Botanical Gardens and a Floral Dress

Initially, I thought about building up the suspense for this shoot we did while in Asheville. True to form, I scratched that thought as soon as I sat down to write this week’s post. Waiting for something (aka patience) has never been my strength – Matt got all of that! This floral outfit was my favorite look from our long weekend in North Carolina. Hands down, my favorite thing to wear come spring is dresses and this one gives me all those warmer weather feels!

When we first got to Asheville, I was a little disappointed in the weather. It drizzled off and on our first day while we were in and out of breweries but at the end of the day, the sun came out. I have a knack for planning vacations without acknowledging the time of year. Sometimes, they turn out terribly. Other times they turn out pretty well – like that time I convinced Matt to go to Banff over thanksgiving (I wanted to see the gorgeous blue lakes). Turned out all the lakes had iced over long before Thanksgiving. The winter wonderland that was left over wasn’t bumming me out at all though!

While we were in Asheville, it was actually warmer here in Chicago. Who would have thought? We missed what was probably one of the warmest couple days in Illinois all because I had wanted to see the Biltmore. All the beautiful Pinterest photos with blooming gardens had given me a temporary blindness to that thing called common sense. Newsflash, flowers don’t bloom in February. Unless, you’re in a greenhouse! That’s when we found these beautiful botanical gardens on the grounds of the estate. It was warm enough to shoot and every direction you looked was covered in stunning vegetation. We must have spent an hour wandering through (twice). One guess as to which of us didn’t want to leave!

This mesh floral dress was the perfect compliment to all the plants around me. I feel like it would be so great to wear to a spring wedding and it’s so comfortable, you could dance all night. Or to a garden party – can you just see this outfit in some lush green setting? It’s just the best spring look. I wore my favorite blush heels (going out of stock so fast now!) because the block heels makes them easy to walk around in. I also spotted a platform version for the girl who likes a little more height as well as a slip on sneaker for the girl who doesn’t like to wear heels! There just seems to be an endless love of the color pink this year and I’m slowly getting used to it!

All in all, this was my favorite spot at the Biltmore. The house was cool (read more about the fashion exhibit going on here) but flowers will always steal my heart! And how gorgeous are those iron chairs a few photos down? I asked Matt if we could have a greenhouse in our future home after we left. He said “maybe”. I’ll take it!