the winner

image from here

this will be our new dining room chandelier. we just clicked 'submit order'.

it will be going above this table.
which we bought from here. when i called my local restoration hardware about 6 weeks ago to inquire about this table, the nice sales associate told me about an event that was happening at the shopping village in a few weeks. donate $25 to a cancer research foundation and receive 20% off of your purchases at participating stores. restoration hardware was participating. i waited. i participated. i donated and marched into rh to purchase this. (and i stopped in jcrew too, while i was there, cause, you know, i had that 20% off that, you know, i didn't want to waste.... and anthropologie.) anyway, we love the table.

back to the chandelier. it was a tough competition. i originally wanted this.
i thought the frilliness would be a nice juxtaposition to the rustic wood. steve hated it. i couldn't convince him otherwise.

steve countered with this.
and although i love the crystal shades (again, nice contrast to the rustic table) i thought the base bars were just too modern.

i moved onto these.
i love this. let me say again, i love this. i thought 2 of these over the table would be perfect. steve didn't. (but don't worry.... i'll work one into the house somewhere, someway.)

then i tried to sell him on this.
i loved the idea of 2 of these over the table. i thought these really suited the mood we were striving for, which is extremely informal. steve wasn't on board with these.

then we settled on this.until we went to order it and realized it was backordered until october. ugh.

this chandelier hunt was exhausting. seriously. we searched countless sites for countless hours until we were dizzy. we'd settle on one light only to find that it wasn't bright enough or too expensive or not large enough.

i involved my sister. i sent her the links to each choice, not telling her whose choice it was. her front runner was the capiz shell. second was the ultimate winner. i'm happy with our choice. i think it'll look great over the table.

oh, and the ultimate winner in the amazing chandelier race was originally .... steve's choice.