Our Wedding: Dress Shopping!

the DRESS.

Perhaps like many girls, I'd been pinning wedding dresses (see below) for quite some time, long before I met Aaron. When it came to the wedding dress, these things came to mind: unique, a-line, backless, simple, sleeves. lace. I wanted a dress that was different. But you know, wedding dresses can get pretttttty expensive and I went back and forth between the decision on spending a ton of money vs. staying under a grand.

After lots of online browsing, I was convinced I had found the dress of my dreams via Grace Love Lace, an Australian bridal gown brand. (Australian brands just do it right.) This particular brand embodies everything I'd want in a dress. LACE. They are so so beautiful. The only problem was, there wasn't anywhere near me that sold their dresses and to order them, it'd take anywhere from 6-8 months to get to you. So, if I were to buy from them, I would have to order this dress at the latest in February since we were planning on getting married in September-ish.

January 16th, 2016

In enters the reason why I went dress shopping prior to Aaron proposing. I decided to go try on other dresses in actual bridal shops in early January. The first place I wanted to check out was Brides for a Cause. This particular shop gets donated sample dresses from both previous brides and other shops and sells them at a discounted rate. I wanted to check 'em out first to see if I would get lucky. At the time, it was only based in Portland (there's a shop in Tacoma now!) so my mom and I drove down there one weekend. I had also heard of another shop down there I wanted to check out called The English Dept so we did both. One of my best friends lives down there, so she came along as well. I didn't have much luck at Brides for a Cause- there were tons of people there... it was January after all and there are always many fresh engagements. I tried on a handful at the English Dept. and found two pictured below that I really liked, but I was still not convinced. One was totally what I had kinda pictured myself in- the lace top came off so I could have two different looks within the dress. The skirt portion was so soft and flowy and I loved it.

The other one I liked was not what I pictured myself in at all, but I loved the material and I liked that it was different from what I thought I'd like. Also, this second dress was definitely outside of our budget- I think it was around 2800 or so.

January 24, 2016

Back in Seattle, I had to check out The Dress Theory! They carried Sarah Seven, a designer that I had fallen in love back with way back when. Just simple, romantic gowns. At the time they were having a trunk show for Anna Campbell as well so I thought I'd check it out before making a step forward with my Grace Loves Lace choice.

For this trek, my mom and best friend from high school came with! Shoutout to Courtney at the Dress Theory for such a great experience and time at the shop. I had a lot of fun in their beautiful, intimate shop. It was wonderful and I'd recommend it to anyone. There wasn't any pressure and it was nice to feel like a princess ;) We tried on a couple and there were two that I liked, but when it came down to it, I picked the one that I felt most like a bride in. All the other ones I loved, but this one- when I put it on, I really felt like a bride. The train was perfect. Of course it was a Sarah Seven gown and we added on Sara Gabriel sleeves that I could wear on the shoulder or off the shoulder. I was getting married! (The last photo is me picking up my dress in June!)

My mom of course thought it was a bit too simple, so she found a sparkly headband from Claire's that we turned into a small sash, which is what you'll notice in some of our wedding photos. I wore my straps up for the ceremony, but down for the rest of everything. I took them off when it came to the dancing!

the SECOND DRESS.

You may have also noticed that I wore another wedding dress. This was for Saturday's events- the day before our actual wedding. We had a 10-course reception at Hong Kong Seafood Restaurant for my parents' friends and family and I wore another gown for that event. We found the dress at a Brides for a Cause trunk show up in Seattle. Aaron went with and another one of my bridesmaids, Desi, came with. My favorite part of this dress was the back. I am selling this dress if anyone reads this and is interested! JUST SAYIN'. Name your price, fo' real.

the VEIL.

Then there's the veil! Okay, one of my favorite movies is A Walk To Remember. I love Jamie's veil in the scenes from the wedding. I wanted a veil like this. My mom had volunteered to make it for me and I was pretty excited because that would be something really special, right? But after a few attempts of finding the right lace, we gave up so we actually ended up purchasing this veil from David's Bridal. I loovveddd it and it was exactly what I was looking for. Again, selling it if anyone is interested!

Because we did a first look, the veil added another element of surprise to Aaron as I walked down the aisle. It was perfect.

the SHOES.

Okay, so I wanted shoes I could wear again and shoes that were black (black and white were our main colors after all). I chose to go with SENSO shoes because I had heard they were super comfortable (again, an Australian brand)... and these shoes could go with anything! I didn't want to spend a lot of money on a pair I wouldn't ever wear again. These are my go-to black heels now!

Final thoughts in regards to the dress? In the end I decided to not go with the Grace Loves Lace dress. Although it was beautiful, I found out that when I was trying on dresses things looked different when worn. I didn't want to risk ordering a dress only to put it on and be unhappy with it. So first piece of advice, don't order a dress online unless you've tried it on already. I've heard a lot of stories of brides doing this because it was cheap or they got a deal... but in the end you waste money and effort getting it into your hands and then back into the hands of where you ordered it. Second piece of advice? The dress I ended up purchasing, I've seen on multiple brides. Originally I wanted a dress no one else had, but the dress you like will always look different on you. If you love it and if you are comfortable in it and if you feel like a bride, don't let the fear of someone else having already worn it keep you from buying it. Third piece of advice that may not apply to everyone, but worth mentioning: I've heard from previous brides/friends that they regretted not putting a bit more money into their dress or not getting the dress they wanted because of cost. I totally understand the other side of the argument as well (only wearing the dress once ever in your life). But you only get married once and you should feel beautiful and feel like a bride. All in all, buy a dress you feel comfortable and confident in. I actually ended up showing Aaron all the dresses I tried on and he liked the one I picked best! He swears it's not because it's the one I chose. (He's probably slightly bias).

Anyway, there you have it! Man, putting together these blog posts can be quite time consuming and I think I totally underestimated the process... but I also tend to be a bit thorough and in some cases, a perfectionist. This blog series will just continue to be longer than I thought it'd take! Thanks for reading!

Read our past wedding blog posts: