First of all, while many may disagree with me, I don't think anyone needs more than about six months to plan a beautiful, thoughtful, well put-together wedding. Jordan and I didn't even have our date set until last week, and we're getting married in June. We've always planned on June, but because of location availability we didn't have a specific date until early last week. Come to think of it, last week was pretty monumental for a lot of the big things - ceremony and reception location, dress, bridesmaids' dresses, invitations. We knocked all of those out (well, mostly; invite are still in progress, and the girls haven't bought their bridesmaids' dresses quite yet) in a matter of about five days, with only about three months left before our desired wedding date.
Also, I get the impression that a lot of women think that they'll somehow lose a lot of weight or transform their figure in the months leading up to their wedding. For some, I'm sure that's true, but I don't think my body is going to change very drastically between now and June, however much I'd like it to sometimes. But really, you kind of get over that after a few months. I think a good pithy saying for many aspects of wedding planning is this: you've got to work with what you've got. Budget, availability, menus, even your own appearance.
But finding a dress that you look fabulous in - as is - sure doesn't hurt.
Let's see, what other tidbit wisdom have I gained so far? Oh, well, one thing I worried about a lot was whether or not all of my friends were going to be able to come. I've learned that no matter when your wedding is, or how far ahead you plan or send out save-the-dates or whatnot, there will always be people you want to be there who just won't be able to be there. That's another one of those things that you kind of just have to get over. Does that sound harsh? I love my friends and family dearly, and I want with my whole heart for everyone that we know and love and that knows and loves us to be at our wedding; but that's just not realistic. And I think I'm becoming OK with that. You just can't control everything.
That's really all I have on my mind at the moment. I'll probably elaborate and add to the list as we go along.
Oh! If you are ever a bride-to-be shopping for your gown, do not turn your nose up to David's Bridal. I did, and I was foolish to. I thought they would be generic, the Wal-Mart of wedding dress stores. But for me, at least, they beat out the other stores in a lot of ways.
For one, you just can't beat their prices. For my first wedding dress fitting/appointment, I went to another store in town that has a reputation for being more formal and high-end. Basically, that translated to very, very expensive, and I didn't really like any of their dresses that much. The two I liked the best were both about $1,000 off the rack, not including any alterations.
David's Bridal, on the other hand, offers a wide variety of styles at an average price of $400-$600. My dress was a little under $500 off the rack, and totals to about $675 including alterations. And it's beautiful - I love it, and I love the way I look in it.
And get this - the associate who helped me try out dresses over the course of my three appointments at David's Bridal is a Biola grad! She just graduated last May ('09), she married a guy that Jordan went to high school with, and she has been super sweet and helpful and encouraging through the whole overwhelming process of finding a gown. In all seriousness, I think I'm going to invite her to the wedding.
No comments:
Post a Comment