Dress Shopping!

Dear Lou - do not read this post. You'll be disappointed if you do =)


I. Got. My. DRESS!!

I can not believe how easy it was to "Say Yes To The Dress"! Trying dresses on made me feel like a bride, and more importantly a skinny bride! A year ago I never would have thought this was possible!


My first day shopping for dresses I went alone with my mom. It was really important for me for us to go alone, I wanted to share it with my mom and avoid outside opinions. We went to two different stores, about 40 minutes away from my parents house but only 10 minutes apart from each other; True Love and Cinderella.


The first stop was at True Love. There we were allowed to pull our own dresses, aka the consultant didn't help us at all. It was fun, and reassuring that dresses I thought I wanted looked good on me. While there we thought we found the one...




what we thought was the one

 After trying that dress on, which had a way under budget price, I didn't even know if I wanted to go to the second store. Mom and I got lunch, and decided to give it a shot since worst case scenario was we would confirm that dress was the one. I'm so grateful we continued shopping!


We got to Cinderella and met with my outstanding consultant Pat. She listened to what I wanted (rouching, no pick-ups, not a lot of beading) and put me in to several dresses. We found a silloette that looked great, and I thought I was sold on a dress by the store's private label... until she pulled one last dress.


In the dressing room there was no mirror, so as she laced me up all I kept thinking was "this is really tight, I don't think it will work". I stepped out onto the salon floor, and saw my moms face light up. I looked into the mirror and wanted to cry! I knew this was the one!

We left the store and I made an appointment to go back two weeks later, on my 24th birthday. My aunt and cousin came with us this time, just so we could show them. I knew what I was getting, I didn't need their opinions. When I came out of the dressing room in my dress we all started crying. It is perfect!

So, here she is...

my dress, with creepy dinosaur tissue hand



from the back

the details



Our Church

So, when most people book their wedding and decide they want it to be in a church, they start with coordination between the reception hall and the church. Not us.

For about 8 months our engagement Lou and I had planned on having our ceremony at the reception hall with a rent-a-priest. I kept saying things like "it'll be easier for our guests," "it's more important everyone I love is at the ceremony then where the ceremony is" and "I really want to be at my cocktail hour". I even sat down and told my two Grandmothers that we were not getting married in the church.

In reality, everything I was saying was just trying to convince myself that a church wedding was not important to me. But, it was. It really really was. I have always dreamed about getting married in a church, going off in the limo to take pictures, then going to the reception afterwards. Now, there is nothing wrong with getting married at the venue, it just wasn't for me.

So, as soon as I got the guts to tell everyone I was a big liar, I called the church. When the secretary called me back saying "Father would love to marry you in our parish" I nearly squealed with excitement! We will be getting married at my families church, where I made all but one of my Sacraments. We decided not to have a full mass so Deacon Kevin will be presiding over our ceremony.  Deacon Kevin is the father of someone I grew up with, and also looks astonishingly like my Uncle Paul, so that will make the ceremony even more special for us.

And since we all love wedding porn, here are some pictures of the church we will marry in.



View from the street

Side of the church

The alter

Wedding Planning Central

Hi everyone! This is my first blog post ever, so please just bear with me. Lou and I have been engaged for a year now and the date is set for June 29, 2012. We've got a bunch of vendors booked including the church, reception venue, photographer, DJ and wedding planner and I will make separate posts about all of them. There is still much more to do, and that is where this blog comes in!


I want to use the blog to write down my ideas and triumphs, as well as my failures. I'm trying to be a fairly laid back bride (ex. the non-bridezilla) but I have never been one to take crap from anyone, so hopefully I can maintain my cool throughout the next year of planning.