I Said YES to the Dress

I thought it was about time that I wrote a blog about my experience with wedding dress considering that it only took 1 day, 2 stores, and about 8 dresses to find my dream dress.

We started the trip in classic celebratory style with mimosas brought by my maid of honor. Then after a quick drink my mom, maid of honor, sister, and I were off to our first store.

Eva’s Bridal is located in Oak Creek and is very close to where I live. We thought it would be a good idea to kick things off here considering that it was close. I had also heard from a few people that they had a ton of dresses.

When we walked in we were greeted and told that the sales associate that would be handling my appointment was still wrapping up with another bride. We were allowed to start looking around and pulling dresses to try on. We began pulling a few at the front of the store and then made our way to the back. I can remember thinking- this is all, once we reached that back of the store. There were a lot less dresses than I thought there would be.

As I tried on dress after dress, I wasn't getting that “feeling” that everyone says that bride’s get. I was very analytical about that experience my MOH told me. We were trying on dresses that were like the one represented in my previous blog. The store did not have the dress but the sales associate was able to pick out the different elements and we could piece them together. There was one dress that kind of stood out. Everyone loved it on me, but again I just wasn’t getting the feeling I wanted to have.

We left empty handed and I was a little down. My sister Jill and I, in the car together didn't talk a whole lot on the drive out to Brookfield for our second appointment. Once we found the bridal shop, Savvy Bride, we had a little time so we stopped in at a local restaurant for some pizza. After we had all finished I told the girls I wasn’t really happy with the way the last appointment wet so we were gonna go with a new plan. I was going to only tell the sales associate the theme of the wedding and maybe a few more minor details but let her pick the dresses for the most part with no idea what I had previously tried on.

When we got into Savvy Bride I could already tell it was going to be a good experience. The sales ladies were awesome and energetic. I loved it. We were brought up stairs and the girls were sat in what I will call the viewing room. The sales associate and I started chatting. I told her I was looking for an Old Hollywood dress, the location of the wedding and that I did not want a ball gown or a strapless gown. She did tell me she appreciated that I kind of wanted to “start over” with this trip into the bridal shop and that I had an open mind even thought I had tried on a few at Eva’s.

We began to search the racks. She had already pulled a few when I walked around the side of a rack and grabbed a dress that was just peeking out. I began to look at it and study it, not completely sold right away. She saw me looking at the dress and told me that she had pulled that one out but wasn’t sure, she told me to grab it since that must be a sign if we both grabbed the same dress. Then we went into the fitting room. I looked at all the dressed hanging on the wall and the one we had just pulled was by far my favorite. So we decided to try it on first. As soon as we got the zipper up I began to feel myself get flushed. I saw myself in the mirror and tried to keep my composure, I asked a few questions and then we made our way out the viewing area and I can remember peaking around the corner with a huge smile on my face. Then I remember my mom and MOH looking at each other and shaking their heads.

We all knew without saying it that I had found my dress. As I got up on the pedestal I again became flushed red. I could feel tears welling up in my eyes. I said “I can see myself marrying Phil in this dress!” Of course being the girl that I am I wanted to see what else the store had to offer so I tried on a few other dresses but none gave me that feeling;  soon enough it was back into the first dress. Now it was judgment time, how much would my dream dress cost? I got very lucky; the dress was within my price range but was also on sale due to a trunk show bringing the price down even more. I was actually able to come in under budget.

This was such a great one of a kind experience; I couldn’t have imagined sharing the day with 3 more special ladies in my life. It was truly a day to remember.

Wedding Dress Shopping This Weekend

This weekend is an exciting one. I am gearing up, and have been for weeks, to finally go wedding dress shopping. They generally say you should give yourself about 8-10 months when buying your wedding dress. This way you can order the dress and have a few fitting before the big day. I am just about at the 8^th month mark and I am ready to go.

I have pushed this event off for a while now, mostly because I am horrifies me to try on dresses, but also because I wanted to really enjoy our engagement and let the ideas and overall theme of the wedding create itself before actually dress shopping. Although like every other bride I still managed to find time to pin hundreds of pictures of dresses on my secret wedding board. Now after doing so I have a pretty solid idea of what I want. Ever since I was a little girl I had this idea that a wedding dress means a lot more than just a white dress. This dress is something so special that you are transformed into a princess. This dress to me means that it also has a few elements; one of which is buttons all the way down the back of the dress, luckily from my short time as a bridal consultant at David’s Bridal I now know that this can be done on any and every dress- huge relief to be because it doesn't have to narrow down my choices at all.

Going along with our Vintage Academy Awards theme, I would really like the old school glam to shine through with my dress. I am thinking something with straps (not sleeves, I’m talking like 1-2 inch thick.) Also, if you are not familiar, I am a tad bit obsessed with the Little Mermaid, so only fitting that I would want a mermaid/ fit and flair style dress. My last stipulation is that this dress has some kind of WOW factor. This could really be anything, maybe it is the beading or the neckline or even just an interesting element. I am hoping that I can find something along these lines, but again from my short time as a bridal consultant I know that what I think I might want could end up looking horrible on me. I am going in with an open mind just as I think all brides should do.

Here is kind of what I am thinking...

Aside from the huge event of shopping I am lucky enough to have my mom and little sister coming to stay for most of the weekend. They are coming for the dress shopping but haven’t been up to visit for a while and a lot has happened in the soon-to-be Gallico house. This afternoon I actually sat down and wrote a list of everything I want to make sure and show my mom. The list is huge! Luckily I have my wonderful Fiance to go grab us some take-out while we barricade ourselves in the second bedroom to review and create crafts.

BUT THAT’S NOT ALL… Also this weekend my MOH, also joining us for the dress hunt, and I will be going to brunch on Sunday to sit down an map out next year and all the events that go along with it. I love this idea, since I am such a planner this will help me keep my ducks in a row but this also allows for me to start giving people a heads up. I totally understand that people are busy and the sooner we can let them know when things are happening the better chance we have of them showing up. So Sunday morning I will be off to brunch with my hand-y planner to get planning.

This is definitely shaping up to be a Fantastic Wedding Themed Weekend.

Keeping Busy

So, I know I said I was going to post pictures and give an update after the weekend but things have been CRAZY! With the holidays beginning to take over all of my time fitting in wedding stuff is getting harder and harder. I just know I need to keep with it.

My main focus with the Christmas holiday is to enjoy the season. Christmas only comes around once and year and I don't want to loose out on those memories because I was cooped up doing wedding crafts the whole time.

In the last few weeks we have gotten a ton done though despite the holiday: Save the dates are beginning to be addressed, popcorn boxes are officially stamped (these can now be set aside til Bridesmaid craft day next year), and favor boxes are almost all cut, escort cards have also been cut and folded. I feel like I am definitely making a ton of head way.

And now for some fun stuff- PICTURES!!

We worked on mocking up what our place settings will look like- obviously the colors are incorrect. But this was a very helpful way to make sure the items that I was cutting with my Silhouette were proportional to the setting itself.

We placed our order for our rentals.  Here is another mock up of what a setting will looks like. I am seriously in love with the navy color of the linens. We rented from Area America which is a rental company that I actually work for as a side job. A few weekends a year I go and do wedding set up of linens and ties all over Southeastern Wisconsin. I love doing it and it ended up benefiting us in the long run because we received a HEFTY discount on the rentals.

Cutting the escort cards was interesting seeing as I used 8.5x 11 paper- this was because I used the same paper as the popcorn boxes to make sure the color matched- which meant that only 6 could fit on a sheet at a time. This project definitely took longer than expected but Phil and I both love the outcome. Phil was a huge help with not only cutting these shapes with my Silhouette but also with his input and ideas, He was always there to help me make a decision.

And finally the popcorn boxes. These took over 6 hours to cut total and was the first craft project I really started on for the wedding. I always knew that they would need a little more flair than just being a plain box, so with my step dad's help we designed a monogram. Then with more and more research done on my Silhouette I learned about stamping material, see here:  This stuff is amazing, the material is basically very thin silicone. After you cut the shape you can put it on stamping block and away you go. This made this project go 10 times faster then I could have ever imagined. Now I am looking for more ways to incorporate into the wedding.

TO DO List

This weekend we have a unique situation...we have NO plans. None at all, not one single thing that we need to do, not really any place that we need to go. This of course for Phil and I means that we can get caught up on stuff around the house, and wedding stuff is moved to the front of our list!

Here is what I am looking to accomplish this weekend:

1. Addressing out Save the Dates (these came in the mail last week- another post to come on these)

2. Taking a Second Look at our Registry (make sure there are no doubles of anything and also that we have everything we want on the lists, pretty much finalizing everything so we can put the information on our wedding website: weddingwire.com/pholly )

3. Stamping all of the popcorn boxes I made. This will take some time as I need to create the stamp with my Silhouette Cameo first then use the stamp to line up and stamp each of the 200 popcorn boxes. Of course making sure they dry as well. My guess is that my dining room floor will be littered with these boxes drying most of the day Saturday.

4. Cutting my favor boxes. This I am very excited about actually, I was able to catch a crazy sale at Michael's and got the paper for these boxes so cheap it is unbelievable. They were running a sale 6/$1 plus I had a 25% off my entire purchase coupon. DEAL OF THE CENTURY!

Although this might look like a full load I am hoping to also work on a few other things. well see what all I am able accomplish. All I can say is it is sure to be a productive weekend and I cant wait to show you all everything I have completed...with pictures of course! :)

Stages of Wedding Planning

My fiance and I have done a lot of work on our wedding. We have booked most of our vendors and most of the "larger" decisions have been taken care of. Once you get this point I feel like when you are asked about the wedding it is kind of hard to pin point where exactly you are in the process.

This weekend Phil and I went out to dinner with my Aunt and Uncle. This was the first time we had seen them since the engagement and I think we were all very anxious to talk details. When the questions came up- "So, tell us about the wedding?"- I was a little stumped. I can go on and on about the wedding for hours and hours but when faced with a question that really needed more of a pin-pointed answer I was at a loss.

Luckily my wonderful fiance jumped in explaining his views on the wedding planning process. He began by saying that the wedding planning process really scared him in the beginning, he thought it would be very overwhelming and constant lists of To-Dos. He has been presently surprised though-(his words). He explained the planning as going through stages.

The first stage was booking the venues and getting our "rules" for the day. Once you have your venue you are really boxed in to what they will and will not allow you to do. This first stage also consists of booking some of the vendors, DJ, cake, perhaps florist. This stage is loose on pinpointing things other than the general vendors but definitely helps the creativity start flowing.

The second stage, as he described is more where we are at. It is where things begin falling into place and the creativity can come out more and more. For us specifically we have booked the rentals at this point which has allowed us to see how our tables will start to look. Being a complete DIY bride I think this is my favorite stage in the game, I am getting to see my vision starting to take shape.

I am very excited to see the new stages that will start to form. It has been a source of laughter in our house when we can say "That is for stage 4 Molly and Phil to worry about."