Since I found my wedding dress before I even met my fiancé, I was able to quickly move along to the other necessary dresses once we became engaged; the bridesmaid dresses (beautiful navy two-piece floor-length Calvin Klein formal dresses which were originally $178 yet reduced to only $53!), the bell ringers’ dresses, and the flower girl’s dress in particular.

There is a very unique age gap between my only sister and myself (we are over nineteen years apart in age!) so it was an easy decision for my sweet three year old sister, Sheridan, to be my flower girl. I have twenty-seven (!) little bell ringers who will walk down the aisle and ring small bells prior to my entrance so I wanted my precious sister, who is the absolute delight and joy of my heart, to stand out as the only flower girl rather than blending into the sea of lovely young bell ringer girls.

In an effort to achieve this set-apart look, my mother began searching for the perfect flower girl dress but was dismayed by the costliness of the extravagant dresses we desired. Inspired by my thrift store wedding dress story, she began looking at wedding dresses at thrift stores with the hope of being able to use the fabric, sequins, pearls, and lace to make an inexpensive replica of the expensive flower girl dresses that looked so grand. She was very blessed to find a stunning wedding dress with much detail for only $34 at a nearby thrift store!

Since the dress was a women’s size 12, there was plenty of fabric to work with. She figured it would be easier to keep the hem line and other tailored angles in tact, so she cut the various pieces of the gown down to the size of one of Sheridan’s sundresses that was used as a guideline. The wedding dress had such beautiful details in the covered buttons and exquisite sequins, lace, and beads so she tried to preserve them when reconstructing the dress.

The finished result is exactly what I was hoping for! Sheridan looks like a little princess and absolutely adores her little dress:

I am LOVING this new trend of mismatching bridesmaid shoes. It looks fun and fresh. These floral print shoes from David’s Bridal are fantastic.

{Image courtesy of Christina Florada Photography}

And I love this shot of Manola Blahnik shoes found via Manolobrides.com (an AWESOME resource).

{Image courtesy of d.o.tt Photography}

And how gorgeous are these mismatched yellow shoes?

{Image courtesy of Todd Pellowe}

Did you pick matching bridesmaid shoes, or go with a contrasting color?

Through the handful of times I have watched TLC’s “Say Yes to the Dress” I have found much more entertainment in all of the crazy drama displayed by the bride and mother of the bride than in the actual choosing of the dress. The story of finding my bridal gown is far from typical!

{Photo courtesy of Google Images}

Personal blog entry dated September 23, 2007:

“Here Comes the Bride”

If you’re anything like my dad, who asked in his usual blunt tone, “Did I miss something?”, I will assure you, I am not engaged, nor do I have any reason to be out purchasing wedding gowns, but…

I was at a thrift store last week and, since I often buy clothes from thrift stores to resell on eBay, I looked through the wedding dresses as I looked through everything else. In the past when I’ve looked at the wedding dresses, they are all way outdated with huge sleeves or they’re around $100, which I think is a little bit too risky to hope that I could sell it for much more on eBay.

But this time, I found an elegant, classy dress for only $29.96, and it just happens to be my size. I looked all over the dress for any problems, and I only noticed a few tan dots at one edge of the train, but I think they will come out with a bleach pen. There are so many sequins and pearls and the train is really long. I found a similar one online and it was $1000.

When I got home, I showed it to my mom and she encouraged me to try it on. It fits perfectly! I haven’t decided if I’m going to sell it on eBay or save it, but for now I think I’ll hold on to it for a while…

In the years that followed since writing the entry above, I have seen a plethora of bridal gowns when shopping with engaged friends, yet I continually fall more and more in love with my inexpensive thrift store dress! It fits as if it was custom-tailored for me and doesn’t need any altering.

Of course I can’t show pictures of my bridal gown prior to the wedding, so I will only say that it is white (!), very traditional, and perfect for a winter wedding. My bridal portraits are being done tomorrow and the wedding is only six weeks away, so I look forward to sharing pictures after the big day!

Do you have a thrifty wedding dress shopping experience to share?

Kristen from Kristen Steele Photography and Tiffani from Creative Design Events sent over this gorgeous bridal session they put together using gowns from Priscilla of Boston, one of my favorite design houses.

The first look features style PL218 from the Platinum collection. It’s a beautiful strapless knee-length gown, made of organza. It comes with a removable satin belt. I love it for a casual wedding or as a second dress during the reception.

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Lovely readers, I’m in need of your assistance.

I have four adorable, smart, cute, funny nieces.  See?

{Images courtesy of Author’s Personal Collection}

After Dave proposed, Z, T, O, and M (well, not M, as she was too young to have an opinion on much at that point) collectively decided that 1. they were going to be flower girls and 2. they wanted to wear pink.  Preferably hot pink.  I had already decided that the bridesmaid dresses would be a neutral color, so four flower girls in pink sounded a-okay to me.  Off to work I went on finding pretty little dresses for my favorite little ladies, and here are our three (current) contenders!

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We actually ordered the bridesmaid dresses in June (to get in on a great summer special) and we are now just waiting for them to come in…should be any day! Back in June my wonderful moh planned a bridesmaid and mom luncheon at Modern Steak so everyone could get to know each other.

After lunch we headed over to Priscilla of Boston to take a look at bridesmaid dresses. My girls are all very different and I wanted to find something that would fit and flatter all of them. Originally I wanted to find different styles of dresses that all had the same color or shades of colors. That didn’t work so well. At Priscilla they started by trying on short and tea length dresses, but it was the long dresses that everyone (including me) gravitated towards.

The black dress on the right is the style everyone ended up liking, mostly because of the flowers. It looked so wonderful on everyone, the style was perfect! The tan dress on the right is the color that it came in. I liked it, but wasn’t 100% sure it was what we were looking for.

A week or two later, my mom, moh and I went to Twirl in Scottsdale for their Jim Hjelm trunk show. They were also have a 20% off summer event, so I knew it would be a good time to find a dress. I wore a Jim Hjelm dress for my brother’s wedding, so I knew they had beautiful dresses. Since we had a pretty clear vision of what everyone preferred, it made our shopping at Twirl somewhat easy (which can be very overwhelming if you don’t know what you are looking for…they have so many dresses!). We ended up finding a couple long dresses in the trunk show.

{Read the rest of this entry…}

After our first look Lance & I headed out into the Nebraska heat with Khara to snap a few pics of just the two of us.

I remember feeling so hot and mildly freaking out inside that I was never gonna make it in this heat (80s!)…haha!!  Salt Lake had a very cool spring so we had yet to experience temps above 70…not to mention the humidity!!  Then I reminded myself that it could be worse…like 50 and drizzling (it’s Nebraska!)…so I quickly got over the heat and suprisingly I don’t remember it being that bad the rest of the day!  In fact it cooled off by dinner and the night ended up being just PERFECT!!

Our next stop was Memorial Stadium..the home of our beloved Huskers!  We knew from the very beginning that we wanted to snap some pictures here…and seeing how it was only a few blocks away from our hotel it worked out perfectly!

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Ok, I guess the boy’s not vain. But I am admittedly vain, and if you need more proof, you can browse through all my old posts about makeup, hair, dresses, alterations, being thin, not being thin. It’s tiring (and expensive!) caring so much about your appearance. This is the result of my amateur styling of the two of us, along with links to the people that helped us be sparklier versions of ourselves.

{Our outfits!: my dress by Kitty Chen Couture, the boy’s suit by Thick as Thieves.}

{My beautiful bouquet of peonies and the boy’s boutonniere, by Rae Florae}

{A fun shot with the lemonade; I love the light in the photo on the right.}

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A couple weeks ago, I sat on a blanket next next to the wives of my brothers friends. He and his buddies were playing in an intramural football game at BYU and me and the wives were cheering the men on.  The “wives section” is a common site at BYU because many students get married while still in school.  When you know, you know…why wait? Anyway, we were chatting and having a lovely time when I noticed the conversation taking 2 directions, pregnancy and wedding dress shopping. Pregnancy only came up because 2 of the 7 wives were expecting and the wedding dress shopping came up because they inquired about my trip to Provo, UT.  I was happy to tell them that I was in town with my mother, for the weekend, to pick up my wedding dress! This set off quite a few wedding dress shopping experiences.  Some would say, “Oh–I went to ____ store and I found my dress. They were so nice there.” Another would followed up with, “I went there, but they would not help me. I felt like an annoyance to them.” Similar good and bad experience comments were shared and I got thinking about my own experience.

I then realized that shopping for a wedding dress is all about the experience.  Anyone want to admit their obsession for “Say Yes to the Dress?” I will! My sisters and I were faithful viewers over the summer and any time we meet back up. Something about finding “The One” (and I don’t mean the man!) is fascinating to most people.

So what makes a good dress shopping experience? I have come up with a few pointers from my own experience (and maybe some input from the wives section) about how to make that wedding dress shopping experience a good one.

1. Create a vision in your head about your wedding day. Think about walking down the aisle (coming out of the temple for me) and the entire days events. What do you see yourself looking like? Glamorous, simple, elegant, romantic, whimsical? When you catch that vision, start looking online at dresses (doesn’t matter where) to get a good idea of what styles are out there that match that vision.  Print off pictures to take to the store. When I tried on “the dress,” I could see my vision playing out in my head and I knew that was the one!

2. Set a date to go shopping and invite your posse. I like to keep things simple so too many people would have overwhelmed me. I didn’t want to have to please anyones taste but mine, so I invited my mother (of course), my sister (MOH) and my aunt (I call her my mother of honor). I trust their opinions and I knew they wouldn’t lead me astray.

(My lovely sister and MOH, Melissa)

3. Map out the stores and make appointments if necessary. I flew to Utah to get my wedding dress because I needed a dress with sleeves for my religious ceremony. They have a much bigger selection of dresses with sleeves than Dallas. My MOH had all the stores mapped out and she had made appointments for the ones that required that. If you have the option to make an appointment, make one.  The one on one attention is definitely part of a great wedding dress experience.  For DFW brides, here is a list of stores that have the potential for creating a great wedding dress experience:  Lasting Bridal Boutique Couture of Addison, Pence and Panache of Burleson, Bliss Bridal Salon of Ft. Worth, and Bridal Boutique of Lewisville

4. Take the essentials. I made the mistake of going dress shopping without my wedding undergarments (bra, undies…) which left me guessing later. At my first fitting, my absolutely amazing seamstress said, “Where are your wedding shoes?” I gave her a weird look because I wasn’t planning on buying those for another few months! She highly recommended that I go find some right then, so off we went to Nordstroms where I found the perfect ones.

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I’m 25, and yet somehow, in my whole entire life, I’ve never been a bridesmaid. It seems like a scientific impossibility, considering my age demographic… but it’s true. Just because of this doesn’t mean I’m not empathetic. I understand the bridesmaid’s plight. They’re roped into this wedding gig, and expected to just go along with whatever the bride tells them to wear. Everybody says “You can wear it again!” but it’s rarely ever true when you’re realistic. I thought to myself  “Self…what are you most comfortable in when you dress up?… and What are the most versatile versatile items in your closet?”.

Stretchy pencil skirts and blouses of course!  It’s perfect…chic, dressy (but not too), slimming, feminine, and incredibly comfortable and sexy. Plus the accessory options are endless. Tights, cardigans, sky-high stilettos or modest flats… you can make basically anything work with a classic pencil skirt. And I mean WORK. Like the RuPaul meaning of the word. Because my Maids look smokin’ hott in their sexy secretary ensembles. Check em out! The skirt is Banana Republic (totally curve-hugging), and the top is Ann Taylor (classic and flattering draping). The website pics I’m providing don’t really do it justice, because the overall effect when it’s all pulled together is classic and comfortable, and my bridesmaids look just flawlessly gorgeous.

Are your bridesmaids going to be able to truly wear their ensembles again?

About 12 hours after the redhead proposed, a good friend of mine suggested (cough cough *insisted* cough) that I check the website of a local wedding dress shop, as a Monique Lhuillier trunk show was supposed to be happening there within a few weeks.  At that point, Kristen was also a bride-to-be and had already selected her wedding dress but said something to the effect of “Teresa, I didn’t get to try them on, so do it for me.”  No ifs, ands, or buts about it.  While I think that many Monique Lhuillier dresses are absolutely beautiful, I wasn’t sure if looking at dresses before picking a date or selecting a venue would be a smart idea.

Smart ideas are occasionally overrated.

After checking the website of the store, I saw something.  Yes, Ms. Lhuillier’s fantastic dresses were going to be featured there in a month.  However, the designer of the dress of my dreams (names shall remain nameless, for now) was going to be featured at a trunk show that next week.  Signs, signs, everywhere there’s signs.

Backstory:  Though I’m not the girl who has been planning her wedding since the age of 2, I do love weddings.  The vows, the music, the cake, the groom’s face when he sees his future wife for the first time, the overall happiness — from start to finish, I love them.  Being in my mid-twenties, I’d been a guest at many a wedding over the past few years, and the day after any wedding I attended, I’d secretly plan things for our wedding.  One post-wedding Sunday afternoon, I found it.  I found my dress.  I loved her (yes, her) and I thought “Dave would love her too, and I hope I can wear her on our wedding day.”

So that was it.  I consulted both my mom and my best friend Sarah, and after asking multiple times “Am I insane for looking this early?”, I made an appointment at The Wedding Shoppe, located in Wayne, Pennsylvania.  I went, not even knowing if she (my dress) would be there.  I’d seen this dress over a year and a half ago, after all.  I didn’t even know if the designer made it anymore.

But she was.  And 15 minutes later, I had my wedding dress.  And a new best friend (aka my dress consultant, Donna). :)

While I won’t be posting pictures of my dress (yet), I will post pictures of other dresses I love.  See?

{Clockwise from top left: Anne Barge, Jenny Packham, Mikaella, and Monique Lhuillier; images courtesy of their respective websites}

I love my dress.  I really do.  However, the best thing about it is that I get to wear it on the day that I’ll marry the most incredible person that I’ve ever met.

How did you find your dress?

Now that I had my dress on and firmly taped in place…all I needed was my sash…

my beautiful purple garter…(which was handknit by my amazing personal attendant)…

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