Wedding Dress & Accessories

Shoes:

Shopping online, I was having a hard time finding shoes that looked comfortable, were a reasonable price, weren't too tall/weren't too short, that had an ankle strap so they wouldn't flop off my feet, and weren't too bridal looking so that I could wear them again.

I spent a lot of time on Nordstrom.com shopping. My coworkers always rave about Nordstrom's free shipping and free returns policy so I hoped I'd find something there, not to mention with their selection of moderate to high end shoes I knew I'd find something. I came across these Vince Camuto shoes, originally $184.95 for 40% off so I got them for $110.96 - so I ordered them in the color Stone.

When they came in I tore into the package and tried them on. LOVE them! The size was perfect, the shape was comfortable. They were just the right height and it honestly didn't really feel like I had shoes on when I walked in them. Lastly, we did the "am I too tall with these shoes on" test. Joey came and stood next to me and we both gave them thumbs up.

With tax: $118.45

Dress:

I had my eye on a crazy expensive Hayley Paige gown. After tons of research I randomly came across a posting online that a bridal salon 4 hours away was selling their sample for $3,500. (Still crazy expensive but much more doable.) After contacting the salon, I found out they still had the dress so we decided to take a day road trip to go see it. I loved the dress. It was beautiful. However not very practical because it was a fully beaded mermaid gown that weighed just shy of a million pounds. It was hard to move and I just knew it wouldn't be the best option for our tropical cruise wedding.

My mom, my matron of honor (Mel), and one of my future sisters-in-law (Melissa) took the trip with me. I warned them in advance that I might not like the dress in person and that I'm fully open to trying on other dresses. I didn't want them to be disappointed if we were to make the trip 'for nothing' if I didn't end up liking the dress.

I ended up deciding on the dress by looking back at pictures Melissa took and decided on the one that looked best in photos. I was having a hard time deciding because I loved about 5 Hayley Paige gowns that I tried on. I figured if it looked good in pictures, then obviously it looked good in person. I also really liked the fact that the dress was super light and was made of a unique material - taffeta. It seemed fitting for our destination wedding in the tropics.

We had so much fun. It was a beautiful day with bright blue skies with the sun shining (a nice treat living in Ohio and having been November.) Following dress shopping, we grabbed lunch with some celebratory libations then went shopping at the local mall so my mom and the girls could also try on some dresses.

Melissa was fabulous - she kept tabs on my wondering mom while she was trying to find dresses to try on - she tends to turn rosy and buzzed after just a half a glass of wine. We love her.

The dress, belt and veil are still on order. We ordered them in November and we were told they should arrive in March. I'm not surprised, as I once worked at a bridal salon and knew of the lengthy process times. I can't wait to get my dress in!!

Belt:

This has been the biggest splurge yet. $600.00. Yup, I can't believe it. It wasn't on purpose, I tried on so many different beaded belts (there was a whole wall of them) and this one was by far my favorite. Since the dress I picked was under budget, it helped me feel less bad about spending that much on a beaded belt.

Veil:

I wasn't sold on getting a veil. I wanted to try one on just in case though. Since my dress is on the simple side, I wanted to try on a veil that was longer than the train. My dress designer makes veils so I tried on one of hers. Loved it. The veil was a more reasonable $400.00.

#Bridesmaid #Information #Planning #Wedding #Details