Yes To The Dress

This past weekend was not only productive, but also a huge success. Friday morning I had three appointments in Raleigh and Cary to look at and try on wedding dresses so I decided it would make the most sense to head to Greensboro Thursday night where my parents live! I am a huge homebody so being back in the city that I grew up in always does my soul good. Because Friday was going to be such a busy day, I relaxed as much as possible and called it a night way before 9:00 PM.

Bright and early on Friday morning, Mom and I headed to Cary where we met Mary Lou (Will's mom) and my dear friend Amanda (one of my bridesmaids) at Lana Addison Bridal for my first bridal appointment. I loved that the boutique was a full-service bridal salon but on the smaller size so that I wasn't overwhelmed by all the things that caught my eye.

After handing out glasses of wine and bottles of water, we were taken back to the dressing room were I began trying on dresses. The few requirements that I had for a dress were that it was not strapless, was not bright white, had a sweetheart neckline, was lightweight, and made of lace. Michaela, the sweet girl who worked with me brought back a handful of dresses for me to try on, but told me that she had one particular dress in mind she wanted me to try on...but another girl had it in the other dressing room...so we waited for the opportunity to get it, and in the meantime, tried on two other dresses she had pulled.

Let's just say the first dress did not fit me in any of the right places and the fabric from the second dress made me itch really bad. Although the second dress was beautiful, I knew that being uncomfortable was something I just couldn't settle for. Moments passed by as I was getting out of the second dress when another girl brings in the third dress, one by Amy Kuschel. It's was a 1940's inspired number and one that is in my opinion gorgeous from head to toe. It exceeded all of my expectations and more and I couldn't wait to try it on.

After slipping on the dress and pinning it back to fit my body, it only took me seeing myself in the mirror and the reactions from my "support team" before saying YES to the dress. I spun around so many times in that beauty and felt like a true princess for the 30 or so minutes that it was mine. Oh and the Lord was on our side that morning because I got my veil for free too! At Lana Addison's, if you purchase your dress on your first visit, they give you a store credit (usually around $300) towards a veil, jewelry or something along those lines, but the veil I had on was way over $300 but went perfect with my dress that they said I could have it for free! Amen!!

After filling out paperwork and making the first payment, it was time to eat lunch and celebrate! Mom, Mary Lou, Amanda and I walked down to a cute little restaurant in Cary called Serendipity, enjoyed deli sandwiches and talked in more detail about wedding plans.

Lucky for us, we didn't have to go dress shopping at the other two stores after lunch, so I called and cancelled the appointments I had previously made and decided instead of driving straight to Greensboro, to make a quick stop in Raleigh to surprise my old co-workers that I worked with before moving to Charlotte! I had a great time seeing familiar faces and showing off my engagement ring and our mini-road trip ended much too soon.

Mom and I made it back to Greensboro around 3:00 in the afternoon and were exhausted. I napped, and when I woke up it was time to head to Dinner. One of the many things I love about my family is that when we go out to eat, we usually get dessert afterwards, so I was excited when Dad took us to get ice cream at a new little ice cream shop down the road from their house after a delicious dinner at my favorite mexican restaurant called La Bamba.

Saturday rolled around and Mom and I got our nails done and spent the rest of the day painting mason jars, Cheerwine bottles and doing other miscellaneous DIY projects for the wedding. Since Will and I are moving to Houston AND planning a wedding at the same time, we are trying to be very cautious with how we spend our money so a little DIY crafts never hurt nobody. And I think using mason jars will help give off the rustic feel that I want our wedding to be based off of.

I hope you all had a great weekend too! Were you able to relax? Were you busy running errands or able to spend time with family and friends? Whatever you did, I hope you enjoyed it.