Pinnacle Moment for a Bride-To-Be

Although I'm (obviously) not going to share a picture of the wedding dress I've chosen before the big day, I do at least want to write a little story about the process of finding it! I think that making the decision on my wedding dress was the one thing that really made me feel like a bride. Creating a Pinterest board or looking at pretty wedding cakes we want is super exciting and fun. But every girl can do that. But what every girl can't do, is pick out her wedding dress. That's a tradition that's reserved solely for after he pops the question and slips the bling on your left hand. The beautiful ring on my finger feels amazing, but actually picking out the dress I'll wear when I say, "I do," feels like something completely different. It feels like the Pinnacle Moment for a Bride-To-Be. Picking out my dress made everything seem so surreal and crazy and exciting. But let's back up and talk about the process of actually finding "the one!"

As I've shared before, we're trying to have a small-ish wedding, on a pretty tight budget. So that meant I wasn't going to be spending a couple thousand dollars on just the dress alone. (Side note - on 'Say Yes to the Dress' yesterday, I watched a girl pay $10,000 for a dress. Insane! Our entire wedding won't even cost that much...) So even though I had a certain vision in mind for what I wanted, I wasn't willing to spend a fortune to get it.

So the first place we headed was to David's Bridal. And it was not so great. We had been there for my sister's wedding to look at bridesmaid dresses and the flower girl dress, and both experiences were pretty rough. The staff wasn't friendly or helpful, and God forbid if you didn't make an appointment. But I wanted to give them a chance, because I had seen some of their dresses online and liked both their style and their price. But once there, my "consultant" didn't really provide me with what I was looking for. I felt like she didn't listen to a word I said about what I wanted, and a couple of the ones she brought were the exact opposite of what I was looking for. Pretty, but not the style I was going for. We did end up finding one there that even though it wasn't the style I thought I wanted, I did actually like it. Just not enough to buy it...

So then a couple of weeks later, my mom and I headed up to The New Image in Thomasville, Georgia. She was looking for a Mother-of-the-Bride dress for Megan's wedding, and I got to try on some wedding dresses for myself as well! (They have a huge variety of bridal, prom and MoB stuff.) I tried on about four or five, and really liked a couple of them. Then that last one I tried one, Mama and I both loved it. Mom immediately said, "That's the one. That's your wedding dress." And although I think I agreed then, I still wasn't quite ready to commit to it. And plus, I really wanted my sister to be able to see it first too.

Then on June 1, I made an appointment at a local place here in town, Vocelles. (This is actually where Megan found her dress last summer!) This in a cute little boutique bridal shop with a pretty atmosphere and super helpful staff. There were about three here that I really liked a lot, and one that I was in love with. (The one I loved the most was pretty similar to the one I liked at The New Image.) The train was longer than I wanted, but that's about the only thing I didn't like. Well, that, and the price of it! Because that's the thing with Vocelles - it's all gorgeous, but it's all a little pricey, and definitely over what I wanted to spend. In fact, it was about $600 more than the other one at The New Image, for basically the same thing. So as much as I loved the one from there, I felt conflicted about how much it was.

Aunt Suzanne, me and my sister Megan.

So we left there, and headed back up to The New Image again. I had them pull the one that I loved from my last appointment, and then we pulled about four or five more again, just to try. And I did end up liking a couple of the new ones too, but then once I put back on the one from the first trip, we knew that was THE One! Mama, Megan and my Aunt Suzanne all loooved it, and so did I. It's exactly what I was picturing in my head, and just what I wanted/needed for an outdoor wedding. It's simple, yet beautiful, and I think it's just so me. (And it makes me look so good and so skinny!)

I am so so so incredibly happy with the dress I've chosen and I can't wait to get my actual dress in so that I can get a better feel for it! The one I tried on was about three sizes too small, so I'm just kinda stuffed in it, and things are all tightened up to get the right effect. Like, so tightened up I couldn't breathe very well. So I definitely can't wait to try it on in my actual size! I think it's going to be perfect on my wedding day, and I'm so glad I found exactly what I had pictured myself getting married in. Hurry up, October 5th!

Much Love,
Halie

Party for the Bachelorette

Well my sister finally found her camera that we thought had just up and disappeared! Turns out, it was buried deeeeeep  in the cushions of their reclining love seat. So even though three or four of us had dug around in there, it wasn't actually discovered until Megan sat in it and reclined it all the way back. She then heard something hit the floor (and after freaking out for a second, thinking it was an animal or something), she looked under there and was surprised to see her shiny black camera! Hooray! So now I can finally share the last wedding recap from her wedding weekend - from her bachelorette party! (Well, it probably isn't truly the last, because I'm sure I'll share some of the professional shots once we get those back.)

For her bachelorette party, we kicked Bo out of their house, and we had a slumber party with the bridesmaids, and two other girlfriends of hers. I made us spinach artichoke dip and brownies and set up some other snacks, and one of the girls decorated with streamers. Then we played games and had snacks and watched movies and just had lots of fun! Oh, and then we also made the bouquets from all of her bows from showers and presents, and I pretty much sucked at that. Luckily though, one of the other girls was awesome, and she helped me out :)

If you're new around here, or just missed one of the recaps, and you'd like to check them out, here are all the links:

Bridesmaids Luncheon // Rehearsal & Dinner // Morning of the Wedding // Ceremony // Reception

On Friday morning, we woke up and I made everyone cinnamon rolls for breakfast, and we played with their dogs while they baked. Then we all got dressed and ready, and then went to get manicures and pedicures, on Megan! So sweet :) We really did have such a fun time all together, and it was a great time to spend with all the girls a couple of days before the wedding. So glad I was able to plan something that Megan really enjoyed and that her bridesmaids and friends enjoyed too! And now I can scratch another thing off my list of goals for the year, because this was one of my goals, along with a nice shower for her - and I did both of those things!

Preview of the Reception

She had a lot of cute ideas and things for her reception, and everything ended up looking really cute. We did a pretty great job doing all of the decorating and everything ourselves, and we were very pleased with how it all turned out for her big day! And once again, I can't wait to get all the professional photos back and see all of those! We ourselves didn't even get pictures of everything completed, so I can't wait to see it all it's glory!

I wrote that for them, and made the bows too :)

Groom's "cake." But it's a cookie cake, because he doesn't really like cake that much, but he loves this stuff!

Guests made their own bags of popcorn to-go as the favor, that said "Thanks for poppin' by!" Wish I could copy this!

Giving our toasts. And Zach's toast blew mine out of the water. It was so good!

Everything for her wedding ended up beautiful. The decorations, the flowers, the cake, and most importantly, the bride! She was gorgeous, and I was so proud of her and happy for her. I was so very blessed and happy to have been her Maid of Honor, and I'm so thankful she gave me that opportunity! Now I can't wait for her to get to do all of this for me, as my Matron of Honor in October!

Right now, they should be getting ready to return home from their honeymoon, and I'm already excited to see her and hear how everything went. I can't wait to hear all about what they did and how gorgeous the Virgin Islands were, and see pictures! I feel like a little kid whose big sister was gone away to summer camp or something, rather than the 25-year-old big sister, whose little sister just got married and went on her honeymoon! I'm just so excited for her!

Peek of the Ceremony

Obviously I wasn't taking any pictures of my own during the ceremony, so I only have a couple that I was able to swipe from a couple other people. The majority of these come from our friend Allison, who is also the mama to the precious flower girl and adorable ring bearer. And then a good amount also come from my sweet fiance who set up some video cameras (unbeknownst to us!) and was taking pictures! Glad I was able to gather up at least a few shots of the ceremony while we wait for all the professional pictures to come!

If you missed the last few recaps, you can see them here: bridesmaids luncheon, rehearsal and rehearsal dinner, and getting ready the morning of the wedding.

Look to the left, behind the white wall, and you can see us singing, while they do the sand ceremony on the right!

I'll be so excited to see more of these once the photographer sends them all back to Meg! Tomorrow will be the last recap with a few shots of the reception. (Unless of course we ever find Megan's camera, then I'll eventually show you some bachelorette party pictures too! Fingers still crossed for that one...)

Pampering the Bride

Saturday morning, the day of my baby sister's wedding, we grabbed all our bags of clothes and cosmetics and extras, and headed out. We stopped for some coffee of course, and made it to the church by 9 a.m. Megan had asked Kaley (her brother-in-law's girlfriend) to do her hair, and so she arrived early too. After the tears had dried from reading letters from Bo, my mama, and myself, I did her wedding makeup for her! Which ended up looking great, if I do say so myself! She was definitely getting pampered by all of us, and getting waited on hand and foot! Can't wait for that to be my turn ;)

Then all the other girls started arriving, and we all helped each other with everyone's hair and makeup. We played music and laughed and had a good time! And then we finally got Megan in her dress, and us in ours, and we set off to have the bride and bridesmaids photo shoot!

We had a good time taking all the photos before-hand, and I just can't wait to see how the professional ones from the photographer turn out! Unfortunately we have to wait about a month or two, so that stinks, but we'll be so excited once they are finally ready! And tomorrow will be a tiny sneak peak at the ceremony, with just the few pictures I was able to swipe of that :)