What I've Accomplished So Far It's been a little more than 2 months since I got engaged. Time flies! So what have I accomplished so far on my wedding checklist? Let's see...
What I'm Working On Now I'm currently working on helping the bridesmaids find their dresses and finding an amazing photographer and videographer. Hopefully I can accomplish these next two big tasks before school start! 1 More Year!!! So, it's August 7th so that means in 1 year, I'll be married! Only 365 days left to go! Good thing I have an app that allows me to compulsively check how many days, hours, minutes, and second are left before my wedding! Thank you to The Knot for giving me yet another way to be an OCD bridezilla! |
Let the Real Countdown Begin!
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It's the Bridesmaids' Turn to Have Their Fun! David's Bridal: Part 2? All the girls and I went to Alfred Angelo Bridal in Cherry Hill as our first stop. I had originally scheduled a bridal & bridesmaid dress appointment back-to-back. Obviously, I cancelled the bridal to move up the bridesmaids appointment since I had already picked my dress the day before. This was David's Bridal: The Bridesmaids version. When we got there, apparently they had cancelled my appointment with a stylist... period. My new appointment was with an associate who I can only assume worked the front desk. She actually told me she wasn't even a stylist while we were waiting for the girls to try on their dresses. I decided to give her the benefit of the doubt so I smiled politely as I waited. The dresses were not the correct sizes understandably, so some of the larger dresses needed to be clipped. Well guess who takes after her mom and had to be the stylist for the day... you guessed it... me! I ended up clipping the girls' dresses for the rest of the "appointment." I have to say the girls were troopers trying on all those dresses; especially since they got progressively less impressive and blah... Diana was actually the first to try on the dress that we ended up liking the best out of all the so-so options tho choose from; it was a one-shoulder dress from the soft net collection, but it was navy blue so not the color I was looking for. Uyen tried on a few of the next best dresses including a high-neck dress from the soft net collection and a strapless chiffon dress that had sequins underneath the sheer fabric in the bodice; both dresses were purple but not close to the orchid shade I had in mind. Melissa tried on a couple of v-neck dresses and those necklines looked good on her; the dresses themselves had no wow factor because of the ugly colors (I mean orangey red and dark brown, really?). The Bridesmaid Dress/Jumpsuit??? The best thing one of the girls tried on sadly, was a chiffon jumpsuit. A what? Yes... a jumpsuit! Someone had grabbed it off the racks thinking it was a dress since it had a nice neckline. Our bubbles were soon burst when we discovered the only nice thing about this number was it's neckline. Why... because the "dress" had pants! Pants! I couldn't believe it was a jumpsuit. No offense, but who where's a chiffon jumpsuit as a bridesmaid dress? Who?! Diana was hilarious because she put the jumpsuit on and did a jig in it, clicking her heels while she was a it. I can't post the picture here or she would kill me. We were hysterically laughing in the middle of the fitting room floor and people were staring. I didn't care anymore. We had clearly seen enough! Take a look for yourself! Then I Did Something Bad... But It Turned Out to Be Good!
How Am I Going to Contain All This Excitement?! Back from vacation and yup I chose my dress! Thank you to my mom for buying me my dream dress; best mom ever! Jahee Bridal Atelier I got my dress from a cute little bridal boutique in Englewood called Jaehee Bridal. My consultant, Eileen, is a very good friend of one of my mom's co-workers and came highly recommended. She was so patient with my requests and indecisiveness. Another plus was that she respected our budget so I wouldn't fall in love with a dress we could not afford. In the end, I got an impressive designer dress without having to break the bank! Thank you Eileen! Finding the Dress So what is it like to find the dress of your dreams? Well I have to say it wasn't the stereotypical cry fest that Say Yes to the Dress and the movies made me believe it should be. I had tried on two dresses (ball gowns with sparkly belts) before Eileen put me in the one that I didn't know was going to be my dress at the time. That's when the oohs and aahs started. I lingered in front of the mirror for a moment to admire the details on the bodice and train. The dress sparkled under the bright lights of the boutique and it was definitely my new favorite dress. Noticing that I was indecisive, Eileen used the "would you like to see it with a veil" tactic and slapped a cathedral veil on me. Well that worked because now the dress looked even better. Still, I wasn't quite sure if I was ready to give up on the search so Eileen pulled a few more dresses for me. I don't even remember how many more dresses I needed to try on (it wasn't that many) but soon I was ready to get back into my dress the second time. It's always a good sign when you want to wear the dress again right? I stood in the private dressing room for a moment to take it all in before I went back out to receive commentary from the wedding council. I just needed a minute to ask myself, "Do you see yourself getting married in this dress?" Soon, my mom came into the dressing room to discuss the price and Eileen was giving us a pretty good deal on this designer dress. Still I didn't want to say yes just because the price was right. I took a deep breath and emerged from the dressing room one more time for all to see. I stood in front of the mirror again and just studied my reflection once more. I could feel the weight of a thousand stares as everyone waited for me to say something... anything! Eileen tried putting a different veil on me to get the tears going. Still no visible reaction from me. I think everyone was going crazy. Then I chose a different veil; it was a delicate little thing, not nearly as long as the one I had just traded it for. The delicate fabric cascaded around my shoulders, framing the bodice of the dress in just the right way. At this point that Eileen recognized I was still struggling to make a decision, so she asked me to sit down on a nearby bench as she spread out the train of my dress to the side. It was absolutely stunning, but still I had no response.
The Dress Chooses You Now looking back on it, I realize that choosing the perfect dress can really be just that simple. We brides just let the pressure of wanting everything to be perfect and making the experience just like TV get in the way. In truth, there may be a dress out there that's even more "perfect" than the one I chose. Maybe it's the one that would have made me cry. So what if I didn't cry or make anyone else cry?! Tears don't mean I love the dress any more or less! In the end, the dress I was meant to wear chose me, or so my mom tells me. So What Does It Look Like???
Can't stop shopping! Another session of trying on dresses with my mom, Melissa, and Diana! David's Bridal This was our first stop. I tried on a lot of dresses here with the help of my mom. She got to be a bridal consultant for the day while my official consultant was busy with other brides. Thank goodness my mom is good at this kind of stuff!
Castle Couture
Our next stop was our second visit to Castle Couture. This time we weren't going to dig through the racks! When our consultant Laura (loved her) took us into the boutique, I was amazed at how many dresses they had back there! Laura was really knowledgeable and made my dress shopping experience really fun. She had me in and out of as many dresses as I could handle trying on! Laura really knew what she was doing because the first dress she put me in was the one I loved the most! Again, the bodice was fitted and the detail on the dress was amazing. The Pronovias gown had just the right amount of bling and the lace was subtle since I'm not too crazy about lace. The skirt was tulle and it had just the right amount of poof. I wasn't drowning in the dress. This was the dress I wanted to take off the least out of all the dresses I had tried on that day. However, the dress costed the maximum of my mom's budget and since she's paying for the dress, we weren't ready to say yes just yet. Also, my MOH wasn't able to be there so I felt guilty for even thinking about saying yes without her there! No pictures for now because I might end up choosing this dress and I don't want to give away the surprise! The Quest Continues For now, I'm in love with the Pronovias gown from Castle Couture. My second choice was the Oleg Cassini from David's Bridal. I have another appointment at Jaeehee Bridal when I come back from my vacation so we shall see if I find my dress there! Just Keep Shopping. Just Keep Shopping. Just Keep Shopping, Shopping, Shopping!
The Techy Bride's Wedding Website
Of course I created a website... I'm the techy OCD bride! Thanks to Weebly, I was able to quickly design this awesome wedding website in just 3 days! It was easy enough to use and still customizable. This website serves two purposes. First, I wanted a way to keep my guests up to date with all of the wedding details. Second, I wanted to document the whole wedding process. Everyone keeps telling me to enjoy the planning because the big day will be here before you know it. This year will go by in the blink of an eye and I don't want to miss any part of it, the good and the not so good. Let the Fun Begin! Back to Where It All Began
Tomorrow I'm going to Diamond Castle (where Danny bought my engagement ring) to look at wedding dresses and our wedding bands. Yes I know it's super early. I wasn't planning on going dress shopping until after I got back from California and Arizona (heck, I wasn't planning on buying wedding bands until next year!) but Danny's mom had texted me a coupon announcing the Diamond Castle's liquidation sale. At first, I wasn't going to go because I figured all my girls wouldn't be able to drop everything to come with my on a week day. Not Ready to Say Yes Just Yet After talking to my mom and thinking about it some more, I knew I shouldn't pass up the opportunity to at least look at a few dresses. Fortunately I was able to get almost all the girls, my mom and mother-in-law included, to come tomorrow, except for my MOH. Sorry Uyen! =( I'll try not to get attached to anything! Is it weird that I secretly don't want to find my dress tomorrow? I mean I've only just started looking at dresses so I don't want it all to be over in one day! Although I did read a few articles that say it's okay to like the first dress you try on... I guess it doesn't hurt to try a few on to see what styes work on me and what don't. I have a vision of what I want my dress to look like, but who knows if it will even look good on me! I remember when I used to watch Say Yes to the Dress and My Fair Wedding religiously and there would be those brides that have with a certain dress in mind only to have the consultants put them in something completely different! Wish Me Luck... Or Not? So I pinned this infographic on Pinterest because I figured it would help me when I started dress shopping. Wish me luck... or maybe not? Eek I'm going to try on dresses tomorrow!!! |
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