OMG Its time to shop for wedding dresses!

One would think that with my background in Costume Design, I'd have a huge advantage in finding my wedding dress.  I'm beginning to think that is terribly wrong.  I helped a friend fit a wedding dress on her future sister in law a few days ago and I was asking the bride's advice on finding dresses.  She had some great things to say: don't judge it on the hanger, try on everything even if you don't think you'll like it, etc.  I then mentioned something about finding a dress that would fit with our reception venue and how it needed to feel like the ethereal rustic style I was going for.  She looked at me like I was a bit nuts.

via Ruffled

Apparently not EVERY bride-to-be analyzes every part of her wedding to help determine what her wedding dress should look like.  Lesson learned.  From my perspective, this wedding dress is my ultimate costume, the most influential dress I'll ever wear up until this point in my life (and, lets face it, probably ever unless Connor reveals that he's secretly a Californian Prince and we're going to live in a castle...then maybe not.)  So, now that you are all dying to know how I'll ever find a dress of such epic proportions, here's how I've STARTED the process of finding a beautiful dress (notice I didn't say THE dress...I don't believe in that only one dress in the entire world that would work business).

via Ruffled

(The dress in the first two photos are of a dress that I actually bought on ebay and tried on b/c I loved it so much!  After a weekend of shopping in big stores, we'll see how it stacks up!!)

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Pinterest really has been my best friend in this entire process.  All of my girlfriends who got married before me are quite jealous that they didn't have access to such a wealth of inspiration and truly, I can't imagine how they designed their weddings without it.  When I started my wedding Pinterest account, I made a board for "wardrobe", dresses, veils, headpieces, shoes, and anything else I might wear in reference to the wedding.  I didn't look for a specific style of dress to pin, I just waded through pages and pages of pins.  If I liked it, I pinned it, easy as that.  The real fun part was going back and looking through all of the images.  There was definitely a theme that I didn't even realize I was attracted to!  Illusion Lace backs, long elegant lines, soft tulle, a vintage flair....I had identified all of the elements of my perfect dress without even stressing about it! 

via 100 Layer Cake

All this time, in the back of my mind, I'm thinking about the elements of our wedding day and how this dress (and myself of course!!) will fit in.  A church wedding that leads into a rustic dance hall reception can be a tricky combination.  The first is classic and reverent, the second is earthy and fun!  The combination of a late fall wedding plus the use of gold in the decor PLUS my red hair/freckles/fair skin call for a warm white dress rather than a pure, cool white.  In an effort to be somewhat modest I'd really like to avoid wearing a strapless dress, though regardless of that, I am just more attracted to sleeve details anyways.  There will be a live band at the reception playing rocking music so one more thing to consider is the danceability of the dress.  Girl's gotta get her groove on.  And finally, I need a little sparkle.

So, after all that, I'm left with this list of Loves and Hates:

OMG I love:

Lace...especially beautiful back details

warm, golden white

tulle, silk, lace

one shoulder or cap sleeves

fit and flair or long and drapey silhouette

sparkle!

vintage meets contemporary

unique

Please stay away from:

strapless

bad satin

gigantic skirts

poofy mermaid silhouette

pick ups

Justin Alexander 8651

Via

I'm waiting in the airport now to fly to Houston to meet up with my mom, my future mother in law, and two local bridesmaids to try on dresses on Friday!!  Saturday and Sunday we will be in Brenham meeting with vendors and making a few more decisions about the wedding!  I'm quite blessed that I'll have both Moms there to help out, its going to be a very busy weekend!!

via 100 Layer Cake

So which one is your favorite? Any dress that you think I MUST have?  What was YOUR list of requirements when you went dress shopping?  I love hearing dress stories, please share yours below!!

When life gives you lemons, go shopping

Part 1: An OOPS of Epic Proportions

Wednesday January 30th was the great spilling of the beans.

By Thursday I decided that I needed to work the system and use this new knowledge to my advantage.  Life had given me some big sour lemons and I was determined to make cocktail with 'em. I just *happened* to be going to the mall with my roommate/bride to be Erin to pick out my bridesmaids dress for her wedding so we decided to take a look around and see what else we might find since we both have events coming up that would benefit from some cute outfits.  And lets face it, after a icy and cold winter, we were looking forward to something that reminded us that the trees would bloom again and we would be seeing flowers soon.

Our target was Francesca's.  If you've never been to one of these stores, I HIGLY recommend it!  I compared it to a poor girl's Anthropologie with a little less hippie/boho vibe. I've been a fan for a while, picking up some of my most interesting wardrobe pieces there.  They also have fabulous jewelry, purses, and great girlie gifties.  Erin found a darling sleeveless white lace dress that is gathered at the waist with a black ribbon.  We have had fun coming up with ideas to style it different for tons of different events and I think she'll get a lot of wear out of it!  I tried on several dresses but the one I chose was the first one that I picked up and loved from the beginning.  A cream or white dress felt appropriate for the occasion (and something that I'll be able to wear again in the coming months) and I love the embellished collar.  Since it will be cold, I plan on styling it like this:

Meanz from A Koi Story models the Chrysler Brocade Dress from Francescas

I'll probably wear a black blazer with the dress instead of the cardigan to add a little more contrast and edge.  I've got solid black tights as well as some fun lace/fish nets that I'm deciding between.  Also, the dress is a bit shorter on me so it is cute but appropriate for a 28 year old.  During our shopping extravaganza, I also picked up some new black pumps replacing my 7 year old previous pair. It was time and this was my excuse.  I'm so thrilled with my finds and I think the outfit is going to end up looking really beautiful, classic, and timeless.

I have to say that overall, I'm still feeling quite calm about the situation.  Since there would have been a whole avalanche of surprises, I'm quite sure I would have been very overwhelmed.  Surprise visit and an engagement is a whole heap of excitement.  Because of the turn of events, I now have the opportunity to savor the anticipation, to reflect on our relationship, and to mentally prepare myself for the beginning of a crazy new chapter in our lives.  I have a very unique opportunity to take everything in and remember every moment...at least long enough to get it written down.  

My dear boyfriend is not normally a mushy kind of guy.  For sure, he lets me know how much he cares about me, but its never in grand gestures.  I must begin to give him more credit though.  For the past two nights, he's written me the most wonderful love letters.  Each begins with the number of sleeps until I get to see him ('sleeps' being our counting system until we are reunited).  As far as I can tell, there is a theme for each one and even some of his favorite photos included.  Two nights in (7 sleeps and 6 sleeps) and he's gotten me crying each time.  I can already tell these are letters that I will cherish and I am crossing my fingers and toes that I'll be lucky enough to get one each of the remaining nights until Thursday.

I officially have next friday off from work so we'll have the opportunity to spend the day together which is absolutely thrilling.  Its been just over a month since I've seen him and while going two months without a visit is our usual schedule, I've been having quite a hard time being away from him since our week together at Christmas.  What can I say, i'm smitten with this man and I hate being so far away.  I'll get to see him again in California in early March which will make our inevitable goodbye a tiny bit easier.