I said yes to the dress!
OMG it's been nearly two months since I posted! I honestly can't believe how quickly time is passing - we're under 4 months til our Christmas planning trip, and next month it'll be a year til the wedding!
Anyway, it feels amazing to be able to type that I said yes to the dress! I have my dress, wooooo! It's quite a nice story, well I think so anyway, so let me talk you through!
So, I had tried a couple of dresses on back in February when me and Mum went to the Wedding Show at the ExCel in London. I tried on 2; a lacey princess type from Allure first, and then a more fitted, mermaid style from a random shop downstairs which was a bit rough haha! I felt quite self-conscious in the fitted one but I did look nice, and my Mum loved it! I LOVED the Allure dress though and I asked Mum if we could go back right at the end of the day, like 4.45pm haha to try it on again and take a better photo so I'd be able to remember it
Allure dress from the Wedding Show
I felt very pretty in it but I didn't think it was 'the one'! We think it needed some sparkle or something just to lift it a bit. And it was a bit too ballgown for my taste!
Fast forward...6 months! :erm: Wow, time really did fly there! Mum said we should start thinking about making some appointments and getting to grips with the whole dress buying thing, and of course I was game
we both had some rare time off together so we decided to make a day of it and I painstakingly arranged for 2 days worth of appointments, 4 shops in total
The first one was a beautiful shop that's really busy and they managed to squeeze us in on a Monday at 1pm - they're so busy we jumped at the chance! We had a lovely private appointment with our own consultant and it was just so lovely and relaxed. She let us wander around, look at all the dresses, and put little heart pegs on 5 that I wanted to try on. Being super indecisive, this was great for me as I was forced to narrow it down! I already had a pretty good idea of what I wanted but oviously at this early stage I was pretty open
In my head I imagined lace, sweetheart neckline and strapless, and the skirt I was quite flexible. So we tried on a bunch here, and I quickly realised I was actually really fussy! Hahah! I was quickly pooh-poohing dresses if I didn't like 1 thing, which I think on reflection was actually good. What's the point of standing there discussing a dress if you can't get past something? Anyway, so after an hour and a half I'd narrowed it down to one dress in the whole shop I actually liked...but I knew it wasn't the one! There were no tears, and I cry at everything haha! We put the veil on etc to get the full effect, but I knew it wasn't it. Here's the dress:
And heres what I didn't like! The skirt wasn't full enough, and I wanted a deeper V on the sweetheart neckline. Like, I couldn't get over it and I kept pulling it down and it looked so much better! Anyway, w thanked the lady and she said she wished all brides could be like me! Bless her! I was like, I bet you say that to all the brides! And she was like, no. REALLY I don't. Haha! Must get a lot of difficult ladies!
Dresses bought: 0
So onto the next! We had 2 appointments the following day; one in Southsea, and a little one closer to home. The Southsea one was a really lovely little boutique, all feature wallpaper and chaise lounges! We had a lovely man helping us and I probably tried on 6 or 7 dresses here. We quickly established what I wanted, and we just tried a load on that fit that! They were a Justin Alexander stockist and he's the designer of a dress I'd fallen in love with about a year earlier after seeing on his website (more on this later) and my Mum became obsessed with the quality and fit of his dresses after I tried a few on. I tried on a few bigger ballgown ones, but I decided I hated ones with visible seams (fussy!) and I prefered it when they were drop waist, rather than natural waist. I quite liked the big poofy ones but my Mum felt they drowned me a bit, and were a bit too 'Disney' which was a fair point! Then I tried on this little beauty:
Unfortunately we didn't take any photos, but this looked SO AMAZING on! The photo doesn't do it justice! however, I hated the lace pattern! Why would they put a chevron pattern on a beautfiful wedding dress? Our consultant was saying it's very trendy and fashionable...not the look I'm going for on my wedding day! I t was really sad though because we love love loved the fit and the style but just couldn't get over the lace
I asked him if there were any similar styles without the chevron lace and we had a look in the book but there wasn't really
Sigh! My dream dress, minus the lace! I think we were a bit over it then so after about 2 hours we called it a day, ready for our next appointment.
Dresses bought: 0
Our last appointment of the day was at a little shop near where we live. Unfortunately, it wasn't a great experience
It was a teeny tiny little shop, it smelt like damp, and the girl helping us didn't even introduce herself! It was weird. However, we were there, so I decided to try some on, even though at first glance I couldn't see anything I liked haha! And there was really nothing memorable here. They didn't even have many designers I liked – they had a lot of David Tutero for Mon Cheri but they were BIG dollar. I'm very fortunate as my grandmother offered to pay for my dress (we aren't overly close so it was a lovely gesture) but I still didn't want to spend huge amounts. It's one day! Well, two days if you count our UK party. But still. I buy all my clothes off eBay and I'm not into labels or anything so this was a big deal for me! I love nice clothes but I don't like paying lots for them haha! So I tried a few on, wasn't having the best time but it made sense just to try some out. I asked to take a few photos for reference and she was fine with it, so that was good. Didn't love either of these though, just not quite right for a few different reasons!
So we left quite hurriedly, and I was feeling a bit dejected. We decided it was emotional exhaustion rather than actual exhaustion – as although it's tiring getting in and out of dresses all day, it's more a mental thing!
Dresses bought: 0
We then left it for a week until the next weekend, and I threw myself into researching dresses I liked, and shops that stocked them. I now knew exactly what I wanted – lace, strapless, deep V sweetheart neckline, drop waist A-line, with lots of movement and 'swish' on the bottom, and a fairly long train.
Not much then haha! I shortlisted some dresses I liked, and made appointments at shops that stocked them, rather than just rocking up to shops that might have dresses I liked. I would definitely recommend this approach to future brides if you have a clear idea of what you want! Now, remember earlier I mentioned a JA dress? So, it was playing on my mind. I'd seen the dress in about May 2014 (I have it saved on my phone at this date haha!) and just thought it was so beautiful. Once we'd got over the whole 'it's happening in Florida' saga, I sent the photo to my Mum when she asked me if I had any ideas about the dress. Blimey, what a good reaction! I don't know what she thought I was going to choose but I feel like it was big, sparkly and princessy! Which isn't really what I was going for. So, when I first started making appointments, I specifically chose JA stockists. But did anyone have the dress!? Did they flip! One shop said they could order it in for £50 and if I bought it the £50 would be taken off the final price...if I didn't, it was farewell £50! Which I wasn't keen to do as it was as likely I wouldn't like it as it was that I would. So with other stockists saying they didn't have it and it may have been discontinued, I pretty much gave up and put it out of my mind.
BUT THEN! A shop in Alton emailed me back, breezy as anything, yes we've got it in stock come in whenever! So, last Saturday, me and Mum once again hopped in the car and drove to this bridal shop, with the aim of ruling Justin Alexander 8701 IN or OUT, once and for all! Well. As soon as I saw it, my heart genuinely skipped a beat. The lady picked it out of the rack for me and it was just so beautiful, I couldn't stop staring at it! I pulled myself together though and we picked a few more out to try on too...but we were going to start with 8701!
I put it on in the changing room and before it was even ON MY BODY I shouted to my Mum 'IT'S BEAUTIFUL' and she cracked up! The zip was broken but it didn't even matter, I was getting butterflies in my stomach! I walked out the changing room and I realised I was tearing up! Flippin eck, this was serious! It was just perfect. It ticked every single one of my boxes and then some. Lace, sweetheart neckline, SPARKLES (the sparkles had been subject to availability but they were on the dress and they looked incredible!) drop waist and swishy, a-line skirt. It was the one! My Mum absolutely loved it too and even though we had an appointment for later the afternoon and one for the following morning, I knew I didn't really fancy trying on any more! We decided to regroup though and discuss our options, so we nipped to the pub for a diet coke and just talk about the dress and if it was the right decision. It's just such a big decision to make isn't it! We decided it was though, and my Mum then offered to go and get my best friend and maid of honour Victoria so she could see the dress before we bought it. YAY! Love my Mummy! So we drove to get Vic, drove back, put the dress on again, and Victoria promptly burst into tears. So that was that! She then said something about imagining Ben seeing me in it and well, that set me off too! So we were all bawling haha! Oh it was so sweet though
Such a lovely experience, just what I imagined.
So do you want to see the dress!? I'm not going to share photos of me in it until the big day as I have to keep some surprises!
But here it is on the model, and some close-ups of the detail.
I feel absolutely amazing in it, I didn't want to take it off! Honestly feel like I could walk around all day in it! I felt like a princess
It's light gold colour underneath the ivory lace and the women all told me it went amazingly with my hair colour and skintone
I thought so too haha! Putting ivory on afterwards just looked so harsh! It's unusual as well, which I love
AND there's a full layer of SEQUINS underneath the lace! Soooooo sparkly and I can just imagine in glinting in the Florida sunshine!
Dresses bought: 1!
So that's it! I'll see it in a few months for alterations, and it's all sorted! I don't feel relieved exactly because I hadn't been looking tooooo long, I probably tried about 20/25 dresses on, but I was getting to the point where I was thinking there may not be the exact dress I want out there! I know it seems mad, but trust me when I say I'd done a lot of Googling!
Ooh it's so exciting. In terms of shoes, I don't wear heels so it'll be a lovely flat pointy toed style, need to start looking! I also would like big sparkly earrings and a headband/headpiece on the side. Probably no necklace, and probably a veil. I think I know how I'd like to look so we'll see what transpires over the next year!
No other updates for you really! No word from Kristi which is good as it means no other bride and groom wants our date (TOUCH WOOD) and we've got under 2 months til we secure our date. In fact, we can now say we'll get our date next month! Yay! Hope everyone is doing well, I need to catch up on other PJ's!
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None of ours have booked for sure yet. We're waiting until we're for sure booked with Disney before we start sending out information 
So crazy! I feel so pleased we'll get to see it for the last time! We're very lucky 
