I just realized that tomorrow is our one year anniversary and I never even posted anything about my dress! Well, I posted that I had found one, but I never put pictures up or talked specifically about it. I first found it on the Knot. It's a Justin Alexander Couture dress. The tag-line on the site reads: Modern Interpretations of Traditional Silhouettes. Well... here it is...I knew I wouldn't look good in bright white so I wanted ivory. I loved the flowers all over the dress and the way they looked like they were crawling up from the floor. I did not want strapless or sleeveless but that was nearly impossible to find. When I saw this dress... I knew!Buttons all up the back of the dress. The top part is a jacket that had buttons to match so it looked like one fluid piece. Everyone was surprised when I took off the jacket later in the evening. Some people thought it was a completely different dress! And here is me in it...
The morning of the wedding, I woke up at The Residence Inn in Bloomingdale, Illinois.
The church was just a hop, skip and a jump away but we had hours to go until I got there. I jumped in the shower at 7:30 a.m. Allison and Christine were in the other bedroom in the suite and Nydia, Beth, Stacy and Amber were across the hall. Jackie was at her parents' house, but would be joining us later. At 8:00 there was a knock on our hotel suite door. Right on time. It was Angelica and Antje from Tigerlilie Salon. We had arranged that they would come out to the suburbs with their hair dryers, rollers, bobby-pins, curling irons and make-up kits to get us all prettied up. A consultation and a trial with Antje confirmed that I would be wearing my hair like Rita Hayworth's.
The bridesmaids would be sporting vintage style up-do's... like these:
Before long, we were taking turns getting our hair done, reading magazines, sipping mimosas and munching on the treats Beth and Nydia had gone to pick up for us, including Pirate's Booty.
After our hair was done, Antje and Angelica did our makeup. Antje had recommended that I get some MAC foundation and lipstick for the day so I got that out for her. We waited on the lipstick, though. She wanted to put that on after I put my dress on. So... on it went. Nydia and Stacy came in with me and my mom. It sounds like a lot of people, but there were a lot of buttons... and high heels.
On went the lipstick... the high heels... the veil. Time to be a bride.
Now as my bridesmaids know, I bestowed upon them the decision of picking out their own bridesmaids dresses. I did set limits, giving them a choice from fourteen dresses (that's twice as many dress choices as bridesmaids) and they each happened to choose different ones. This here is a little photo collage of what they picked out. I thought that, now that the wedding is over, I'd post some pictures of some of the other dresses I was considering for all of them to wear. You know, just for fun... I know these are small, but they're all I could find now that the whole thing is out of date... sorry...
I think. Is this crazy? I have an idea of what I want and I saw exactly that on theknot.com today. It's beautiful, perfect for a fall wedding. theknot.com says it's not available in this state. So I looked into other states and it looks like I could try it on when I go to Arizona and maybe order it from a place in Wisconsin. I don't think it would be unheard of to travel up to Wisconsin, about a two hour journey, to pick up a dress. I'm sure there have been bridezillas who have done much worse. Well, then I checked the actual designer's website and it looks like there is a place in Illinois that carries this designer!!! I can't wait to see it in person. I hope it's as beautiful as it is in the picture. You won't catch any pictures of it on this blog, though. It's an absolute secret. No one is getting this one out of me until I put it on for the big day! XOXO
I knew I wouldn't look good in bright white so I wanted ivory. I loved the flowers all over the dress and the way they looked like they were crawling up from the floor. I did not want strapless or sleeveless but that was nearly impossible to find. When I saw this dress... I knew!
Buttons all up the back of the dress. The top part is a jacket that had buttons to match so it looked like one fluid piece. Everyone was surprised when I took off the jacket later in the evening. Some people thought it was a completely different dress!
