choosing my wedding dress

one of the first decisions made about our wedding was the date - it had to be st. patricks day! the 2nd was the dress. mom told me from the beginning she wanted to help cover all the cost of my attire (very generous of her... major love mom thank you!) so the hunt begun. right away i discovered why couples have such long engagements and although eric and i had been engaged for over a year we hadn't started planning anything yet! so, its December and i needed a dress by march! before march! i didn't want it to showing up 2 days before the wedding and something be wrong - so if i coudln't get the dress by the end of feburary - i didn't try it on! this narrowed the search quite a bit..

here are the close contenders 

 this Celtic feeling gown was a favorite but with a green sash not red of course!

right off the bat i knew i was going to add another stipulation besides the date

a V-neck! its just what looks best on me.. this also limited  my options way down - even further!

ya know 90% of the gowns were strapless

 back view - see what i'm saying about the celtic look with the embroidery on the tails of the sash 

 this one was the first one that really "clicked" with me

 and i discovered - it was the corset

so the 3rd stipulation to getting a dress (besides the date & a V-neck) was a corset

 full front view with my green raw peridot & pearl jewelry

Eric got me this set for my birthday a few years back and its what i was using as my color inspiration for the entire wedding decor - planing the whole time to wear it wedding day

 with a green bow

i was really liking this one!

 the option of a flower (not pink though) at the knot instead of bow (i'm not a huge bow person)

 really like this one (it was huge on me!) it had a real vintage feel to it

 on no! no corset!

keep looking

 this one was beautiful! but there was no option of adding any green to the dress.. and it did look really formal

 oh my! the front was so low - i was going to have to have a bra sewn into the dress

this made me really nervous - cause my girls need a little more encouragement then that!

 this one i wore in the store for a very long time! 

too bad we didn't get a full length shot - it was a mermaid style gown and flared out and had a gorgeous all lace train. but there was no way i could have this at a beach wedding! it was all lace!

after a full day at David's bridal we went to lunch/dinner had a couple drinks and talked options

the next day was Jon's bridal and all their gowns immediately ruled out any of Davids (which are all pictured above) Jon's gown's were gorgeous and you bought them on the spot so i could walk out the door with my wedding gown!

the only thing i didn't like about Jon's bridal was i couldn't take pictures..

until of course i tried on this one.. and that was it! i started crying and we took it home!

 perfect! 

it has a corset!

it wasn't so low that i couldn't  wear a nice corset bra

and the fabric would be beautiful on the beach

and most importantly i could walk out of the store with it that day!

 wasn't so sure about my hair piece yet - but i tried a veil just for fun 

although once on.. i knew i wasn't going to wear one.. as i told mom "it looks to bridal"

for some reason the sales lady thought that was funny!

 mom and me

yay! i found my dress!