I-Do, Up-Do

Now that we're almost four months out (OMG, FREAKING OUT!!!), I have compiled a few hairstyles that I really like.

My sister, if you remember, will be doing my hair the day of the wedding, so I need to come up with some styles so that she can figure out what tools she needs to do them, and can hopefully practice a bit.

These are some of the ones that have stuck out to me:

Image via Soul Scapes Photography

Image via Make Me Fabulous

Image via One and Only Paris Photography

But, I haven't yet decided if I will be wearing my hair in an up-do, or a half-do on the day I say I Do.  All I know is that the hairstyle has to be accommodating to a hair flower, because I will be wearing one of those.  I just need to send my mom the material so she can start up with making it.  

Thoughts on these hairstyles? Have you found anything similar to these that you think I will like?

Dress Purchased!

Bought the dress! But you'll have to wait till the wedding day to find out which one I purchased! I don't want FI to accidentally see, sorry!

But I can at least tell you about the story, and the FINAL chapter of this journey.

When my mom decided that she wanted to come up for a weekend, I made sure that we scheduled it around the Watters Trunk Show at the boutique I bought the dress from.  I had finally decided that it was going to be a dress from the Watters collection, so I figured it would be really worthwhile to buy at a trunk sale, where not only were the dresses discounted, but the entire collection was available to try on, even the new Spring 2012 collection!

I have been stalking the Watters websites and all wedding-related blogs for months now, staring at the new collections, and they are gorgeous! I was so excited that I was going to be able to try on all these new dresses, and even better, that I could possibly be purchasing one.

So, with the longest list yet, my mom, FMIL, and I drove up to the little shop I once visited on my own to try on some dresses.  Turns out, we were supposed to get some serious snow, so the hour and a half drive took almost two and half hours, so we were a little late for the appointment, but they still let us in. Yay!

The first dress I tried on was from the new Spring 2012 Collection, WToo "Gwyneth."  Beautiful dress, with a stunning belt, but the fabric was kind of scratchy, and it didn't do all that much for my shape, so we decided to scratch it off the list.

Watters WToo "Gwyneth" / Personal Picture

The next dress was also from the new collection, Watters "Alexandra."  This was a beautiful dress, and I loved the skirt shape and layers. The only issue that we saw was that the raw edges of the fabric were fraying, and while the Watters Representative said that that would happen on the gown with a lot of handling, it was more severe on this one since it was a trunk show sample dress and has been tried on a lot and traveled a lot.  That still didn't really make me all that comfortable, so we decided to cross this one off the list too.

Watters "Alexandra" with Watters "Coco" belt in Vanilla Bean / Personal Picture

 Watters "Alexandra" with Watters "Coco" belt in Vanilla Bean / Personal Picture

The Watters "Chrissie" dress was one that really caught my eye during my Internet search. The shape of this dress was fabulous, and the look of the fabric flowers all over was gorgeous too. The downsides to this dress were that it was heavy, and almost fluffy, because the outer layer of fabric, where all the flowers were was very thick, so I felt that it made me look bigger than I actually was. Although, looking at the picture again, I am reminded of how stunning the shape of the skirt is!

Watters "Chrissie" / Personal Picture

Staying with that same shape, I tried on the one my mom and MOH E loved from Thanksgiving weekend, that way I could see it again and make a decision of whether or not I liked it enough to keep on the list, and FMIL hadn't seen it yet either, so this was an opportunity to get her opinion too.  I tried it on with the pickups rolled up again, but I also took pictures of it with the pickups down, since I didn't last time.  We also tried it with another belt, and that really made a difference in the way that the dress looked.  After trying this one on, it was still on the list.

Watters WToo "Yardleigh" with Watters "Coco" belt in Vanilla Bean / Personal Picture 

Watters WToo "Yardleigh" with Watters "Coco" belt in Vanilla Bean / Personal Picture 

Going back to the original dress I tried on when I first started my dress search, Watters had a similar one, called "Carmel."  I tried on this dress, and really liked it, especially with a belt with a little more detail in it, but ultimately, it really didn't do anything for my body in the behind shot, and I wanted something that flattered my shape.

Watters "Carmel" with unknown belt / Personal Picture

I told the consultant that I had also previously tried on Watters "Lasara" and liked that one, although it didn't have enough detail for me, so she brought out Watters "Malibu," which is very similar, except the flowers are three-dimensional and have small little beads in them that make them glitter.  I liked this one a lot, but felt it was missing something else. I couldn't pin-point it though. Also, like the "Carmel," it didn't do all that much for my backside.

Watters "Malibu" / Personal Picture

Since I liked that shape, the Watters Representative told me I should try on WToo "Desdemona" which was fitted a bit more through the hips, giving me a little more shape from behind.  I really liked the flower details on this one - it was similar to Watters "Lasara," except this one had flowers on the bust as well.  This was quickly brought to the top three on my list.

Watters WToo "Desdemona" / Personal Picture

Watters WToo "Desdemona" / Personal Picture

Another bride was in the shop with us, and came out with WToo "Camilla" on, and my mom immediately gasped at that dress. She asked the consultant to pull that for me once that bride was done, and so I tried that on after she was finished.  I liked the dress a lot, and had seen it online with the other new designs.  When I tried it on though, the fabric was very scratchy, and not soft, like it looked in pictures and in person.  Whenever I put my arms at my sides, the dress would scratch me, and you can actually see me in the picture trying to avoid that. So, even though it is a gorgeous design, it wasn't the one for me.

Watters WToo "Camilla" / Personal Picture

When making this appointment, I made sure to try on the dress I had been obsessing about for months, that way my mom could see it in person. And I did just that. I tried it on, still loved it and showed it to my mom and FMIL, since she hadn't seen it either.  My mom was finally able to see the potential that the dress had and how much I loved it. I mean, can you see in my face how much I love that dress?

Watters "Sterling" with modified waistband / Personal Picture

That's it for the dresses that I tried on, but I will tell you - the dress that I chose is in the pictures above. One of the top three that I narrowed it down to, but you will have to wait for after the wedding to find out which one it is!

Happy Anniversary!

Today is our sixth dating anniversary!  FI was working all day, and I took the day off to spend it with my mom since she came into town yesterday afternoon. We had dinner with my mom and FI's parents tonight, so it wasn't all that special, but we never really celebrate much more than a nice dinner anyway. It was still great though, AND it was the last dating anniversary we will have before we get married! That's crazy to think.

Anyway, today was a very productive day. Since my mom is in town this weekend, we have decided to do more dress shopping.  So, today, just she and I went to a few dress shops to see what we could find, and we found a lot.  The store that we went to had so many different dresses, and the nice thing about it was that you could look on your own through all the racks, and the consultant was there only if you wanted help.

We ended up pulling about twelve dresses, and some were immediate no's, so those didn't get pictures. The rest got pictures though. And I know what you're thinking...more dress pictures? I've tried on so many, and because of that, I've wanted to make sure I could get pictures of all the ones I thought looked good.  And I thought that I could share them, because, you know, what else am I going to use the pictures for?

So, let's get to the dresses.

First I tried on a beautiful ball gown that had gorgeous flowers all over the skirt, and a great pleated/ruched bodice with a sweetheart neckline.

 Allure 8866 / Personal Picture *Sorry about the timestamps - Mom forgot to turn that setting off on her new camera

The dress had some beading on the left hip that I wasn't really liking, so I tried it on with a belt and my hand covering it and it looked much better in my opinion.

Allure 8866 with unknown belt / Personal Picture

After deciding we liked this one better with the belt, we moved on to the other dresses.  This next dress looked really nice on the hanger, but really did not look nice on me.  It was an immediate no, as you can see I didn't even make it to the pedestal.  

Rina Di Montella 406 / Personal Picture *Sorry about the TERRIBLE face. I had no idea the picture was being taken

The next dress I tried on had the ruched bodice, a sweetheart neckline and a simple skirt, with some little beading under the bust line. It was very light, but the material seemed to be very thin and there wasn't enough oomph in the skirt for me, and it had a corset back, which again, I am not really a huge fan of.

Mori Lee 6725 / Personal Picture

Mori Lee 6725 / Personal Picture

This next one was my mom's favorite from the day, and while it had a lot of components that I wanted, the primary one that acted against it was the fabric - satin. I loved the shape of the dress and the ruching and sweetheart neckline, but the fabric choice was a big deal breaker for me.  I also didn't really care for the big bow on the back, but that could have been removed.

Allure 8919 / Personal Picture

Next, I tried on a dress that was waaaay too small for me, but I will post the somewhat embarrassing picture anyway.  This dress was a no mainly because of the shape, but also because it was a little too plain.  The skirt shape was somewhere between a column dress and an a-line, but it just didn't open enough at the bottom to look right.  

Venus Bridals 6705 / Personal Picture

We're going to call this next dress the booty dress. It was a liiiitttle too tight, but man, it made my booty look pretty nice.  I originally liked it because of the one shoulder and the little details on the strap, but, like the last dress, the skirt just didn't open up enough at the bottom.

Venus Bridals 6673 / Personal Picture

Venus Bridals 6673 / Personal Picture *Check out that booty! Yikes!

The last dress I tried on today was another mixed column/a-line not-enough-opening dress, and it was just ok. I didn't really care for the shape, as you know from the other dresses I tried on, but this one in particular had pleats in random places throughout the length of the dress, and I felt like they just seemed like mistakes and that the dress hadn't been pressed correctly. It also had a corset back, which I'm not going to show you, because the panel was missing, and so it's really open. In the end, that dress was removed from the list.

Alfred Angelo 2034 / Personal Picture *Sorry for the blinking

So, that concludes today's shopping trip. It was pretty successful, but I can't say for sure how I feel about the Allure 8866 until after tomorrow's appointment.  I'm happy that my mom and I decided to go look at some dresses at the last minute, but I am even more excited about tomorrow's appointment and what it could bring to the table.

Do I Have to?

Anyone else play dress-up when they were younger? Did you ever get to try on your mom/grandmother/aunt/great-aunt/sister/cousin/etc's wedding dress?

I loved playing dress up when I was little. It was so much fun to pretend all sorts of things.

The day I went with my mom and MOH E, I wasn't really feeling it. Maybe because I have had my heart set on that dress that I tried on by myself first - Watters Sterling.  My mom hasn't seen me in it, and she doesn't really like the pictures a whole lot, and the closest place to where she lives that carries it os well over a six hour drive.  So, we are going to try to get her to see me in it, but while we were at the shop this past weekend, she and MOH E really wanted me to try on some dresses.

Since I originally made the appointment for MOH E to find her dress, I really wasn't prepared to try any on myself, and wasn't really all that excited about it.  But, I obliged, and tried some on anyway.

Since this shop was a Watters WToo carrier, we primarily focused on those dresses - I really loved the designer and felt that their style and fit was perfect for me.  The first one I tried on was a strapless dress with a sweetheart neckline, ruching, and a skirt with some detail - sound familiar? Yeah, I think this is the point where I really started to realize what I wanted in my wedding dress.

Watters WToo "Dulconee" / Personal Picture

All three of us liked this dress, so we kept it on the list, but while it looked nice, it didn't really have the WOW! factor that I was going for. So, we moved on, keeping that one in mind.

This next one wasn't part of the Watters collection, but my mom loved the flowers on the skirt, mentioning that it was similar to the dress I ordered from The Limited, which we liked the fabric of, but not the shape.

Casablanca 2048 / Personal Picture

Casablanca 2048 / Personal Picture

It was a really nice dress, and the train was amazing, even though I don't really want a train, haha.  But overall, the beading under the bust was too ornate for my liking, and the sweetheart neckline was too deep. But, it was a really nice dress, and the sample fit really well - we didn't even use clips!

The last dress was one that MOH E chose for me.  As you know from my laundry list of things I do and don't want in a dress, pickups is pretty high up there as a no.  This dress had pickups, and I wasn't very happy about it, but MOH E teamed up with the consultant and made me try it on.  Here is the designer's picture of the dress, since you can't get a feel for what it's supposed to like like in my personal pictures:

Watters WToo "Yardleigh" / Image via Watters Website

Since I did not want pickups, and did not like the way they looked, I decided to roll that layer of fabric up to where the skirt started, since the pickups could be let out when purchased. The consultant also did not put the belt on me, and said that I could go without, and do a statement necklace instead. So, here is the first picture of me in the dress:

Watters WToo "Yardleigh" with no belt / Personal Picture

I thought that this dress looked really nice with the pickups removed, but I preferred having a belt to define the waistline, so the consultant removed the necklace and added a belt, which I don't know the designer of.

Watters WToo "Yardleigh" with unknown belt / Personal Picture

I liked this look much better, and my mom and MOH E absolutely LOVED this dress on me.  I really liked it, but I still had that other dress stuck in my head, and couldn't stop thinking about it.  But, I want your opinion. Do you like this dress better than the Watters "Sterling?" Do you like this dress better with the pickups or without the pickups?