling each weekend to see one another was even better!  In February 2012 Micah told Whitney he had a “bowling tournament on Friday the 3rd with Steve”  Whitney (thinking how lame that sounded) quickly texted Steve’s wife, Kelly to see what the girl’s had plans while their men bowled the Friday night away.  Kelly had been dying to see The Artist and they made plans to grab a drink Friday after school and go to The Little Theatre downtown for the 8:00 show.

A goblet of red wine later, Kelly and Whitney headed to The Little for the movie. The first preview started with a shot of the Sydney Opera House! “Look!” Whitney excitedly poked at Kelly who was frozen in her seat.  As the preview continued, Micah is all of a sudden on the screen… telling their story, starting in Australia.  He’s telling his best friends about how he wants to marry her but doesn’t know how to propose!  The preview continues with Micah catching a ride to The Little, buying a ticket for The Artist (grabbing popcorn behind the concession stand) and opening the doors to the movie theatre.  The screen goes black….

Kelly at this point had left Whitney alone in her seat (obviously freaking out!).  The doors behind Whitney open and Micah runs down the aisle, gets down on one knee and proposes!…. even had a light put in the ring box so Whitney could see the gorgeous thing! Yes Yes Yes! (of course!)…. soon the lights turn back on in the cinema and its revealed that their closest friends and family were hiding in the theater (among real strangers!)

Whitney wore Jim Hjelm's Blush 1601. She found it at The Bridal Garden in East Greenwich, RI

 Whitney and Micah got married September 7, 2012 at Warwick Country Club in Rhode Island.  Whitney’s family has been members there her whole life and she has dreamed of one day getting married there!  Their wedding day was a sunny day, packed with family and friends, and was the ideal celebration of their friendship and love!

JLM Couture Love Story #4

February 11, 2013 | No Comments

How we met:

“Brandon and I met at a wedding…..  yes, how cliche does that sound!  He was living in Tampa, Florida at the time and flew up to Minnesota to stand up as a groomsmen in his cousin’s wedding.  I am from Minnesota and my high school girlfriend had asked me to be one of her personal attendants.  Yes these are the same weddings!  The night of the rehearsal dinner, I commented to my fellow personal attendant and best friend, “who is the hot, tan groomsmen in the purple shirt?!” We looked in the program, established it was the grooms cousin “Brandon”, and I thought nothing else of it – he was way out of my league… :)

The wedding day came and the night was winding down – it was busy and fun and I didn’t really have time to think about that cute guy I
spotted the night before.  I was doing my personal attendant duties!  At the very end of the reception the entire wedding party (including myself) was waiting outside the venue for the coach bus to pick us all up, and bring us back to the hotel.  I must’ve have been cold (well, I was – I’m always cold!) and I must have looked like it.  Before I even knew it, someone was putting their jacket on me….. I turn around… IT WAS THE HOT GROOMSMEN!  He said “Hi, I’m Brandon.” When the bus arrived, he asked if he could sit by me – and we started to talk.  The next morning as most of the wedding party was eating breakfast in the hotel, he asked for my number before heading back to the airport for his flight back to Florida.  I gave it to him of course, but thought “he will never call me!”…  That afternoon my phone rang and it said “Brandon” on the screen….

After 1 year of long distance from Tampa, FL to Minneapolis, MN – many flights down, many flights up, endless phone calls, millions of texts… Brandon took the biggest leap of faith and left his management role in distribution for a major corporation and moved to Minneapolis, MN to give our love is fair shot”.

Our engagement:

 ”6 months after he moved to Minnesota (so about a year a half after we met) we were taking our first “vacation” TOGETHER.  We had been on airplanes to visit each other, but never together!  We were headed down to St. Petersburg, Florida where a now mutual friend was getting arried.  We made a long weekend out of it and stayed at a nice little resort right on the beach.  The second day we were there, Brandon had suggested we make the drive to Siesta Key Beach – one of the prettiest beaches in the area!  White sand, great restaurants, cute shops, and amazing daiquiri’s.   He had taken me there once before – on my 2nd trip down to Florida about a year ago- when we just started  “dating.” It was very romantic and I was excited to go back with him! We spent the day doing the things we did on that original date – got  daiquiri’s at the same place, walked along the beach, soaked up the sun, looked for shells, and then ended with amazingly fresh seafood at the same restaurant we had previously discovered.  After dinner – instead of going home like we planned, he suggested we go watch the  sunset back on the beach.  I was all for it!  Once we got to a good quiet spot, he told me to get my camera ready for pictures. It got a little chilly being later in the evening and by the ocean, and e put his fleece jacket on me and gave me a wonderful hug, standing behind e.  As he started to tell me all of hese amazing and wonderful things about us, our relationship, our love, and our journey – he reached in his pocket, came around/in front of me, and got down on one knee asking me to marry him and placing a diamond ring on my finger!!!!!

It was the most perfect proposal I could have ever imagined….”

Jodi will  be wearing an Alvina Valenta gown purchased from Che Bella in St. Paul Minnesota!