Wedding Bells Wednesday: The Dress, part one.

This past weekend, I tried on wedding dresses.

Yes, our wedding is still a year and a half away, and I didn't want to step foot in a dress shop until this summer. But when your best friend needs you to go get sized for a bridesmaid dress and you have to make an appointment anyway, I mean, why not?

I wasn't sure how I would be with all this. I have watched A LOT of "Say Yes to the Dress" in my life, and it really made me wary of dress shopping.

Would I cry?

Would I have to bring fifteen people along?

Would all fifteen people have to wear matching shirts?

Would someone start some drama about how I couldn't wear that dress because she wanted to wear it?

Would I suddenly demand a $12,000 Cinderella gown?

Would someone ask me if I was saying Yes to the Dress? 

I feel totally clueless about a lot of wedding things. Some people just seem like brides, you know? They've known what they wanted their entire lives when it comes to their wedding. 

I'm pretty sure I'm not one of those people. I was definitely destined to be married to Thomas. But the bride thing is a little hazy and weird and sort of outside my realm of things I am naturally good at. 

Dress shopping, though? That was actually fun. Lots of fun.

I really didn't want to find a dress this past weekend. I wanted to find out what shapes would look good on me. Straps/no straps? Ball gown/ mermaid/ A-line? (Those are all the wedding dress-related words I can think of.)

Except I found one. I have had it pinned on my secret Pinterest dress board (hehe..I love those secret boards) for ages, so when I saw it in the store, I freaked out a little bit. It's weird to stare at something for so long online and then suddenly see it in front of you. And then I tried it on, and it was perfect.

Of course, I am making no commitments yet. I still have to go dress shopping with my mom in my hometown, and possibly in St. Louis. And I have plenty of time yet. But it just felt right. It was the very first dress I found, and I pictured myself getting married in it.

That wasn't the only dress I tried on, however! I tried on plenty of others that I loved but were completely not my style. So since I will definitely not be wearing any of those, and even Tom saw these pictures, I will show them here!

(Note: The dress I like best is actually nothing like these. I almost published this post with that dress blatantly hanging in the background haha.)

I LOVED that first one with the deep v-back! But again, totally not my style. It will look absolutely stunning...on someone else.

That last one nearly knocked me out. Literally. Like I thought I was going to pass out because it was so tight. 

And so, the journey begins :) I really wish I could post the dress I am completely in love with, but since I can't, I will just continue staring at the pictures of it daily.

Did you/ will you enjoy dress shopping? How long did it take to you to find "the one"?

Wedding Bells Wednesday: Engagement Photos

Hello!

I am taking a break from the scheduled "Blog Every Day..." post to bring you a wedding update!

I absolutely loved how these photos turned out. Tom's sister enjoys taking pictures for fun, so she said she'd take some pictures for us. I'd done some research before I went, and I knew I wasn't really into "styled" shoots. I didn't want props and clothes changes and all that, I just wanted her to follow Tom and I around and get some pictures.

We went back to the pumpkin farm where he proposed two weeks later to get these. It was funny because the day we got engaged, it was HOT outside! And Tom had to wear a jacket to hide the ring :) On this day, it felt absolutely freezing. Just two weeks later! We trekked all the way back to the exact spot where he got down on one knee.

Anyway, his sister did such a beautiful job, and I couldn't be happier with the result! We hardly posed, just ran around having a good time. These aren't even all the pictures, just a few of our favorites. We will be using one of these for our save the dates that we send out next year.

Here you go! :

The Proposal: His Perspective

For this Wedding Bells Wednesday (yeah, yeah, it's Tuesday night, close enough), I asked Tom to write about his proposal to me! (Which happened one month and a day ago...)

I learned some things I didn't know from this tale, too, so I hope you enjoy it!

(One photo from our engagement session...reenacted in the exact spot it happened.)

"It did not take long for Heather and I to realize that we had something special. We both knew a few months in to our relationship that we had something that would last forever. 

In the fall of 2012 (1.5 years into our relationship and 1 year before we got engaged) I started to develop my proposal plan. I knew that I needed to wait until after graduation so I could get a job and be able to afford an engagement ring. 

I knew that Autumn was Heather’s favorite season, so I had to propose in the fall. Heather loves going to the pumpkin farm and I thought what better place is there to include a fall activity and proposing to her? This was the first idea that I had and it just made sense. My proposal was still one year out so I just let the rest of the details come to me in their own time.

Now, that fall we didn’t get to go to the pumpkin farm due to scheduling issues. This upset both Heather and I. I wanted to make sure that we went the next year alone. We made a pact that we would for sure go to the pumpkin farm. Check.

In the summer of 2013 I picked up the engagement ring while Heather was on vacation with some of her family. I looked at it every night that she was away. If only she had known!

In the coming months we had very busy weekend schedules with different events and trips that we were taking. We had made plans to go the pumpkin farm in October. Over the next few months I began piecing together all of the little details of the proposal.

In September, Heather helped me arrange “the talk” with her father in St. Louis. It was nerve wracking asking him but I knew I wanted to do things by the book.

I had this idea of how I wanted to present the ring to her on a small fancy pumpkin. I had looked at many different options and thought I would end up having to make something work. Eventually I found the ideal pumpkin that I was looking for. A velvet pumpkin from LoveFeast! I knew she would love it and it would be an awesome keepsake. 

I had sent the package down to my grandpa’s house to make sure she would never have the opportunity to see it. I then determined that I needed a dark brown ribbon to tie the ring on. My mother had picked the ribbon up for me one day and then the second after Heather left, we practiced making the bow on the pumpkin.

One weekend Heather mentioned that we may have to change the weekend the we would go to the pumpkin farm. I panicked! We had to do some rearranging but we found two different weekends that we could potentially go. We decided that October 5^th would be the day.

Two weeks to go. The weather forecast two weeks out did not look so good. A cold front was supposed to be coming in and bringing all kinds of rain. I booked a fancy room at Stoney Creek Inn, a place that Heather had always wanted to go.  It is directly on the river and has a great view.

One week to go. The weather forecast was still poor for that weekend. I could not cancel my plans at this point so I just held out and hoped for the best.  I made reservations for us at Jonah’s Restaurant that was adjacent to Stoney Creek Inn. Now we wouldn’t have to walk far.

The night before we saw that the storms were not supposed to start until noon the next day, so I convinced her that we should go earlier than we had planned in order to avoid the rain. It is amazing that even though there was a 70% chance of thunderstorms, we did not see a single drop of rain.

The Day. We wake up and both get ready for our trip to the pumpkin farm. I retrieve the ring from where it was hidden, along with the velvet pumpkin. My next concern was what kind of jacket I should wear. I didn’t want her to be able to see a strange box-like shape in my coat pocket. Unfortunately it was warm outside, but I wore a jacket anyway so I could conceal the ring!

We had made it to the pumpkin farm and Heather wanted to go to the pumpkin patch right away! I convinced her that it wasn’t time yet and that we should eat some breakfast first. We ate and looked around the shopping area then went to go feed the goats! 

Heather then wanted to go to the pumpkin patch. It was happening all too fast and I wanted to savor the time! In order to slow her down I had her read me this pumpkin story that was put up on display. After she did that, now it was time. We went to get on the wagon to take us out to the pumpkin patch. 

Again to buy myself more time I convinced her that we should walk from the apple orchard to really be able to take in the autumn surroundings. She agreed. We had now made it to the pumpkin patch. Not many people are there. Good. I scout out the best place to do it and decided that it should happen at the highest point of the field, which happened to be at the complete opposite end of where we were.

We trek our way to the spot and we took a look around. My heart was pounding. My breathing was thick. I took one final look into her eyes. I pulled the ring out of my pocket. I got on one knee. Then asked her the big question…

She said YES! 

We spent some more time at the farm before returning home. I then told her to pack some things up for an overnight stay. She was excited to see where we ended up. She had no idea that this wasn’t just an ordinary Saturday! We then had a lovely and romantic evening. The End."

Thanks for writing that out, future husband! ;) 

Wedding Bells Wednesday: DIY Ring Holder

I have always enjoyed when bloggers post about their wedding plans.

I found it very helpful, and still do, so I decided to make a series of my own. Hence, "Wedding Bells Wednesday!"

But there is something you should know...our wedding will be in October.

2015.

As in...two years from now.

Therefore, this will be a pretty sporadic thing for the next year or so. But we're jumping right into planning because places are ALREADY BOOKING UP! Two freaking years in advance!

So. There is a pretty big update I will likely have for next week. For now, a craft.

I have been crafting a lot. I am still working part-time and obsessively sending resumes. But it's just not nearly enough to keep me satisfied. So when I'm not planning the next ten years of my life, worrying about things or reading the news, I craft.

(Yes, post-grad life is really strange.)

I saw something like this two years ago on Pinterest. Even though it was a long ways away, I knew I would need this when I got engaged. Obviously, you can use it for other beloved rings too.

Because 1) it's cute, 2) I lose EVERYTHING and 3) I wanted a place to put my ring while I clean, sleep, shower, etc.

Therefore, I crafted this nice little home for my ring!

And since we've been out of town a couple times, I made a travel version as well. It's smaller and more durable, and the support in the back has a magnet on it, so I keep it on my dry-erase board for now.

I plan on making versions of these for my friends when they get engaged because they really have been very helpful. 

SO. Want your own little ring frame? Here's what you need!

-Frame (I got mine at the dollar store and Target dollar section)

-Paper or thin fabric for the background

-Pins

-Cork board (I found 5x5 squares of it at Michael's)

-Decorative additions, if you wish

It's really easy to put together. You just and measure the paper/fabric and cork you need, take the glass out of the frame, and put the paper/fabric and cork in its place. The cork fits pretty snugly, but it works. Adding the pin takes some maneuvering. But that's all there is to it!

I mean, you could also just keep your ring in a jewelry box, but where's the fun in that?

*******

Happy crafting!