Enough about the cat, although look out for Facebook album titled "I have a problem with taking pictures of my cat" shortly because I need to delete them from my phone.
Bordering this hell-week was dress shopping!! Our first trip was to David's Bridal a week ago Monday. I figured it was a good place to start since I could easily browse everything online and had a wide selection. I brought my mom, Dan's mom, and my champ wedding-dress-picture-taking-bridesmaid Laura! Pretty surreal experience trying on a dress for the first time if I do say so myself, and I really liked the ones I found there. However, with the ridiculous amount of money going into this wedding I couldn't wrap my mind around buying a dress that cost just a little more than our per headcount cost for the reception so knew I'd keep looking.
Trip two was kind of last minute, but since I had to drive Dan down to work on Sunday to go on his little trip I made an appointment at Eva's Bridal in Oak Lawn. The first dress I came out in, my mom made a face and told me to take it off but it ended up being one of mine (and her) favorites. There was definitely a huge selection and we barely looked through half of it during our appointment time, but ended up finding 2 very different dresses that I adored! Buying on impulse/during an early shopping trip might work for some people, but I knew I wouldn't be prepared to purchase on just my second trip so we made another appointment to come back the following Sunday. So far Eva's was winning...
The appointment I was most excited about was today at a local wedding boutique in Lincoln Park. I've only heard great reviews about Weddings 826 and I pass by it all the time so to say that I was a little eager is definitely an understatement. They have a manageable selection of gowns and give you the opportunity to order or buy from the rack. It was exactly the experience I had been imagining-we were offered champagne, water, or tea and had a nice room with all the dresses and curtains that pulled together for the changing room. I was once again accompanied by my wedding-dress-picture-taking-and-editing-bridesmaid, my mom, and even dragged my sister into it by letting her spend time with Piper beforehand. Fell in love with another 2 dresses (my magic number) which were very similar in style but had subtle differences that I couldn't possibly decide between today.
After making a pit stop to browse invitations at All She Wrote (love shopping locally!!), hitting up the olive oil store, having lunch, and buying up half of Nordstrom Rack's junior's section (for my sister...I got some awesome new red heels, and a super cute dress that will probably be my shower dress for only $20!), we made it to Macy's bridal salon. Now, being a born and bred Chicagoan, I have a little bit of an issue with the whole Macy's buying out Marshall Field's situation but they do have dresses that aren't available in any other stores locally so thought I'd give it a shot. Have to say the experience was not as impressive considering what we'd been through in the morning. Less drink selections, multiple brides sharing the same mirror/viewing platform, could only see about 20 dresses displayed, but thankfully I had done my research and brought a large selection of pictures. Unfortunately, I guess a lot of the dresses I pulled are from the new season and they didn't have them in stock yet. Regardless, I did manage to find another 2 dresses, of course! They were actually similar to each other but different from the two similar ones I liked at Weddings 826. I think I actually managed to narrow it down to one, but its so hard to really know you like the dress when there are alterations in how I'd have it ordered. The one I really liked I'd be getting rid of some of the beading and ordering in a different color. Similarly, the ones I liked before I would be taking some of the poof out and one dress would be a different color.
So tomorrow will be repeat trip to Eva's Bridal. I was able to find all the dresses I liked today online (and took pics at the first salon) so I have a visual to compare to and Eva's might have the ones from Weddings 826 as well (although I'd rather buy at the place nearby just for convenience). The dresses I liked at Eva's last week are pretty dissimilar but each one is like one of the pairs I liked today. Hoping I can make a better decision on what I love tomorrow!
After the excitement of the day/in preparation for Dan coming home tomorrow I ended up staying in tonight which worked out perfectly since I finished the third book in a series my mom wants to borrow-yes, a real, live paperback book! I may have bought a few books (like 30ish) in the past week so gotta put those away before Dan comes home!
Really, the whole point of this post before I went on a really excited wedding dress tangent, was to talk about the unbelievable support we've gotten in the first 2 months of the planning process. We truly have the most amazing friends and family. I've been meaning to do this post for awhile with this picture-but I'm glad I procrastinated because we got 2 more cards this week!
Obviously I rearranged a little to get all of these in one picture, but our fridge is filling up with best wishes from the people who have waited just as long for this step as we have :) In case I don't say it enough-thank you, thank you, thank you to all of you! I'm thrilled that everyone accepted my invitation to be a part of our wedding party including the ringbearer and flowergirl I just asked last week! Well, technically my dad asked the ring bearer's mom but I got a very excited call from my aunt at 7:30 am last Monday and sent him some diving rings to "practice" with! My flowergirl totally made my day by emailing me saying that she's excited to be part of the wedding and loves her tank top! Even Dan's been awesome in helping make wedding decisions such as the colors, the photographer, the videographer, choosing a website design, and ruling out any dresses he won't marry me in! Now he's got a 5 item to-do list to complete before the 10 month mark so we'll see how that goes!
Special shout-out to everyone who's been hanging in there with me during this week. As much as I miss Dan and the fact that even a hug from him makes life a little bit more tolerable, I have such a great support circle! Laura, Dan L, and Kristen have been fielding text messages/gchats/lync messages from me the past few weeks that involve requests to drink, virtual screams, death threats, and sometimes just strings of letters from me banging on my keyboard like this "hdoiaf;lksafds". I also had "date nights" with my second and third favorite Dans (although depending on the day, they might be in first place!) which were awesome and things I need to make time for more often. A phone convo with Melissa was long overdue and I know I have others to catch up with too! Would have given Erica anything she wanted for letting me sleep through the night/feeding Piper at 5:30 this morning even though I was a horrible Wedding Friday date. After lots of girly bonding time today, its date night with my dad tomorrow just before I get to see my Dan again! By the way, thanks parents of the late 80s/early 90s--they really all had to be Daniel didn't they?!
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