The DRESS

Okay so as the title states this is about the dress. But, what does “the” dress mean?

The dress is the first thing a girl sees when imagining her wedding. The dress is something that conveys the style and personality of the bride. The dress is one of the most important material things to do with a wedding…..

So how does a girl choose– (nay!) discover this dream dress?

Research! Tons and tons of time consuming, weeks on the computer scouring bridal sites, hours of trying on dresses in pastel colored bridal dressing rooms with strange sales ladies asking if they can come in to help them lace it up and see them half dressed… research.

Some girls search for days.               Some search for weeks,      months even!                        Some girls search for… five minutes??? Yep, I’m the last one. 🙂 (Sorry, I know that was kinda anticlimactic.)

Okay, so maybe I cheated… I used to be a bridal consultant. I worked with brides for a couple of years, and had an awesome boss. Mii, pronounced “my”, has been in the bridal business for many many years and really knows what she was doing. She has an amazing eye for fabric, color, style… and even has her own custom designs. What does this have to do with me, and why does this make me a cheater? Well, having a connection in the industry really helped out. I walked into the store. I told Mii that I was engaged. Mii told me she had my dress, and I started to look around until I realized what she said… wait, WHAT? No no no… I need to search for this; try on tons of dresses… stress out… this is supposed to take TIME! *cue in dramatic music*

*WARNING* If your name starts with Russell and ends with Miller, AVERT YOUR EYES!

In walks this… What’s this? Who is this sugary, ivory silk taffeta confection of simple, flowy, delicately placed lace, goodness? My dress, that’s who! Mii brought her out and it was love at first sight. The dress is so beautiful, timeless, perfect. I don’t need a lot of beads, embroidery, crystals and all of that. I love this dress. I feel beautiful in this dress. It is perfect. 🙂 I couldn’t imagine myself wearing anything else when I kiss my amazing husband for the first time, but this.

So maybe I’m a dress cheater? Nah, I’d like to think of it as beating the system. In that case, I don’t mind. It was absolutely worth it. 🙂 I didn’t think I would find anything the first time I looked, so I actually went alone. Convinced that it was too easy, I went with one of my bridesmaids to another dress store to check out that dress’ competition. While pretty…

Some just couldn’t measure up.

What to do?? Gather accomplices, that’s what!

ArtsyMom

ArtsyGrams & ArtsySis (Photo from previous shenanigans.)

… and POOF!!

The dress was ordered in all of this beatifully draped even on a plus sized girl glory!

Now the dress is in and I was lucky enough to have my first fitting with 2 bridesmaids and both of my moms! (Mine and FMIL)

I was feeling the love!

My $10 shoes matched perfectly! Don’t you just love how stuff like that works out?

And with my veil!! Now I just have to find a fascinator!!

How did you find your dream dress? Was it an easy experience, or was it more like a quest for a lost treasure?

The INSPIRATION TEASERS- Hair, Accessories & Make-Up

Why hello there! Fancy meeting you here! … or … yeah… nevermind. 🙂 So I put together some inspiration boards… or one big one. 😀 I am breaking it into 3 parts for your blogging pleasure!

Today is my hair, accessories & make-up inspiration. 

I love love love these photos.

For the hair inspiration, I tried to find hair that is the same length as mine. My main inspiration pic is the top left one. She has the same color/length of my hair and she is also wearing the same kind of veil I will be wearing. I found this picture while looking for a veil actually. While this GORGEOUS haute couture veil is way out of my price range, I would love to point you guys towards Castle Bride where I found it. By the way, that veil is also named Laura. Which for those of you who don’t know is my name. Let’s just say it’s fate that I would find that amazing little piece of bridal goodness! I will blog more on the veil soon so that you know what I did to get this veil though!

I love the teal peacock feathers in the middle of the board which are by portobello.   They are insanely out of my price range as well though but again, I will blog on that later! Wow, I didn’t realize how many teasers this would present. The beautiful shoe on there is my bridal shoe, and it has a lovely stunt double for the other foot, of course. The fans are to die for! I love the black dresses for the bridesmaids with the fans and teal shoes. *swoon* I plan on having some gorgeous bridesmaids, by the way! I love the clean, sexy make-up on these ladies… more glowy and less overdone. I like to play up my eyes, and I think there are some really great pics on here that I could go by! 

I found all of these lovely pictures online with the exception of a couple that I took myself, so I want to make it clear that I’m not trying to claim anyone’s photo skills or anything, these are just for idea purposes! 

What fashion inspires you for your wedding day look?

Next up: The FLOWERS

Inspiration Teasers 

Hair, Accessories & Make-Up

Flowers

Details & Decorations

The COUPLE

 

Hi there! My name is Laura and this is going to be my wedding blog, so sit back, relax and join me in my bridely adventures into the mysterious land of MRSdom!

I believe I will start by telling you how Russell and I started.

I had just started my freshman year in college, and I was in an art history class, waiting for it to start and surfing the net on my laptop. Long story short… I was on a dating site. Honestly, I wasn’t really expecting anything, but I got an email saying that someone had viewed my profile, and wanted to know if we could exchange email addresses. I went on the site, checked out his profile, and I was pleasantly suprised. His interests were much different than the typical guys on there, and I was intrigued so I went ahead and gave him my email address.

Apparently he was online at the same time, he sent me an email pretty quickly. We decided that since we were both online, to exchange IM names. We started chatting… and didn’t stop. It was so weird because it was like we had known each other our whole lives, and talking to him was so easy. This was really weird for me because I didn’t really expect anything to become of a dating site. One of us suggested that we talk on the phone after we had been talking for hours and he gave me his number so I could block my number if I wanted to be extra careful. I called, we talked, we laughed well into the night, wrapping up with a decision to meet the next night for a movie. It truly felt like I had known him forever and the connection was instant.

On our first date, he was (and still is!) the perfect gentleman, opening doors, paid for dinner, the movie, was extremely well mannered. He was shy, sweet, sincere, a wonderful conversationalist, dorky in just the right way… I was HOOKED!!

That was four years ago… five by the time we’re married this October. Over the last few years, we have been through a LOT together. We’ve grown closer than close and became best friends. We’re hardcore film critics, we love politics and current events, we’re big into all types of music, we are passionate about art, videogames, japanese culture, and especially… each other! 🙂

He took me ring shopping at the end of June, and proposed November 30th, right after Thanksgiving. The rest is and will be history. 🙂

Did you meet your sweetie online? What made him stand out from the other fishies? More to come soon! -Laura