A Toast To The Bride!

Okay,

We just spilled all the details of the proposal and general wedding planning, but I thought you guys might like to read the wedding dress journey! Maybe you’ll take some pointers from it, but really I just like to pretend you guys are with me!

To set the scene, I made a BUNCH of appointments, (which I recommend doing because you can always cancel appointments, but these days everything needs an appointment). I begrudgingly chose my smallest group to be my peanut gallery—with COVID I could only choose three guests to join me to each appointment. I was very careful to NOT look at too many gowns before. I didn’t want to be biased toward a certain dress beforehand. I spent a good chunk of my life trying on fancy dresses as a job, so I was really curious to see how this process would go. In all the dresses I’ve tried on, prom, pageant, homecoming… I’d never tried on a bridal gown. I did some research on Facebook—if you are engaged and not in bridal Facebook groups, I highly recommend you join some (my biggest life tip is to go join some Facebook groups related to a few of your favorite podcasters). A big tip that I gathered from my groups is that the day doesn’t have to be a picture perfect one—you don’t have to cry over your dress or pick the first one you try on. Give yourself grace. Just stick those notes in your back pocket.

We went to the first place on the first day of gown appointments, Bliss Bridal here in Hattiesburg. I had my small portion of pals with me, and we got started! I loved all the gowns, but with each one that wasn’t THE ONE, I found it helpful for me and the stylist and my guests for me to point out one unchangeable thing about each dress that I didn’t like. It helped me be more decisive in the process.

When I found the dress, there were tears shed. I was surprised. I couldn’t stop crying. There wasn’t a dry eye in the room—even the stylist shed a tear. I was sold on it, and there wasn’t a thing on it I could point out to change. We kept trying on through to the end of the line of dresses, continuing to point out what I liked and disliked about each dress. We tried on my favorites, trying to be 100% positive about the dress I knew in my heart would be the one. We narrowed it down to the final dress, the one that I cried about every time I tried it on.

We still went to the next location. I wanted to be 400% sure that I had found my dress. We tried on SOO many gowns, but I told my stylist that we were pretty sure we had found the dress. I assured her that we were making sure there wasn’t something somewhere else. I followed protocol of pointing out tangible parts of each gown that I didn’t care for until we finally agreed, without a doubt, that my dress was THE ONE. We went back to Bliss Bridal, and invited my sisters to join while I tried it one last time (and cried again). It was such a surreal experience.

With that dress, I could clearly picture each moment in the wedding. I just felt “right”. We ordered the gown and the veil, and we’re impatiently awaiting it’s arrival!

Woop! We love a story with resolution.