I found the dress!

I have been struggling to find a wedding dress until this weekend. I had tried on several dresses that were very beautiful but often times were overstated for a garden wedding and were super heavy. I will be walking at the very least 2 miles in the garden and lugging around a super heavy dress in St. Louis humidity sounds horrible. I was very close to buying the Paloma Blanca dress I have in an older post in my blog. My Maid of Honor (Marie) and my mom as well as Alexis and Sara liked it a lot. However, when people described it back to me they used words like princess, cute, and even cupcake. The last thing I ever wanted to look like on my wedding day is a princess. I want to look like a bride and not a girl playing dress up. Plus, the lace top worried me. I am not exactly "busty" and so the lace didn't feel like it provided any sort of structure or shape and I coudl totally picture myself hiking it up several times over the course of the day. So I decided to keep shopping but not rule it out entirely.

My mother and I went to Julie's Bridal Couture in Birmingham where I made a last minute appointment to try on some dresses. They had a decent selection and everyone was incredibly helpful, especially Carole who ended up helping me in and out of every dress. My favorite is when she would dig through the mounds of fabric and poof to find the floor for me so I wouldn't trip trying to get into it. So funny! I tried on a St. Pucci and a Jim Hjelm that I liked but had pulled a dress that caught my eye. It was unlike all of the other dresses I had tried on but something there was something about it that I really wanted to check out. I tried on all the other dresses first and every time I would pass by the dress, I would find myself more and more excited to try it on. At one point another attendant took the dress for another bride to try on. I actually found myself getting a bit worked up that the dress I was looking forward to trying on the most had disappeared and I did not want to leave without trying it on. Finally we got to the dress. It made my mom cry a ton and I was even tearing up. I had the dress on for nearly 45 minutes with a veil and got more and more excited about it the longer I wore it. I didn't buy it that day though because I can't bring myself to impulse shop on something like that, so I waited until Monday to go back. Alexis, my coworker, and my Man of Honor (HA) Brandon came along to see the dress. Besides loving the dress I also got 20% off and the designer, Christos, was having an offer where I get my hallow to hem alterations for free in addition to a chapel length $900 veil! There are currently no images of it online because it is a spring 2009 dress and although I can't describe the dress because sometimes when Doug is really bored he glances at this blog, I can say that it is perfect for a spring garden wedding and I absolutely LOVE the material and details. I am super excited to have one more thing checked off on the list of to dos.