8 Months and Counting

I officially have hit the 8 month mark - that means that exactly 8 months from today I will be slipping on the gown and saying I Do!

In celebration of hitting my 8 month mark I made a list of the top 8 things I have done so far for the wedding:
1. Picked bridesmaids & created a website for us to use for planning
2. Went searching, found a venue, and picked a date
3.  Had our engagement pictures done & had them featured in another blog
4.  Finalized our guest list & sent out save the dates
5. Found my dress & got it for a great deal
6. Designed our invitation suite & again ordered our invitations at a great price
7. Booked our DJ
8. Applied to be a weddingbee.com blogger


How many months do you have until the big day?  Time flies so quickly, it'll be here before you know it!

Please Mister Postman

Look and see, if there's a package, a package for me.

My dress has been shipped!  As I talked about here and here I am buying a "previously loved" dress from preownedweddingdresses.com.  The seller and I agreed to use Escrow.com which I talked briefly about (I am waiting for the process to be complete and then I will review the site for you!).  Not wanting to pay an upgrade fee on the site to send my payment online, I decided to do it the "old-fashioned" way - sending a check vis snail-mail.

For some reason, which I haven't quite figured out, Escrow.com requires 10 banking days to process your check.  So, I sent my check out way back on December 21 and it was finally cleared on January 9.  Yay!  With that, the seller shipped out the dress the next day and now I am patiently waiting.  It is set to arrive this coming Wednesday, January 16.  I will be sure to post pictures.  :)

CHA-CHING

So, I finally made the decision on the dress.  I am buying the one that I found online from preownedweddingdresses.com.  The dress itself is only going to cost me $800 (literally half of the original price).  I am so excited about this great deal!

AND I am ecstatic about the corset back.  If you recall my previous post about this dress, I was worried that it had a corset back because I had only tried on the dress with the zipper back.  However, I was able to find someone that had tried the dress on with the corset back and they sent me the picture below.

I LOVE the corset back, I think it just adds the the "princess-y" feel of the dress.  I can't wait to get my dress and try it on.



And now that I have a dress with a corset back, I MUST have this picture of the rings on the day of the wedding.  I saw it before, but completely discounted it because I had no plans of getting a dress with a corset back. I am so glad that I changed my mind.  :-)

Say Yes to the Dress

I posted here about THE dress, which I found back at the end of September (while I was home for our engagement party).  I realized though that I never posted about my dress shopping experience.  So, here it goes.

  After getting engaged, I pictured my dress shopping experience as many future brides probably do.   I imagined my mom, my sisters and my bridesmaids there with me.  Then when I stopped daydreaming about going dress shopping and really thought about it, I was pretty bummed out.  Just over a year ago we moved out to Michigan for my fiancé's work, which meant leaving all of our friends and family.  What that meant for me now?  Nobody to go dress shopping with.  

However, my awesome Maid of Honor pointed out that we were all going to be in Maryland for a few days for the engagement party and we could do shopping then.  I don't know how I didn't think of that.  Well I guess that's why she's my Maid of Honor.  I immediately began working out a schedule with my family and bridesmaids immediately and calling around to places in the area.  

After making some appointments I realized that I was going to have a very limited amount of time for dress shopping (I'd only be in town for 2 days and one day was dedicated to the engagement party).  With that in mind I got onto Pinterest, printed out a few pictures of dresses that I liked, and headed over to David's Bridal.  I decided to take a solo trip while in Michigan to get a better idea of what was out there, what I liked, etc.  I figured that would make things easier when I went along with everyone else.  I didn't like most of the dresses that I tried on that day.  Here's one that I did like and I have the saleswoman take a picture of.  In fact, at this point I was even considering that this was THE one.  So glad that I moved past that!

After this trip the dress shopping was put on hold until I was back in Maryland about 3 weeks later.  As I said in my previous post I had 2 appointments - the first was at David's Bridal and the second was at Alfred Angelo's (I had discovered their Disney Princess collection).  

And so the adventure at David's Bridal begins......

 I tried on somewhere between 15 and 20 dresses there.  I found many myself that I wanted to try on and the saleswoman was also extremely helpful in picking out some dresses based on pictures that I had brought in.  Without further ado, here are a few of the highlights.

 Dress #1:  I liked the general idea of this dress, but it jut wan't quite right.

Dress #2: This dress was similar to the dress that I found at the David's Bridal dress back in Michigan.  I did not like this dress at all.  Somehow in just 3 weeks I had done a complete 180 in regards to what I wanted in my wedding dress.

Dress #3:  I really liked this one for some reason.  I think it was because it was so different.  

Dress #4: I hated this one, I couldn't get out of it fast enough.  My MOH insisted she get a picture.  You can't tell in this picture, but the skirt is very.....interesting.  There are feathers and sequins on it.

 More of dress #3.  I had to try it on again.  Everyone really liked it.  This was again possibly THE dress, but still not sure.  Again, I'm glad this is not where it ended.

After 2 hours at David's Bridal we went across the street to Alfred Angelos.  The saleswoman there (who we later found out was the manager of the store) was not so great at, well, sales.  I showed her pictures of the dresses that I had brought with me and she told me that I wouldn't like any of their dresses.  Nobody knew what to say, we all just stared at each other confirming that none of us could believe she had said that.  I finally convinced her to get me a few dresses to try on, explaining that I wouldn't know if I liked it until I tried them on.  In particular, I was interested in their Disney collection.  Here it is....

 The first 3 didn't work out so well.  I believe that they were Jasmine, Ariel, and Rapunzel.  The worst was Ariel (the second row), the skirt actually looked like pieces of seaweed.

But then, I tried on the Belle Platinum dress and I knew right away that I had found it!

 I'm so happy to have found the dress.  I haven't ordered it yet, but plan to soon.  I can't wait!

Engagement Party and Dress Shopping

My fiancé and I just got back home late last night after our engagement party.  We had so much fun.  It was so nice seeing all of our friends and family.  All of our immediate family was there, along with the majority of our wedding party (everyone but the best man was able to make it)!   Now that it's over, that means that we have just under a year until the big day- WOW!  Where did all of that time go?  We were talking on the flight home last night, and neither of us can believe that we've already been engaged for 2 months.  With that said, we are getting back into wedding planning mode.  As I mentioned here, I did go dress shopping while I was home in Maryland.  And, it just so happens, I found THE dress.  It's part of Alfred Angelo's Disney Fairytale Wedding Collection.  It's called the Belle Platinum.  I will add pictures later!  I can't believe how easy the whole process was.  I began my search at David's Bridal where I tried on about 15 dresses.  My next appointment was at Alfred Angelo's where this was the 3rd dress that I tried on.  I was supposed to have two appointments later that day, but I immediately called and cancelled.  Between the engagement party and the dress, everything is coming together and making me realize that this is actually happening.  Less than a year away, we can't wait!

Anyways, time to get to work on some Thank You cards for gifts from the engagement party.

http://www.alfredangelo.com/collections/styles/217

EDIT:  Read about my dress shopping adventures here.

Dress Shopping

I forgot to mention yesterday that I have plans for dress shopping!  I am going while I am home in Maryland for the engagement party.  Oh, I also forgot to mention that all of my bridesmaids are going to be able to make it to the party - I couldn't be happier!   The best part is, that since I will be at home in Maryland, my mom and grandmother will also be there.  I was so worried about having to go dress shopping alone, but it looks like it all worked out.

Anyways, in order to prepare myself for dress shopping, I have been stocking up on bridal magazines and obsessing over Pinterest.

After looking at literally hundreds of dresses, I noticed that pretty much all of the dresses that I picked out looked very similar.  From what I've read, it seems that I want a strapless ballgown with pick-ups.  I also like some beading, but nothing over the top.   Who knows if any of this is what I'll actually want once I get to the salons and start trying things on.  Anyways, I have to start printing/cutting out pictures to bring to my appointments, so that I have somewhere to start.

Engagement Picture Outfit Idea

As I mentioned earlier, we are going to be doing our engagement pictures next week.  One of our locations is a playground, so I wanted to go for something fun and summery.  I found the perfect dress last night at Forever 21 ($28).  The shoes are Madden Girl, but I found them at Marshalls for only $16!! Also, I can't find the picture of the exact necklace on-line, but it looks a lot like the one below.  I will post a picture of the actual necklace soon.  It was a simple, long gold chain necklace with small plastic read hearts of various sizes spaced around the chain.  I got it at Forever 21 for only $5.  The last piece to bring the whole outfit together is some white and gold bangles - I just need to find some!  Depending on the weather, I also have a white cap-sleeve sweater I can wear with it. Now what should my fiancé wear?

So what do you think?  Feel free to share your own engagement picture outfits.