Wedding Gown Shopping!

Probably the most exciting day yet (besides the day I got engaged!) and I couldn't be happier with how it ended! I have been dreaming about shopping for a wedding dress for years. It is so surreal walking into a bridal store and actually trying dresses on as a bride. That feeling alone swept me off my feet. I went into the experience with a very open mind, knowing that I would like a lot of things, so I felt overwhelmed by the whole process. Here's what I tried on! Prepare for picture overload!

 This dress was a "ball gown" that I tried, although in my head, "ballgown" means pouf and tulle and twirl. I really liked this dress on, but the bottom had nothing special.

 The top of this dress is very similar to almost all the dresses I tried on, but the bottom was not happening. The diagonals, the lace, it was all wrong.

 This was a satin gown. Now, the only things I didn't want to try on were satin and lace. I actually really loved this satin dress, it was a "light satin" whatever that means, but it was surprisingly lightweight and the fit was just so pretty. I worried what it would look like in pictures (satin always looks shiny to me). I did love this dress, but there wasn't anything special.

 This dress was so not on my list, sleeves are not my thing, but they arent really sleeves, they are like glitsy, beaded awesomeness. It was WAY to big and was hard to see what the fit really looked like, but the back was a showstopper. See below!

 Pictures don't do justice, but trust me, it was unbelievable how pretty it was! As gorgeous as the back was, the rest of the dress lacked a lot and straps just are not my style at all! I'm happy I tried it on though!

 Loved this dress too! But the rosette bottom was not my thing and I didnt like the flow from the mid thigh area to the skirt bottom. The cut off is just too much for me. The rest of the dress though, perfect!

 The other ballgown I tried on, my mom LOVED this one, but it did nothing for me.

 This dress was all tulle (im a ballerina so I was all over this) and was stunning on, but I found myself being a little itchy from the tulle. I also didn't think B would like this one.

So the top one was a definite potential, but my dad was not a fan of all the beading up top and I wasn't a fan of how itchy my arms were from it. I loved how it looked on and I loved the detail on the hip. I also really liked the skirt and how it flowed. But I just wasn't 100% sold on the beading up top. I had tried on a few dresses with a beaded belt and liked the focus to be there a lot more.

The second dress was runner up to the one I ended up choosing. It's a Pronovias dress (the Letunde) and one I had been eyeing for a while now. The dress was a runway dress. It was so modern and unique. I wont lie-I loved that I was wearing a known designer dress too. The big flaw-the feathered top. I had seen it online and hated it. I hate how it looked in pictures. In real life, its not that bad, but pictures are what last a life time and if I don't like how my dress looks in pictures, why buy it? I also had my heart set on a corset back, I just love how they look and this dress lacked it. It was also over my budget. It came in under my parents budget, but I had my own budget that I was comfortable having them spend. Once you add in a veil and a belt, we were over, by a lot. The salon I was buying it at is also a good 2 hours away in Boston and would've been a pain to deal with.

I'm sure you get the idea of what my style is and can probably come up with a good picture of what it looks like, but a very select few will see it until the wedding! My parents came with me (they are paying) so they have seen it (and love it!). My matron of honor has also seen it because she will be getting me into it and bustling it so she will have to see it beforehand anyways.  The only other person who has seen it is Bridesmaid N. She actually found the dress online and sent it to me and being the crazy bride I am pretty much stole it from under her. It sound worse than it is though, I would never have considered it if she wasn't 1000 percent sure she didn't want it. I also offered for her to come with me to try it on herself and if she loved it, it was hers. She agreed that the style was more me and was pushing all week for me to find it. Good thing I did because it ended up being the one!

The best feeling I have had yet was putting on a veil for the first time. Even though it wasn't with my dress, I could just picture myself walking down the aisle to meet B on the other end and getting to marry him! That definitely made me tear up a little and got me all giddy! Cant wait to share the rest of our wedding planning week!

Home!

I have been planning a trip to go home (MA) for a little while now. I always like to take at least a few days between Christmas and April (when we go home) to visit my mom and dad. Once we return in April, things get crazy with the business and I only get one or two days off (maybe) until October and then we leave again! The few days home with my parents in March are always nice and a good time to catch up. Now that I'm engaged, I have lots of wedding things to do while im home, plus no one has seen my ring!

I had originally planned to fly standby on Sunday (my brother works for AA), but with the crazy snow storm taking over the country this weekend, I decided to buy a ticket and fly out Saturday. I've been a little crazy today trying to get some work done and pack. Luckily, B's parents are in town and have been able to help around the house.

I also am moving up in the world of cell phones and have upgraded to an iphone! This is a bittersweet day for me. I have always hated the iphone, mainly because I think the texting sucks. But with wedding dress shopping and Party Patrol starting soon, I felt like a legit phone with internet and a good camera would be worth it. I've used B iphone since day 1, so I'm used to it and don't even feel like this one is mine yet!

Bentley also went to the groomers today, which is always a circus. He is not a fan, but looks oh so cute! With my new handy dandy phone, I promise to take more pictures, but that will start tomorrow. Maybe.

Lastly, I was inspired earlier to make cookies, so I went with a recipe my roommate introduced me too. Its basically a chocolate chip cookie with a pile of nutella inside. To die for. Recipe can be found here.

My thin FL blood (that is a real thing, I promise!) will soon be entering the polar vortex and snow wonderland! Wish me luck!

Bridesmaids!

Now that all my girls have received their gifts, I can finally share the project here!

So I knew I wanted to ask my girls to be bridesmaids in a special way. I had found an idea on Pinterest awhile back and looked into buying shirts on etsy, but they seemed super expensive. I decided to try making shirts myself and they could not have come out better! I am so so happy with them, I even made myself a "Bride" one!

I'll do a how-to post later, but here's the finished product!

So there are eight girls standing on my side, my MOH (who happens to be married to B's Best Man!!), 4 Bridesmaids and 3 Junior Bridesmaids (my future nieces!). I wrapped each shirt in black tissue paper and tied it with gold ribbon. Each girl had the best reaction to the gifts and no one had any idea they were coming! It was so exciting and I think they all really liked it! It just stinks that we have to wait 18 months to wear them to any event!

Venue Trouble

I'm sure in a few months from now, I'll read this post and think how silly I was for worrying so much because by then, I'll have a venue (hopefully!).

So B is all about the wedding budget. And by budget, I mean spending pennies on the wedding. My mom had mentioned when we first got engaged that we should set our tents up at our MA house. Convenient, its pretty, oh and its free. I immediately shot that idea down, but not even an hour later, B had the same idea. I do not love the idea at all and feel like our wedding in our backyard would be seriously stressful. Am I being irrational? I'm having a hard time explaining to B how I feel about this idea.

Pros:

• It's free. I get that, but we have one venue that we like where we know the owner and he's willing to barter party rentals to use his barn (aka a free venue). We feel like we have some bargaining tactics because we are in the wedding industry (not sure if I've mentioned yet that we also own a DJ company), so we can try a referral system or links on websites, etc. So our house bring free doesn't hold a ton of bearing with me. 
• Convenience. Everything would literally be ten steps away. This to me is more of a con than a pro, but for after party purposes and the fact that all of our friends are big drinkers and wont want to drive after the wedding, it does hold some ground to not have to worry about transportation. Renting a limo/bus for 30 of our friends would be pricey, so I see his point. 
• Significance of our home. My mom loves this idea, from getting ready in our house to having all of our relatives at our home (yikes!), she thinks it would be so sweet. I don't disagree, but I do see myself getting worked up over this more than it would be worth. 
• Bathrooms. A weird one, but having an outdoor wedding means some sort of porta potty. Not ideal in long gowns. Our house has a seperate bathroom for our employees that's connected to our house, but can be locked so you can only get in from the outside but can't get into the house.

Cons:

• It's not special. This is the part I can't explain to B. I live there. I see this place every day. It's not somewhere new and different. Oh, not to mention that we work here 24/7 and the house brings a lot of stressful feelings because it's related to our business.
• There is no where to have a ceremony. Only enough room for the reception tent.
• There is no room for parking. This could be fixed by parking down the street at the town hall or park, but there would still have to be some sort of valet from there to our house. Not a problem we cant solve, but not ideal. 
• It's my backyard. Meaning I would drive myself absolutely crazy cleaning/organizing,vacuuming every speck of dirt from my yard. I guess some would see this as a good thing because I have control over the space, but I see it as added stress seeing my wedding get put together for a week. 
•  The business is run out of the same property. Trucks, trailers, bounce houses, all of it would have to be moved. Leaving the business for weeks is going to be hard enough, but planning everything out for the business to move temporarily for a few days would be hard. More planning on my part. Again, fixable, but more work for me. 
• I have zero desire to get ready in my bedroom, where I sleep every night. Weird. I've always dreamed about getting ready somewhere special with my bridal party. And I dont want to sleep with B the night before, but it seems silly to get a hotel and then drive back to our house later for our wedding. 

We are both keeping our options open and he is being super easy going about all of this. But if he had it his way, it would be at our house. I understand there has to be compromise, but I'm holding my ground on this one. Especially because there is potential for us to get a venue for next to nothing. And he knows that, so at this point we wait to see the venues and what they will offer.