The Dress!

I absolutely love wedding dresses!  I was so excited to do as much dress shopping as possible and boy was it fun.  While visiting my future in-laws who live in Fresno, CA I brought it up to my fiancé's mother that we go look at some dresses.  I was so excited that she was up for it!  We went to a few different places and I got to try on different styles and found that I like lace and belts!  Like these ones:

Next it was time to set up appointments at home and I knew that I had a few family members who would want to come along.  I was the first in the family to have a wedding since probably 1990, so they were excited.  We tried David's Bridal because their website is awesome, and I knew every dress.  Unfortunately we did not have the best experience.  They hardly had anything in my size to try on and the girl helping us kept calling the train of the dress a "tail."  I am not an animal.  Plus, they make you ring a big bell for everyone in the store to see when you choose your dress.  That alone made me not want to buy my dress there.  It just didn't work out, but my aunts and close friends got to see me in some dresses.

The following day, I was a bit smarter and had just my mother and future mother in law come with me to a bridal boutique in Costa Mesa, CA called Mon Ami Bridal Salon.  While the dresses there were not as "cost effective" as say David's Bridal, they were having a trunk show for the English designer Augusta Jones.  She has beautiful soft designs with lace accents, and such romantic touches.  I really lucked out!  After trying on a few dresses, I was put in her "Juno" dress.  It is a gorgeous A-line dress, with layers of lace, a sweetheart neckline, and a beautiful belt.  This was my dress!  I loved the way it made me feel, and the way it made me look.  It was perfect for my summer, garden wedding by the beach.

Here is the dress on a model.  I planned to wear a slip underneath to make the skirt fuller.

Trunk shows are the best!  Because of that, I got a discount on the dress, and they added covered buttons on the back for free!  I also splurged and had a custom veil made to match the lace on the dress.  Here are some pictures of the dress from the day I chose it.  Mind you, this is all that I had to look at for five months until the dress showed up!

It is hard to have only a few pictures from the time you order your dress and the months that it takes to arrive.  But, it was worth the wait because I liked the dress on myself better than on the model on her website.  

Here she is on the day of the wedding!

With the lace detail that is matched in my veil.

Thanks for reading!

Love, Jen