I officially have a wedding dress!

Yep, that's right! Yesterday I put down a deposit (which was half the retail price - eep, wasn't expecting that!) and ordered my lady in what is hopefully the perfect size (same size as the sample...lady recommended this rather then a size down as the sample was likely to have been stretched out and it's better to be safe then sorry anyway - if it's a little big it's easier to take in then try and lose weight to fit into a smaller one that's too small!)

Scary stuff, and my savings is looking a little sad...particularly since we're expecting to be able to order our engagement shots sometime really soon! I got a message from our photographer on Monday, to say that she had been editing all day, our online viewing should be ready soon AND she had put up another little sneak peek for us:

What an eventful week! A wedding dress AND our engagement photos soon! I cannot WAIT to see them all and share some with you!

Oh, and our invites are now well on the way to having a gorgeous look. I am working on the design of the inside so we can do a mock up invite, to make sure we are 100% happy with what we have chosen, then we will be ordering all the pocket folds, paper and accessories soon! Yay!

BIG news!!!

Today my MoH, my Mum and I headed to a local bridal store to try on a few dresses. It wasn't a big, planned event - I had merely sent my MOH a couple of dresses I had found after spotting this one...

...on Romance in a Glance the other day. I checked out the designer's (Alfred Angelo) website and discovered this pretty dress:

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I'm sorry, but when a dress is named after your favourite Disney Princess, you generally want to try it on. Even if you are pretty sure you are not going to buy it. (FIY: The above dress is Cinderella. But yes, they have almost all the Princesses! Check it out here!) I went searching to see if the range in stocked in Oz and sure enough, one (yes, just one!) local store claimed to have the range in stock. And with the MoH and I being free today, we decided to go and check them out.

I also had these gowns in mind to try on, having no idea whether the store had any other Alfred Angelo's in stock because their website had limited pictures (well I didn't want to go in with just one dress I wanted to try!):

If you remember from my first shopping experience, this dress is very similar to one I really liked then -

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Now neither of these dresses were in stock. I asked the lovely assistant who helped us, Mia, whether she had anything similar to the above dresses in store - she had none similar to the first, but pulled this one as similar to the second:

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Now I personally didn't see how the above dress was particularly similar to the earlier dress but I will admit that the flowers and the gloves make it seem even LESS so! It did have a similar corset style top half and the bottom had gathers I guess...but either way, I didn't really mind because I hadn't tried anything on like that so I was definitely willing to!

This was the first dress I tried on in the store and when I walked out - Mum gasped. First time she had really done that so it was quite nice :) The dress was quite lovely and I have to admit, I loved the corset style top half - it just accentuated everything nicely, none of the other dresses I'd tried on previously had been quite so flattering. The bottom half wasn't my favourite style but overall it was a very pretty and flattering dress...I think Mum really loved the top.

I tried on three more dresses - the Cinderella dress (gorgeous ballgown, nice and sparkly, very Princessy...but not really me! However, it really is gorgeous! Very similar concept to the princess-style dress I tried on at our first shopping day - stunning but doesn't really fit our wedding.), a second dress that caught my eye when I first walked into the store and something very similar to this dress (however the top was different...more like the crossed sweetheart neckline of the dress they didn't have in stock):

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This dress did nothing for me. If anything, it made my butt look big! Definitely not a winner!

Now that little "second dress" that I spied? I don't have pictures to share of her just yet...want to know why???

'Cause she's MY pretty dress!
Yep, that's right folks! I have found my wedding dress. And she is just gorgeous. Her name is Lara. (Yes, I just did a quick Google "Lara Wedding Dress" search and she does NOT show up. Sorry. But other pretty dresses do!) She's actually NOT an Alfred Angelo dress, I think the only one I tried on from another designer today. I actually do have pictures of her buuuuut...I don't want to ruin the surprise. As much as I am dying to share her with everyone (even the fiance! It's killing me that I can't show him!) I really love the idea of keeping her a secret hehe.

So how did she come about? Well, when we first walked into A Bride's Blessing (which I must say, I drove past a million times on my way to work and was never particularly inspired to go into - thanks for giving me a reason to Cinderella, they are great in there!) Cinderella was already hanging on the changeroom door waiting for me - very cool! (No, we hadn't rung ahead, a previous bride had tried her on and she hadn't been put away yet) The ladies gave us some space to have a look around before coming to help us. As good as that is, I find it particularly overwhelming because I have no idea what I am looking for. Well in this case, one dress stood out as soon as I walked over to the racks. I picked her off straight away and hung her up with Cinderella. She's actually the only dress I physically picked to try on that day.

Now, it must be noted that my Mum wasn't going to be coming with us today. It was a last minute decision for us to join us because she had some spare time - MoH and I really weren't expecting to find anything today! We were just expecting to have a fun day out! It's really lucky that Mum decided to come because she would have been BUMMED to miss out on me finding The Dress. Although, I have to admit that I probably wouldn't have made the decision if Mum wasn't there because it was her reaction as well as my happiness that really decided it. Mum teared up when she saw how much I was grinning about the dress, which made me tear up...a big hug and tears were shed. Yep, I had my moment that I was thinking I wouldn't have - I didn't even need to go away and make sure like I thought I would...I just knew I didn't have to shop anymore. (Oh and when I went back to the change room to take her off my Mum yelled out that there was a cricket where I had been standing and it must be good luck - My fav. Disney character of all time?? Jiminy Cricket :) That and crickets are just supposed to be good luck in general right?)

So the hunt is over! We haven't place a deposit yet, I plan to go back with my lovely ladies (if they want to peek - I know my sister does!) and get measured to choose the best size to fit (today's was a little loose but it may just be because it's been tried on so many times), get the size ordered and place a deposit. We're changing a few things on her - she'll obviously need to be taken up and we are going to have fabric covered buttons added all the way down the zipper (I'm so excited about that!), but the lovely Mia said that she's actually a dress that isn't pulled very often so I love that I'm less likely to see her on someone else. She's the perfect mix of fresh vintage (as opposed to old lady vintage!), with some gorgeous lace, a bit of sparkle and some unusual features. I can't wait to share her with you guys, and actually, I can't wait to share her with our photographer!!!

*sigh* I feel so happy. I can't stop looking at pictures of her. Now to find the perfect matching veil and the perfect romantic hairdo! Slightly sad to not try on any more pretty dresses though...MoH is also sad about no more shopping days! Did any of you guys feel a bit sad that you had no need to go wedding dress shopping again (no matter how much you love your dress??)

dresses, dresses everywhere!!!!

So! Today was my wonderful first day shopping for my wedding gown. And let me tell you, it was fun :) Hehe. I did feel rather silly at first, and it is still bizarre to me that I actually went shopping for a WEDDING dress today, but it was a LOT of fun!

My lovely bridesmaids (minus my poor sister, who had been up all night with my sick nephew!) and my wonderful mummy joined me for a very girlie day of trying on dresses, eating McDonalds (whoops!) and finding bridesmaid dresses (yes, it looks like we have found them first go...more on that later!).

First up we had an appointment at 10am at Park Avenue Bridal. The ladies here were SO lovely, professional and HELPFUL. I was so overwhelmed when we first walked in, there were just SO many dresses to choose from! The lovely saleswoman we had (Julie) picked out a whole bunch of dresses for me to start with, based purely on my body shape - allowing me to try on a number of different shapes. As we moved through them, as I commented on things I did and didn't like, she would pull other dresses and cull the ones that didn't seem to fit. At the end of the day, we ended up with 3 dresses - two that were rather similar, and 1 COMPLETELY different. One was a lovely vintage style, one was more of a 1920's/modern look (these two were rather similar but had very different bottoms) and one was a complete PRINCESS dress that had a full bottom and completely jeweled top. I was SO surprised by the last one and how much I liked it!!

Going into the process, while I really did have a very open mind to try on almost anything, I did have a vintage/old world charm in my mind. The first two dresses very much fit into that, but the last one was the COMPLETE opposite. It was pure white for one thing, when everything else I tried on was mostly ivory, and it was ... well, a Cinderella dress. Completely. And I loved it. But as much as I loved it, it really isn't what I had in mind for my wedding (it doesn't really fit the style) and as the sales lady said - I love it...but so does everyone else. She considers it a slow week if she doesn't sell at least two of those...not making it as different as I'd like :)

The other two dresses remained...everyone else had a moment when I walked out in the vintage one (it was one of the first I tried on). I didn't really have a moment. It was definitely the first dress I had tried on and liked though! It was very pretty and it looked really nice on but it just didn't feel like the type of dress that I wanted to wear to my wedding. It turned out to be a very useful thing though, because I discovered that (opposite to what I thought!) I am leaning more towards a fuller skirt and less towards a fitted dress. This was a very fitted dress with a BEAUTIFUL lace overlay but it just wasn't right.

So by the end of it we were left with the 1920's/modern dress. I really, really like it, it is beautiful. After all the culling it was definitely my favourite out of all we tried on at the store. But did I tear up and have a moment? Not quite. I think the next few days will tell how much I like it, because I'm someone who knows how badly I want something if it sticks in my head for days after...as such, not going to go into too much detail at this stage! But it was lovely, different, old worldly yet modern. I think the future mister would like it as well, which is a bonus (I've already established that he will laugh at me in anything too..."foufy" haha).

Alas, no photos from this store! We weren't allowed to take any inside (much to the disappointment of my sister) and because most of the dresses are designed specifically for the store, they aren't floating around on the web. Don't fret however, I have a couple from the next store!

After some lunch and some bridesmaid dress shopping (this one will have it's own post, I promise!) we headed into a small boutique up the road from Park Avenue, called Vision In White. Smaller selection of dresses (which was good, because we were up for a shorter visit by this stage) the staff were lovely but moved a lot faster then the other store - basically if you didn't love it straight away, it was taken off and you moved to the next dress. We tried a few on here, nothing really grabbed me...until I hit the pocket dress. OMG THIS DRESS HAS POCKETS. SO cool!



This dress is called the "Mimi" and is by Wtoo Brides. Again, this was a dress I was completely surprised by. I tried on the ivory version and when the lady pulled it from the rack, I thought it looked like a 50's prom dress (and the ivory looked a little dirty). When I got it on though, the lady removed the flower (MUCH better!) and honestly, the cut of the top of that dress was SO flattering. I loved the pockets, and what I loved the most was that this dress allowed me to take advantage of how much I love sashes! With a sash on, this dress looked gorgeous. I was completely picturing it with something similar to below:

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I was surprised at the simplicity of this dress and how much I loved it...the only "but" was the material. And it was a big "but". This dress was MARKEDLY cheaper then the other store (although the other store happily worked with my budget) but unfortunately it showed because quality of the materials in most of the dresses was somewhat lacking. Unfortunately this dress was one of them. In any other material this dress probably would have been a strong contender. In fact, I had tried on a dress at Park Avenue that didn't make the cut but was a GORGEOUS material and it would have been PERFECT for this dress.

The second dress that made the final cut at Vision In White was this Henry Roth - Inga:



What I really liked about this one was that it mixed a few of my favourite things from other dresses into one - the fuller bottom, the lace overlay and a sash! We turned the top into a sweetheart necklace though, and it looked a lot better on my shape :) This one comes in all different colours of lace (I tried on one with a gold edged lace, which was very pretty) and the colour of the sash can be changed. It was really pretty but again...no moment.

There's another store in the area that I really wanted to go to (two of my friends have found their wedding gowns there) but unfortunately it is closed on Sundays. We're going to head back one Saturday, I think it will be another long appointment because they have a lot of stock! Should be good fun :)

Otherwise, we're going to hit up the area where my SIL found her gown! Today was very much more about getting used to trying on dresses, finding out what shapes and styles I like, and just having fun. I wasn't expecting to find a gown today so it took a lot of pressure off and just made it a lot of fun. We still have a lot of time to play with, and now that I have a better idea of what I like it will make the process a little easier next time!

How did you guys all go with your first wedding dress shopping experience? Did anyone find their dress their first time out? Or did you take your time and try different stores? I would love to hear your experiences!

Next up, the bridesmaids dresses and slight adjustments to our wedding colours!

a busy wedding week

I promise a more exciting post with pretty pictures soon, but I thought I would share some of the exciting things going on for us this week!!!

Tomorrow we have our first meeting with the Reverend we are hoping will perform our wedding ceremony! After the dramas of trying to locate our birth certificates (despite me bugging him for 2 weeks the future hubby left it until today to pick his up from his Dad's... Of course it's not there... Lucky as I am writing this (at 1am) his Mum just messaged as to say she found it!), we are now organized and ready to go in the morning. I'm nervous! I have this irrational concept of someone turning around and saying nope, you guys aren't actually fit to be married. Anyone else feel silly like that?!

Also in wedding news, I walked into a few bridal boutiques today and booked in some appointments for Sunday! Yep, we are finally officially going dress shopping. This. Feels. Weird. Honestly, I'm not actually excited. Is that weird? I kind of feel like everything until now (despite having paid for things!) has just been day dreaming, and because I've mostly been talking about it on here there's been no one to mock me! However I feel like when I go to try on a dress people are going to ask me what the hell I'm doing! Like I'm a little kid trying on Mum's clothes.... I almost feel like I'm going along and it's actually for one of the other girls... Not for me!!! I think I'm going to feel so silly trying on the first gown!!!

I'm counting on that feeling going away though, and look forward to blogging about the experience. Tell me though - Do/Did any of you guys experience similar feelings before you first tried on dresses? Or were you just excited?