wedding dress - check!

So, what big wedding step did I get accomplished? I bought my wedding dress! Yay! I'm not allowed to post any pictures of it on the blog because Jesse refuses to see it or know any details about it before the wedding date. He's also adamant that he doesn't want to see me at all that day before I walk down the aisle. Well, I guess it's good that one of us is traditional.

I was a little worried when I started looking at wedding dresses in magazines because nothing felt quite like me. I am just NOT into princess ball gowns, loads of beads, appliques, or embroidery. The dresses I admired usually were much more streamlined or modern looking....but they were also usually $3,000 couture designs. What can I say, it just reaffirms my great taste. :)

But, I am just not a $3,000 dress bride, either. So, I planned instead to look for a simple bridesmaid dress in ivory or one of the simple, but elegant dresses from the J. Crew bridal selection. I figured it couldn't hurt in the meantime to try on a few salon gowns, so I stopped by Bridals by Danielle just a couple blocks from our apartment in Philly. My consultant there, Lisa, let me try on tons of bridesmaid dresses and sample gowns and was extremely supportive and encouraging. If you're looking for a wedding dress in Philadelphia, I highly recommend them. They carry tons of high end gowns along with two racks of sample dresses. I narrowed it down to two dresses and brought my friend, Lara, in for a second opinion. I ended up choosing a really elegant silk sample gown that completely felt like "me" and was marked down from $2,000 to $200! It needs to be taken in since it's about two sizes too big, but I already found a seamstress in Lititz, Pa who will do it for a fraction of the salon's price. So, good news all round.

Since I can't post any photos of the dress here, I thought I'd at least leave you with some pictures of some of some gorgeous dresses I love that are completely out of my price range. Luckily, none of these really look like the one I'll be wearing, so I'm not giving anything away. You'll just have to wait until July 12th (probably), like Jesse, to see the dress that I'm making such a big fuss about!

from l to r, dresses designed by: claire pettibone, nicole miller, lela rose

no, we're not in hibernation

Sorry for the long delay in posting. I had some laptop trouble that Jesse fixed at the beginning of the week, plus we've both been busy with work and class planning for the fall semester at MICA.

But, we haven't completely thrown wedding planning to the wind! We've scheduled a menu sampling at our reception site in about three weeks (yum!). During that time, we'll hopefully be able to finalize details at The Barn, which means we'll finally be able to confirm our wedding dates as July 12th. We've also started reviewing our photography choices and possible ceremony musicians, but don't have anything concrete decided yet. I got one BIG planning step out of the way, but it's large enough to merit its own entry, so stay tuned....