YES to the dress!!

So, wedding talk with me for a minute…okok, DRESS talk with me =)
I am not super picky about too many things in life...but I always have a list of things I DONT want...so in my mind that makes me flexible. Wedding dress, however, I want two things: elegant AND one-shoulder. I swam too much in life to feel girly and pretty in strapless dresses. My broad football player-like shoulders do not feel pretty and "girly" in anything strappless...I love the destinaton dresses, but not too much of a destination dress that it looks like a white prom dress…AND you should know that I am in love with Maggie Sottero’s dresses…not a must have, but she has a lot of elegant glam that I just adore! I've had this one dress in mind...but I have had a difficult time wanting the dress and smiling at the price-tag that is attached. When you see a price tag on a dress usually it means only more things are to come just around the corner to pay for too:
1. Alterations
2. Veil
3. Shoes
4. Any additions (I am adding a feathery/vintage flower to the dress)
5. Naturally...tax
So...a thousand dollars never means a thousand dollars, but more closer to $1,400 at least when all is said and done!! I always thought wedding dress shopping would be a day of me, and my mom, and JoEllen, and a few of my girls hanging out running around St. Louis trying on dresses and drinking coffee that cost more than the gas we’d put back in the car at the end of the night. I did get to spend Valentine’s day trying on a few dresses with Brooke and JoEllen…but everything until and after then has been me, myself, and I. I know my schedule sucks, but I absolutely have to make the best of it right now. Thursdays the studio doesn’t open till 1 which usually gives me a little bit of time to run around and get some things done…I’ve basically done everything for the wedding on Thursday mornings between 9am-1pm. So far so good.

Thursday morning after topping off the gas and my mocha craving, the Orange Gremlin and I were off on a little St. Louis adventure.


I had heard a lot about a little shop called Clarices so I decided to venture across the river and onto 44 into the city. I have seen so many dresses in my days with MandY at Dinsmore that dress shopping has been a little underwhelming=( what I want I’m NOT willing to pay for…not that I’m cheap, but reasonable…which leads me to my underwhelming and lonely dress-shopping experience! Until my Thursday morning adventure=) Lets just say Clarice's accidentally received a sample dress in the wrong size…this is a big deal! Smaller dresses in a sample room are great for me, however, the average woman is a little more blessed in other areas and needs room to breathe!!! And honestly, the orange clips make great gadgets to play with after the 4th dress when I start to space out and get bored of seeing white and listening to the ladies try to SELL me something I don’t really care for… I absolutely fell in love with this lady named Jazz AND her accent. she was awesome...and REAL! Jass was totally open and honest with how things looked and fit me. Which was exactly what I wanted! I hate it when people just click over and go into sales mode when showing me a dress..can you just pretend that I am your daughter or cousin and tell me I look fat or like a clown!! I had just finished telling her how I had always wanted a 12 ft. veil…but not sure if it’s practical with the dress style I was looking for. I love wedding photos with a long veil following:) She suddenly looked at how much dress she had clamped together in the bright orange clips, ran downstairs, and returned with a dress and a huge smile. Lets just say they didn’t receive a size 10 sample dress that they had ordered because someone slipped on the numbers and a 0 was ordered…Their mistake, but to my giggles and smiles, I walked out of a store today with a dress in hand! Ladies! Seriously…one shoulder and Maggie Sottero…hmmmm...perfect fit and EXACTLY what I was looking for!!! My goal was to relentlessly hunt for a dress under five hundred (dream wedding right?! Exactly!). Come on, with all the resources out there in the city there are some serious boutiques that will work with you, you just have to search! Well, I got it and it’s hanging in my closet right now, no alterations needed except for maybe an inch in the height. Turns out they were just going to let this dress sit in the back office until someone came in who could wear it came in and could walk out with it. Since they bought it as a sample, they got it at a sample dress price…and so did I.

Ceremony location (CHECK)
Reception location (CHECK)
Dress (CHECK)
Flowers ( TBA? )
Invitations ( TBA? )
Honeymoon ( mtg next Thursday am )
DJ ( mtg next Thursday am )

Next up:

I heart this...but all my baby pictures are in a box complements of the Military until April:( my wheels are still turning b/c I want to send friends and family who don't live within immediate distance something ASAP

As for asking my girls in my wedding party....more to come this week...here's a preview...I'm going to bed!