The Dress!

So before I get started on my wedding recaps (aka…wait for our pro pics!)…I figure I should back up a bit and fill you in on all that stuff I didn’t have time to before the Big Day!

Like say…MY DRESS!

Here she is hanging up…minutes before I put her on!  Notice the ugly plastic hanger…yeah just one of those things I forgot to do…wish I had ordered one of these!

If you’ve been following along with me since the beginning of my planning stages…then you are well aware I was dead set on getting a lace dress.  No bling and no poof…Just lace, lace, and more lace!  While I had fallen in love with Monique’s Scarlet…

I was not so much in love with the price.  (Paying for the wedding on our own + buying a house = no Scarlet for Steph)

Nor was I as patient smart as Abbie to scour the web to find a pre-owned one.

So on the hunt I went…to find something similar but within my budget.

I tried on several.  I think I ended up going to a total of 3 different bridal shops!  But…they just didn’t measure up….sure they were pretty…and I felt pretty in them!  …but none of them had the “look” I was really going for.

Sorry…not the best pics…what is it with bridal stores and horrible lighting?!?

I actually was very close to just giving in and buying this gorgeous silk gown that was fitted down through the hips with a sweetheart neckline…we weren’t allowed to take pics in that particular store but it looked similar to this one…

I of course was not ready to commit way back in Feb of 09 when I found said dress….so I decided against it.

Fast forward to June 09…when I decided it was about time to get back out there and see what Utah had to offer.  My fabulous friend Abby came along for moral support and we hit our first (and only!) stop…Mary’s Bridal in SLC.

After trying on several dresses…much of the same as I had tried on before…I was ready to pack it up and move on to the next place.  Oh but then…THEN…one of the lovely workers suggested I try on just one more…one she had in mind and thought would look great on me.

Well you can pry tell where this is going…the dress she brought out was it!  I pretty much knew it once I unzipped that bag and saw the thinness of it, the all over lace, and of course…the gorgeous open back.  Being the money-conscience shopper that I am I quickly eyed the price tag…and my heart sank.  It was about $800 more than I could spend.  I knew everyone was waiting for me to come out…(somehow I was the only person in there on a Saturday) so I threw it on…and I sorta slumped out hoping it looked awful on me and that I would hate it.

Of course i didn’t…I loved it.

So did Abby…and the 3 ladies working.  When they asked me what I thought…I said I loved it…but it was out of my price range.  Then one of the sales girls said something amazing, “I’ll give you %40 off that dress…if you buy it off the rack”.   Uh what?!  Being a nerd…I quickly did the math in my head…and holy bananas…it was suddenly within my budget!  Abby and I did a full inspection of the dress searching for any small imperfection, rip, tear…anything that would make buying the dress a mistake.  We couldn’t find anything…so I bought it.

So who the heck makes this fabulous dress anyways?!  St Pucchi.

Yep I had no clue who that was either….it took some digging but I eventually found it online.  Under the ‘Sposa by St Pucchi’ line…page 7…style z206.  Yeah the model looks a bit…odd.

Now if you are super observant you’ll notice the sash on the original dress has bling all the way around it…and some weird jewel thing on the back.  I was not a fan of this…so we took it off…and replaced it with a brand new sash tied in a bow.

this pic was from my final fitting…all ready to go!

Much better!

Phew ok that was one long post!  Thanks to those of you that made it to the end!

Before I go I just want to give my ’2 cents’ to those that are currently out there looking for the perfect dress…ahem…Shelley

1)  Don’t settle…the right dress is out there…you just may have to dig a little to find it.

2)  If you have your sights set on a dress you know you shouldn’t buy can’t afford…channel your inner Abbie and check  sites like PreOwnedWeddingDresses.com and OnceWed.com.  Or like in my case…it never hurts to ask for a discount/buy it off the rack!

3)  If you love everything about a dress but one tiny thing..chances are that tiny thing can be removed/cut/changed…just ask.

4)  HAVE FUN!!  Buying your wedding dress is not supposed to be stressful or annyoing…if you aren’t feeling it at one store…move onto the next one!  Take a friend/cousin/sister/mom/cat…just someone you know that will smile and make you feel good in each dress you try on.

gettin’ fitted

Today is my first dress fitting!

Finally…after hanging out in the back of the bridal store since I bought it last June…my little lacy goodness and I get to meet again!  I’m a tad nervous.  My dress isn’t exactly simple …in that it doesn’t just have a basic strapless neckline or a basic straight hem at the bottom (am I giving too much away here??)  Last night I had a dream that somehow my dress looked like this post alterations…

but short…I mean reallllly short….and for some reason everyone around me told me it looked wonderful.  Keep in mind that my dress looks NOTHING like this…not even a tiny bit…I mean really…red?!  that isn’t even one of our colors!

Anyways…I figure they must be pretty good here in Utah…after all…they add sleeves to sleeveless dresses all the time.  (I am almost 100% positive that the Autum who wrote that article is the gal that helped me find my dress…AND that is where I’m getting my alterations done…by the lady at the bottom…so I mean that must be a good thing right?? )

Oh so I also hope to figure out which lovely pair of purple shoes I’m gonna go with…I have 2 pairs right now that I am debating on…

via DSW

or these

via Zappos

Right now the RSVP pair (the second ones) are the front runner.  Only issue is that the strap is a bit tight around my ankle…I could add a hole…but I didn’t want to do that yet in case I don’t go with them and want to return them.  The only thing that worries me is that they pinch my foot a little around the toes.  I am hoping this can be remedied by wearing them in a little before the big day…or I could wear a skin colored band-aid.  Plus I will likely take them off later in the night and switch to some comfy flats!

I like the first pair a lot too…they are more pointy…but the heel is a little lower, and they don’t pinch my feet.  My foot actually comes out a little bit when I walk…which is super annoying.  Does anyone know a fixer for this?  I could add some padding to the front of the toe maybe?  I really can’t go down a size or my toes won’t fit in the front part…I have wide feet and short toes!

I’m also a tad tempted to buy these…

via Zappos

They have that cute red heart on the bottom…which would be fun for photos (yes that is all I think about…j/k).

So yeah…that is where I’m at in the shoe department.  I’m all ears if you have a favorite pair of the 2 (3)…let me know!

*don’t forget to enter my giveaway!!!  …as of now no one has commented!?  So basically you have a pretty darn good chance of winning!

The Dress

I got it!!  Nope..not gonna post a picture..sorry!  I must keep some things a surprise right?!? I will say that it was unlike any other dress I tried on…and it is pretty much everything I wanted in a dress…oh and I got a killer discount!

I’m excited about it..I kinda just want to wear it right now…

I have a confession…

I have a hard time making big decisions…and I tend to change my mind.  Just ask Lance…whenever we go out to eat somewhere that you have to order at the counter…I struggle…big time.  I can never pick just one thing that I want…b/c maybe in a few minutes I might want something else.  When I go shopping and find something I like in the first store…I must then go to every other store to see if there is something “better” that I might want…and then I’ll decide which item(s) I want from there.

Anyways…there was a point to this post…oh yes.  The Dress.  You see…I haven’t gone shopping since that first experience in February…and this Saturday I’m embarking on my 2nd dress shopping outting…this time here in SLC.  I looked back at my pics from the first dress shopping trip and my overall opinion…”eh.”  I don’t know…at the time I felt like i could have worn any of the dresses i tried on…but now…not so much.  Even scouring the internet ….I see lots of lovely gowns…but not sure if they are “for me”…of course I still find myself swooning over simple lace gowns…but then today I came across this dress over on The Bride’s Cafe.

maybe its because the bride has the same name as me (spelled with an f)…but there is just something about the simplicity of this dress that i love.  Turns out its a Jenny Yoo dress…and so I clicked on her link expecting her dresses to be beautiful and completely out of my price range.  Oh but wait…whats this??  ‘Wedding Alternatives‘…???  HOLY fall in love…

just pure. simple. beauty.  According to the website:

“The dresses featured in the following pages are some of our favorite bridesmaid styles transformed into wedding dress alternatives in whites and ivories.”

oh and did I mention they are ALL in my price range…I’m talking IN the range…from the ones I posted prices range between $700-$1025!  SCORE!  oh and there are super cute short dresses in the $400′s…um yes so I could get one long and one short and STILL be in my range…

So basically I have no idea what I’m going to do about a dress yet…I figure I’ll go this weekend here in town…and if I find something I love then thats that.  BUT…if I keep thinking back to these dresses…there is one place up in Park City which is about a 20min drive that seems to carry them….but I’m guessing they carry BM dresses but it might still be worth checking out.

Who knows…by next week I could totally change my mind and want big, puffy and sparkly…

I want it…

this dress is amazing…and it makes me want to go dress shopping again…like right now…

I mean seriously…I need a bajillion dollars so I can buy it …AND that gorgeous chandelier…

(photos by Jose Villa found here)