Today I’m delighted to share with you the first of two detail-oriented recap posts. These are sort of like recaps of the recap – focused on all the outfits, accessories, DIY projects, decorations, and edible/drinkable pieces of our wedding. Many of you have asked me questions about specific things that we wore, made, or did. Well, these detail posts are the best place to look for all that information, and to see new photos of all the little things that made our wedding day special.

Check it out!

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Filed under: Accessories, Ambiance, Attire, Dresses, Flowers, Hair Styles, Handmade, Here Comes the Bride, Here Comes the Groom, Paper Goods & Favors, Photos, Recap, Rings, Wedding Party on March 25th, 2009 | 1 Comment »

For those of you following the saga of my dress, you’ll remember that what was lost was found, and we questioned to V or not to V?

Well, all the drama has passed like clouds on a summer’s day. My dress is done, complete, finis! I went in for my third and final fitting (more an approval than a fitting) on Monday and returned home with a car full of silky goodness…

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Filed under: Dresses, Here Comes the Bride on August 19th, 2008 | 9 Comments »

This Tuesday, I had my second dress fitting at La Belle Elaine’s in downtown Seattle. Due to a hectic work day and stupid scheduling on my part, I was forced to ride my bike to the fitting in 90 degree heat. The trip was only 2.2 miles, which is nothing, but it was still a stupid idea. The salespeople looked at me like I was insane (I don’t think they’ve ever seen a bike commuter bride before) and I had to spend a good 5 minutes toweling off before I felt safe putting on my dress. EUGH.

It was still wicked hot in the fitting room, which at least gave me an idea of what it would be like wearing my dress in some serious heat. The outcome? Very sticky, sweaty inner thighs. YUCK. Good thing I (probably) won’t have to worry about heat like that on my wedding day!

OK, enough jibba jabba. Let’s get on to the pics, which means NO PEEKING PAST THIS POINT, JUSTIN!

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Filed under: Dresses, Here Comes the Bride on August 8th, 2008 | 8 Comments »

My dress is here! My beautiful, silky Pronovias Diamante! But before we get into photos and video from my fitting, let’s play a game so you can understand the state of mind I was in when I finally went to my fitting last Friday.

This game is called “Find My Dress,” and I’ve been playing it since the first expected delivery date, which was over two months ago. Let’s play now!

Where could my dress be?

It’s the end of May. Is it here?

Nope.

It’s the end of June. Is it here?

Nope.

It’s the date of my first scheduled fitting. Is it here, like you said it was when I called?

Nope.

Goodness! It’s passed the “confirmed” delivery date and we don’t have tracking information!

Where could it be?

Is it in Spain?

Nope.

Is it in New York? Nope. Seattle? Nope.

Where, oh, where could my dress be?

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Filed under: Dresses, Here Comes the Bride on July 15th, 2008 | 12 Comments »

My mom joined me at La Belle Elaine’s on Saturday morning so I could show her my dress before I started hemorrhaging money on it. Like most bridal salons, they forbid photos before purchase, but since we were buying, I had my mom take a few pictures (and a video!) of me in the dress.

Again, this is “Diamante” by Pronovias Barcelona. It’s dupioni silk and retails for ~$1500 (plus WA sales tax, blurgh). I am wearing a stock size 12 in these photos, hence the orange hardware clamps on my back. I ordered a size 8, which is between 1/2 and 3/4 inch larger than my measurements and should take minimal alterations.

The color is ivory, which you can’t see well in these photos. The flash makes for a rather “shiny” look, which is minimized in natural light. I suspect I may get a floor-length veil like the one I’m wearing in some of these. Maybe not… we’ll see. Anyway:

PHOTOS:
A basic shot of the gown. Sloppy hair, no jewelry, no makeup. Note how it hugs the hips (and butt in other pics)!

The back has buttons over a zipper. I’m going to have the back lowered a bit, to about where my hands are, following the line of the bust, which you can see on the side.

A shot of the back, with train. I might have this train taken down a little, but I doubt it. The silk is so light that it doesn’t bother me, and it can be easily bustled.

An example of what the gown looks like bustled. I’m a fan of the French bustle with this one… it looks like it was made for it. I’ll probably wear it bustled most of the night except the ceremony.

A final full shot of the gown from the front.

VIDEO:
Just a quick video my mom took of me walking in the dress. You can’t see the gown very well, but you can get an idea of how it moves. Sorry for the crappy quality and brevity of the clip.

Quicktime (3.4M)
YouTube (Fast load, horrible quality)

Music is “Love and Some Verses” by Iron & Wine.

Filed under: Dresses, Here Comes the Bride on January 28th, 2008 | 8 Comments »

I’m going to purchase my dress tomorrow. I couldn’t be more excited!

Also, we finally heard back from the folks in Polebridge. What a relief! They’ve been in hibernation for the past month and were reluctant to finalize anything before the first of the year, so I’ve been biting my fingernails that something would go wrong. The mercantile, which does cakes, catering, and baked goods was up for sale and a change in ownership could have meant big problems (or none at all) for our little wedding.

However, they confirmed that we are on the calendar and told us about a variety of local catering, baking, and music options. Thank goodness! It looks as though we’ll be able to procure most of the services locally, which is something I’m very happy to hear. I definitely want to support Polebridge as much as I can for letting us take over their town. Hopefully we’ll be able to give something back to them besides revenue… at the very least, a concert for everyone!

Filed under: Dresses, Wedding Madness! on January 25th, 2008 | 2 Comments »

Part I of Finding “the” dress
Part II of Finding “the” dress

Figuring I had a few more tries in me, I went back to La Belle Elaine’s, the first shop I visited. [Note: I'd also visited David's Bridal, I Do Bridal, and Cicada in Seattle.]

Despite staff that can be pushy (I’ve had mixed experiences), La Belle Elaine’s is huge and has a lovely, open layout with a runway and plenty of large changing rooms. I wasn’t enthused about finding something in my price range (dresses there start around $1200 and go to $8000), but I thought I’d see what new stock they had.

I also dragged Justin along to a dress appointment for the first time. He’s adamant that he doesn’t want to see me in “the” gown before the wedding, and I appreciate that. But I wasn’t keen on going alone with no one to banter to about dress styles and suggestions. So I convinced him to come on the condition that he didn’t have to do anything but help me choose a few off the rack. The man really has a killer fashion sense, though, so he was quite helpful.

After we circled the floor, I hit the room with 5 or 6 new dresses to try on. The first one wasn’t great, but I put on the second dress and I knew that I’d found “the” dress… an honest-to-God cliche that I wasn’t expecting.

So what is it? Well, the frou-frou name is ‘Diamante’ by Pronovias. (Yes, I also like that it sounds like the dress of the apocalypse.) It’s a gorgeous, roucheted dupioni silk (not synthetic, like the others!) dress with a form-fitting dropped A-line shape and chapel train. It’s a strapped gown; unusual because I’d been trying on only strapless until then, but I think I like the straps better– they seem more sophisticated. It’s everything I was looking for: simple, classic, timeless, and elegant. Something that’s not too young for me or too gaudy for an outdoor Montana wedding. And best of all, it’s within budget at just shy of $1500! So that’s it. I wanted to wait to purchase it, rather than making an impulse buy and down payment on Saturday, but I’m certain I’ll get it. And what a relief. Something finally set in stone… of course, I have to wait months for the dress to be delivered and then have it altered, but nevertheless a relief.

I’m feeling very optimistic and happy about this dress. I guess that’s the way a bride is “supposed” to feel, rather than resigned. I guess I can tick one box off of the “stereotypes I fulfilled while planning my wedding” list. Ding!

Filed under: Dresses, Here Comes the Bride on January 22nd, 2008 | 5 Comments »

Part I of Finding “the” dress

After visiting I Do Bridal again, I still didn’t have an obvious choice. I hadn’t been able to try on the Maggie Sottero gown again to confirm that it was worth it and I certainly wasn’t willing to purchase the gown based on memory alone. [Protip: Many, many bridal salons do NOT allow photos of gowns to preserve business and prevent copy-catting. They aren't sympathetic to human memory-- they'd rather have you come back in to try it on... AGAIN, and then decide.]

The Watters and Mikaella dresses are nice and quite pretty, which is more than I can say for 99% of the other wedding gowns on the market. Most dresses remind me of dolled-up, white prom dresses and are disappointingly cheap and gaudy… yes, even the expensive brands. I’ve really found the wedding industry overall to be full of expensive, cheaply made things that everyone swears you “need” but dresses really (excuse the pun) take the cake. Shopping for a dress can be fun, but it’s a low-return activity if you consider that you only get one wear out of an pricey gown which is packaged together with unneeded accessories and hundreds of dollars of alterations.

So I was feeling fed up with the whole shebang and torn between really finding the perfect dress within budget (around $1500 and under) or just getting something pretty, simple, and inexpensive and shunning the boutiques altogether.

I considered ordering the Maggie Sottero Vernice gown without seeing it again, or saving even more money and by choosing something from JCrew like the Sabine gown, or from Nordstrom’s like this Calvin Klein pleat satin dress or Nicole Miller silk halter gown.

I’d pretty much had enough, but I decided to give it one more shot.

To be continued…

Part III of Finding “the” dress

Filed under: Dresses, Here Comes the Bride on January 22nd, 2008 | 2 Comments »

A few weeks ago, I went back to I Do Bridal in Wallingford to try on my favorite dresses and see their new 2008 styles. Unfortunately, they’d sold one of my top 2 dresses off of the rack so I couldn’t try it on again to remember what it looked like. That dress was Vernice by Maggie Sottero, which I loved for its simple lines and corset back. IMO, the model in these photos doesn’t fill out the dress very well at all and it looks much better on someone with a fuller figure.

• “Vernice” by Maggie Sottero: $860

My other favorite dress, this lace gown by Watters Brides was still there, and I still liked it very much. I tried it in ivory with a burgundy ribbon to match the bridesmaids’ dresses. It’s a nice dress, but somehow not quite as “classic” as I imagined myself wearing. It looks great on me (but I have a problem enjoying the dress as worn by the 15-year-old-shotgun-wedding model in the pics) and very seems fitting for a Montana wedding, but it wasn’t amazing enough to make me buy it on the spot.

• Watter’s lace dress: $1050

I looked through their new dresses and found a pretty gown by Mikaella Bridal (a sister company to Paloma Blanka). It’s a simple and elegant dress, but I wasn’t sure about the overall effect, and if it was right for what I imagine wearing at our wedding.

• Mikaella dress: $1560

This left me three choices that I felt were “good” options but not “perfect” dresses. I’m a practical person, and I can be rather methodical, so I started to wonder if finding “the” dress was even possible for me. I started to weigh my options. Did I want to keep looking for the perfect gown? Buy one of these three? Try to save money by considering simpler options?

…To be Continued.

Part II of Finding “the” dress
Part III of Finding “the” dress

Filed under: Dresses, Here Comes the Bride on January 22nd, 2008 | 4 Comments »

JCrew definitely came through for us. All of the bridesmaids have received their dresses, and those who requested petite sizes are waitlisted for them if they still want them. It’s a huge relief to have those dresses taken care of. Now we’ve just got to take care of everything else.

Since the last time I posted I’ve been extremely busy with work but I’ve also accomplished much wedding planning. We’re steps closer to a caterer, a band, a dress, save the date cards and much more.

Filed under: Dresses, Wedding Party on January 21st, 2008 | No Comments »