Last night I went to David's Bridal (a place I never intended to step foot in again) with Katy, Lynda and my mom. After hours of searching we finally found a wedding dress. I'm not a big shopping person and I loathe trying on clothes so, while I wish I could sound more excited about it, I'm still worn out from the process. The dress is gorgeous and is really flattering to my figure. When I showed Dad the pictures of me in the dress he thought that it was on a mannequin!
Lance and I drove down from Asheville to Raleigh to spend the holidays with my family. Katy wanted to go wedding dress shopping with me since she missed the first trip. She was really great. Katy schedule the appointment, confirmed the appointment and forced me to go (I did mention that I hate shopping, right?). My bridal consultant was a ton of fun and we had a lot of great laughs through the dozens of dresses we tried on. She really helped me keep going when I was totally ready to call it quits.
Dress after dress after dress.... after a while all I could see was white and my brain was a little fuzzy. When I tried on THE dress, for the first time in my life, I truly felt like a bride. I could see myself wearing that dress, getting married in that dress and enjoying the reception in that dress. While there weren't any sparks and I didn't glow or cry, the reality of knowing that I am a bride and this is THE dress really threw me for a loop. I'm not sure if that makes sense to anyone else but that's okay too. Even Dad thought the dress was really pretty and it's not his usual style at all.
Ultimately, we found a dress and had a good time doing it. So yay for another thing checked off the list!
Showing posts with label the dress. Show all posts
Showing posts with label the dress. Show all posts
Friday, December 23, 2011
Monday, December 19, 2011
Catering and an Apology
Hi folks! I know, it's been a while since I've updated the blog. Thankfully we have got plenty of time to plan out our wedding. Unfortunately for you guys that means less blog posts now. I'm sure things will pick up as we get closer to THE date. Now for the real post....
We sent in our deposit for our venue (Black Mountain Sanctuary, see previous post for more info.) at the end of October. Even with the deposit paid we still needed to select a caterer before we could sign our venue contract. BMS allows an abundance of personalization options for your special event. One of those options is to add-on a full kitchen. This means that the caterer would have access to the stove/oven, dishwasher, refrigerator, etc. Before we could say yes or no to this add-on, we needed to choose a caterer and ask them.
As November began to turn into December we started to get a little anxious about selecting a caterer. In order to lock in our prices, we had to pick someone soon. Lance was away on business for a majority of October and November. It really fell on me to get the ball rolling. I started looking at all of the various caterers in the area and made a master list. We went through it and selected our top five. I contacted all of them within the next week. Most of them didn't answer their phones, so I left messages. Two caterers called me back and I scheduled appointments.
If you're still following me, I mentioned that I was doing all this at the beginning of December. Can you guess what one of the busiest times of the year is for caterers? That's right, December (you know-- holiday parties and all that). Luckily the two caterers we were in touch with were able to meet with us. Our first appointment was with Saffron Fine Foods (SFF).
SFF is a wonderful local catering company affiliated with HomeGrown, a local restaurant in town. They specialize in local, sustainable AMAZING food. If I had to describe their "food philosophy" I would say that it is Southern comfort food with a twist. When we met with SFF, they were exceptionally receptive to our budget and our desires to keep our wedding as environmentally friendly as possible. Some of the awesome things that were discussed:
1) All left-over food that is still able to be eaten is donated to various local shelters/food banks.
2) All food that is disposed of will be composted by them at no additional cost.
3) They will help us with securing compostable (but pretty!) dishware.
We had a great meeting and felt really good about our chances of finding a caterer.
A few days later we had lunch at HomeGrown (since SFF and HomeGrown are owned/operated by the same group they use the same facilities and food philosophies). Oh My Goodness! The food was DELICIOUS! Some of our favorites included:
1) Mac 'n' Cheese bites-- Similar to mozzerella sticks but with homemade mac cheese inside with fresh marinara sauce.
2) Jalapeno cole slaw-- I'm not a slaw girl but this stuff was awesome. There was just enough spice to give the slaw a nice smokey quality to it.
3) Buttermilk fried chicken-- Lance and I agree that it was the best fried chicken we had ever tasted. The outside was exactly what you want from a fried food without being too greasy and the inside was super moist.
After that lunch we had decided that, if it's possible, we want SFF to cater our wedding. SFF said they would be sending us some menu options but it might take a while due to the holidays. We are really looking forward to working with this wonderful group of people.
After discussing the add-on option for our venue contract with SFF we decided that it wasn't necessary. We were able to sign and send in our contract.
On Thursday we are heading down to Raleigh for the holidays. I'm also going wedding dress shopping with my mother and Katy (and possibly Katy's mother who is like my adopted-mom) on Thursday. I'm hoping that we can have as much success with the dress as we did with the caterer!
We sent in our deposit for our venue (Black Mountain Sanctuary, see previous post for more info.) at the end of October. Even with the deposit paid we still needed to select a caterer before we could sign our venue contract. BMS allows an abundance of personalization options for your special event. One of those options is to add-on a full kitchen. This means that the caterer would have access to the stove/oven, dishwasher, refrigerator, etc. Before we could say yes or no to this add-on, we needed to choose a caterer and ask them.
As November began to turn into December we started to get a little anxious about selecting a caterer. In order to lock in our prices, we had to pick someone soon. Lance was away on business for a majority of October and November. It really fell on me to get the ball rolling. I started looking at all of the various caterers in the area and made a master list. We went through it and selected our top five. I contacted all of them within the next week. Most of them didn't answer their phones, so I left messages. Two caterers called me back and I scheduled appointments.
If you're still following me, I mentioned that I was doing all this at the beginning of December. Can you guess what one of the busiest times of the year is for caterers? That's right, December (you know-- holiday parties and all that). Luckily the two caterers we were in touch with were able to meet with us. Our first appointment was with Saffron Fine Foods (SFF).
SFF is a wonderful local catering company affiliated with HomeGrown, a local restaurant in town. They specialize in local, sustainable AMAZING food. If I had to describe their "food philosophy" I would say that it is Southern comfort food with a twist. When we met with SFF, they were exceptionally receptive to our budget and our desires to keep our wedding as environmentally friendly as possible. Some of the awesome things that were discussed:
1) All left-over food that is still able to be eaten is donated to various local shelters/food banks.
2) All food that is disposed of will be composted by them at no additional cost.
3) They will help us with securing compostable (but pretty!) dishware.
We had a great meeting and felt really good about our chances of finding a caterer.
A few days later we had lunch at HomeGrown (since SFF and HomeGrown are owned/operated by the same group they use the same facilities and food philosophies). Oh My Goodness! The food was DELICIOUS! Some of our favorites included:
1) Mac 'n' Cheese bites-- Similar to mozzerella sticks but with homemade mac cheese inside with fresh marinara sauce.
2) Jalapeno cole slaw-- I'm not a slaw girl but this stuff was awesome. There was just enough spice to give the slaw a nice smokey quality to it.
3) Buttermilk fried chicken-- Lance and I agree that it was the best fried chicken we had ever tasted. The outside was exactly what you want from a fried food without being too greasy and the inside was super moist.
After that lunch we had decided that, if it's possible, we want SFF to cater our wedding. SFF said they would be sending us some menu options but it might take a while due to the holidays. We are really looking forward to working with this wonderful group of people.
After discussing the add-on option for our venue contract with SFF we decided that it wasn't necessary. We were able to sign and send in our contract.
On Thursday we are heading down to Raleigh for the holidays. I'm also going wedding dress shopping with my mother and Katy (and possibly Katy's mother who is like my adopted-mom) on Thursday. I'm hoping that we can have as much success with the dress as we did with the caterer!
Friday, August 19, 2011
And The Search Continues...
Let me start this by putting in a disclaimer. I've never believed in The Dress. Wedding dresses usually seemed ridiculous to me. This is a morality tale about The Dress.
As some of you may know, today I went dress shopping with my mom and Jenna at the Brides Against Breast Cancer trunk show. We paid for "VIP" tickets so we could have early admission before the show was opened to the general public. The morning went smoothly after we each had a glass of champagne and brunch. When we were finally ready to go in I was a bundle of nerves. I'm still not entirely sure why I was so nervous. The dresses were sorted by size and there was a separate section for couture gowns. We must have tried on 15 or more dresses when I found the "One". There was a serious problem though, the dress was double my budget. I could hear the guy from "Say Yes to the Dress" explaining the cardinal rule of wedding dress shopping (which, by the way, is, "Never try on a dress that is over your budget.") That's sound advice but when you love a specific dress it doesn't always work out that way.
I left The Dress behind and we picked out a few more to try on. As we were heading to the changing area I saw a girl trying on MY dress. It was gorgeous. I felt angry and sad that she could possibly get this dress. Lo and behold, as fate would have it, she did not buy The Dress. It was returned to the racks (possibly to taunt me, I'm not exactly sure). Since The Dress was the only one like it in the whole show I decided to try it on. BIG mistake. When I stepped in front of the mirror I felt like a goddess. The Dress was everything I had imagined-- except the price. I was so close to tears and Jenna said, "Okay let's take it off now," I refused. One look at my mother's face was enough to confirm that even though this was THE Dress it couldn't be MY dress. As I was blatantly stalling so I didn't have to take off The Dress, a volunteer came up and asked if we were going to buy it. My mom said no and the volunteer explained that someone else wanted to try it on.
As we were walking out the door, I looked back and The Dress was back on the rack waiting for it's new owner. I still can't get the image of The Dress out of my mind. Hopefully, I can find one similar enough to it tomorrow when we go boutique wedding dress shopping with my aunt. Moral of the story:
NEVER EVER EVER try on a dress out of your budget. It will only end in tears, heartache and anger =P
Maybe dresses are like partners, "There are always more fish in the sea." But what if The Dress was like your first love. The one you compare all others to. I have to keep hoping that maybe The Dress is still out there for me.
As some of you may know, today I went dress shopping with my mom and Jenna at the Brides Against Breast Cancer trunk show. We paid for "VIP" tickets so we could have early admission before the show was opened to the general public. The morning went smoothly after we each had a glass of champagne and brunch. When we were finally ready to go in I was a bundle of nerves. I'm still not entirely sure why I was so nervous. The dresses were sorted by size and there was a separate section for couture gowns. We must have tried on 15 or more dresses when I found the "One". There was a serious problem though, the dress was double my budget. I could hear the guy from "Say Yes to the Dress" explaining the cardinal rule of wedding dress shopping (which, by the way, is, "Never try on a dress that is over your budget.") That's sound advice but when you love a specific dress it doesn't always work out that way.
I left The Dress behind and we picked out a few more to try on. As we were heading to the changing area I saw a girl trying on MY dress. It was gorgeous. I felt angry and sad that she could possibly get this dress. Lo and behold, as fate would have it, she did not buy The Dress. It was returned to the racks (possibly to taunt me, I'm not exactly sure). Since The Dress was the only one like it in the whole show I decided to try it on. BIG mistake. When I stepped in front of the mirror I felt like a goddess. The Dress was everything I had imagined-- except the price. I was so close to tears and Jenna said, "Okay let's take it off now," I refused. One look at my mother's face was enough to confirm that even though this was THE Dress it couldn't be MY dress. As I was blatantly stalling so I didn't have to take off The Dress, a volunteer came up and asked if we were going to buy it. My mom said no and the volunteer explained that someone else wanted to try it on.
As we were walking out the door, I looked back and The Dress was back on the rack waiting for it's new owner. I still can't get the image of The Dress out of my mind. Hopefully, I can find one similar enough to it tomorrow when we go boutique wedding dress shopping with my aunt. Moral of the story:
NEVER EVER EVER try on a dress out of your budget. It will only end in tears, heartache and anger =P
Maybe dresses are like partners, "There are always more fish in the sea." But what if The Dress was like your first love. The one you compare all others to. I have to keep hoping that maybe The Dress is still out there for me.
Friday, June 24, 2011
The Dress
Honestly, I have not really imagined my wedding dress. Growing up I was more interested in picking out cake flavors than necklines. We've imagined that our wedding will be Asheville-themed which means choosing a wedding dress is more of a hassle than it probably needs to be. I want the dress to be Asheville-esque but I also want the dress to be recognizable as a wedding dress. Since we are going the charity route with our registry, I thought it would be a great idea to do the same with the dress.
Brides Against Breast Cancer is an event that allows brides to try on, and hopefully buy, thousands of dresses with all of the proceeds going towards Making Memories. Making Memories is similar to Make A Wish but for men and women losing their battle with breast cancer. The dresses are donated by designers, stores and individuals. There is an event in Raleigh in the middle of August that my mom and I are going to attend. I also invited my friend Jenna. She will be my Asheville inspiration. Hopefully, we can find the dress of my dreams while giving to a great cause.
Has anyone else gone to a BABC event? How did everything turn out? Does anybody have any other ideas for charity dress buying?
*Edit to add: If you click the header "The Dress" it will direct you to the Brides Against Breast Cancer website*
Brides Against Breast Cancer is an event that allows brides to try on, and hopefully buy, thousands of dresses with all of the proceeds going towards Making Memories. Making Memories is similar to Make A Wish but for men and women losing their battle with breast cancer. The dresses are donated by designers, stores and individuals. There is an event in Raleigh in the middle of August that my mom and I are going to attend. I also invited my friend Jenna. She will be my Asheville inspiration. Hopefully, we can find the dress of my dreams while giving to a great cause.
Has anyone else gone to a BABC event? How did everything turn out? Does anybody have any other ideas for charity dress buying?
*Edit to add: If you click the header "The Dress" it will direct you to the Brides Against Breast Cancer website*
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