Wedding Dress

Since the wedding has long passed, I can finally make a post about my wedding dress shopping! My wedding dress prompted many, many seasons of "Say Yes to the Dress" to be streamed and a lot of time spent googling things like "summer wedding dress with lace" and "pros and cons of strapless dresses". It was a fun process (though not a big as romance movies would have you believe) that actually took place in multiple states. It was three trips before I picked my dress, and I loved the one I ended up with.

Shopping at David's Bridal

So the first time I went shopping I went with my bridesmaids to David's Bridal. They were nearby and easy to look at, and for my first time looking I just wanted a basic shop. I tried on a ton of dresses, and you can thank my sister for the pictures because she took them for my mother, who was in Colorado at the time. 

Pretty, but underwhelming

The first dress I tried on was a very basic white dress. It was pleated over the breasts and had a pretty sheer top. The silhouette was really nice, but that was the thing. It was really nice and I felt no real attraction to it. It was pretty but we agreed to move on.

You can see the consultant in the back completely done with myself and my bridesmaids.

The second dress was very similar to the first, but the sheer top of the skirt looked more like basic tulle than I wanted, and the overall layering was too simple for me. It was at this point in the process that between myself and my bridesmaids the consultant was questioning our sanity. Alls well that ends well, we had fun. 

You can see my face trying very hard not to be rude to the dress.

This dress was easily my least favorite. I wanted lace, but this lace was chunky and not very spaced out. The belt on the dress cinched it in at a favorable place, but it was a little too much bling for me. It doesn't help that the lace over the chest and shoulders was far, far too big and the fabric over the chest abruptly switched to lace as opposed to a transition. As my bridesmaids put it, it looked like something my great-grandmother would have worn, and not in a cute vintage way.

I think the pointy boobs were the selling point of this dress.

This dress actually hit a lot of what I wanted. I wanted lace, check, I wanted a corset, check, I wanted something that flared out but wasn't big, check. With that, nothing about this dress really hit me. Not to mention that it wasn't very flowy, the boobs literally came to a point and the flare at the skirt came from four specific points. Unfortunately, another miss.

I still can't believe Vera Wang has a dress with such an obvious seam.

This dress was actually, overall, gorgeous. I loved the lace detail, the sweetheart neckline, and overall fit. Unfortunately, no one else liked it, and most importantly it had the most obnoxious seam. It looked as if the dress had been made in two separate parts and folded and hemmed together in a fashion that a 12-year-old learning to sew would do. Vera Wang is a huge designer in the wedding dress world, so I was blown away that she has such a shoddily made dress. 

Another one bites the dust- is this dress appropriate to post on the internet?

This dress I actually picked out myself. I had seen it in a magazine and fallen in love. It had straps, something I leaned against, and it wasn't even white but I loved it. Really really guys, this dress (while too big) I loved. However, my bridesmaids gladly acted as the voice of reason. A fitted version of this dress actually would have been way worse on the boobs, and there would be plenty of time to wear booby-dresses in the future. 

So in summary, David's Bridal didn't win in the end. That said, I had a great time going with my bridesmaids and it started really helping me decide on a wedding dress. 

Colorado Dress Pick

Doesn't this look like my husband is going to answer his vows with "As you wish"?

Okay, so I don't have a ton of pictures from when I went dress shopping in Colorado (when I also looked at a ton of flower). In fact, the dress I picked is the only dress I have pictures of. I also have no idea what the name of the wedding dress shop, but I know it's in Colorado on Broadway between downtown Englewood and Denver. The shop was kind of small, but it was a really cute shop and the consultants were really nice. I really really wanted to find my dress there because I was with my mom, something I wouldn't have back in Georgia. I picked this dress to be my dress, even showed pictures to friends, family, and coworkers. It's easy to see why, it was really pretty. It was simple but flattering, it had lace, and it allowed me to wear a normal bra. It also helps that it looked really cute with my doc martins. However, after getting back in Georgia, I began to have doubts. I wanted a dress with a corset back, and this didn't have that. As pretty as it was it didn't sit with me, and I kept looking. 

Georgia Dress Pick

So my mother visited again a couple of months later, and we used this time to shop around. We first went to a bridal shop that was having a sale, but that wasn't a huge success so we moved on to Formally Yours.

You may think this dress is perfect, but wait until you see it fitted!

I tried on a few dresses, and nothing was really hitting, until my mom made the consultant let me try this on. I feel bad for the consultant, but I'm also so glad my mom annoyed her until she gave this to me because lace or not this dress was perfect! It had sheer layering and the pleating on the front was amazing! What hit me the most about this dress was how amazing I looked in it, and it wasn't even fitted yet! The dress was well over the $1,000 mark but it was discontinued and the floor model, so we got it for well under the $1,000 mark. 

So my face may be cut off but gorgeous dress!

Alterations

So Formally Yours suggested an alteration vendor, but the lady was rude. I looked around and found Dora Baker, who did an amazing job. Not only is she very talented at alterations, but she worked around both my work schedule and my I-need-someone-here-but-everyone-is-out-of-state schedule. After she was done the original dress looked, by comparison, terrible! 

 I mean, look at the waist! Look at the reflection of the corset back in the mirror! Look at the re-pleated fabric in the front! Dora convinced me to keep a short train, and I'm so glad I did. Look at how pretty!

It's good that the dress looked amazing then, and we got pictures, because by the end of my wedding it was a little worse for wear. xD

8 Months Since the Wedding

Hair and Out of State Bridesmaids

Why hello everyone! First of all, it's true, I'm Mrs. HelloBeautifulChild now. xD As the wedding came closer it was too much to also post. (For example, my mother, father, grandmother, and godfather all stayed with us and our roommate in our three bedroom house for the week or so before the wedding. Oh yeah, but more on that later.) Things started to go wrong, and as I explained before, most of the wedding planning is in a month or so before the day of. I still want this record though, so I'm going to backtrack and tell the tale of the rest of our wedding planning. Starting now with my wedding hair.

I've mentioned a million times that I wanted to have a fancy braid for my hair on the day of the wedding. It's a style that appeals to me because it is obviously so gorgeous and I think updos look wonderful with strapless wedding dresses. (What? I mentioned my wedding dress? Since the day passed, I can do that now. :D ) Unfortunately, my original hairstylist moved locations. I called in later, after finally getting ahold of my sister (which had been difficult due to conflicting schedules but not at all her fault) to see if she wanted to get her hair done too, to get an updated quote with the new stylist. (I needed a new quote as prices can range from stylist to stylist.) I found out then and there that the timing was going to be difficult and stressful. In addition, the cost was significantly higher than my original quote. It sucked to do, but it was becoming clear that my fancy braid wasn't going to happen.

Without a braid for my hair, my mother and grandmother urged me to get a veil and do something special. It was one of those things that I cared maybe 40% about, and they cared about 80%. They wanted me to have a special day, and that meant even the little things were special. At a crafts store we picked up a very basic veil and a pretty beaded leaf thingy for my hair. (They don't seem to still sell it, but this looks very similar to the 'pretty beaded leaf thingy'. I'm not linking the veil because, quite frankly, I don't remember too much what it looked like.) I could manage an updo, and without precious and detailed braids, these accessories would make it look much more put together.

8 Months Since the Wedding