Say yes to the stress

It's been awhile since I looked back and wedding photos and I was browsing through Pinterest today and thought it'd be interesting to look at my old wedding pins. 

I managed to find the original image I used for a lot of my inspiration, especially the table decorations:

Source: Pinterest

Let's look even closer:

Could be the tables from the same wedding! I'm actually pretty impressed with myself. Only took me like four years. 

In addition to decor, my pins centered pretty heavily around THE DRESS. 

I had a pretty good idea what I liked right away, but I was not excited about actually shopping for the dress. I rarely go shopping in person anymore (this was true pre-COVID and still true). I'm just not a shopper. 

My mom lives pretty far away but planned a visit so she could go shopping with me. My mother in law also lives in the DC metro area so she came along as well. I did a bunch of research before the appointment and picked a boutique that had a good inventory of plus size samples. 

I actually proved to be quite prescient as I only tried on three or four dresses and one was the dress I ultimately chose. The sales woman was lovely and tried to get me to try some dresses on outside of my chosen a-line tulle skirt and lace bodice aesthetic. She made me try on a mermaid style dress and I hated it and didn't even come out of the dressing room in it. 

I didn't buy anything that day, but I was pretty set on the dress that I ended up choosing. I found another boutique in DC that catered specifically to plus size brides. Unfortunately it looks like they're now closed. Again, everyone there was lovely and helpful and tried to get me to think outside of my comfort zone but I ultimately choose what I knew I'd be comfortable in. 

Source: The Knot

I chose a dress from the Allure Romance collection, shown above. I ordered it in the pink color with white (it definitely was called bone or snow or something) lace. I ended up really liking the idea of a pink dress. It was subtly pink and really beautiful. 

The first bridal shop had quoted me a price for the dress and I asked the second one if they could order it for me. Turns out they could. Also the price they quoted me was less than half of what the first shop quoted me. So here's tip number one of this post: shop around. I liked the second shop better anyway and ordered it through them and also had them do all the alterations.

Since my wedding was in the fall I also had them order extra lace and make some elbow-length sleeves. They tried to talk me out of it multiple times as it was pretty as ordered, but I knew I wanted my arms covered and I stuck to my plan. So there's another lesson: if you have strong feelings about something with your dress (or suit or whatever you plan to wear), trust your own instincts. 

I did consider getting a shorter length dress and I think that's the one thing I would have changed if I could. The ceremony was outdoors and it ended up raining, so I felt like I was dragging around 14 pounds of muddy tulle all day. I did have them remove the train completely, which again I stand by.

I was le tired.

I do have better photos of myself in the dress, but this is quite possibly my favorite photo we took all day. I really just wanted to sit down for like five minutes and not have anyone talk to me so I came up with this inspired pose. The photographer was skeptical but again, I stand by it. 

I kind of hated the whole process of buying the dress, getting it altered, getting it cleaned and preserved after the wedding and overall just having to think about one garment so much. Yes it was beautiful and reasonably priced (by wedding dress standards) but I have to say I'm glad I'll never have to buy another wedding dress (hopefully) in my life.

I guess we didn't learn a lot in today's post other than to schedule a nap- even mid photo shoot- as carrying around all that fabric is exhausting.