Wedding Blog

In junior high and high school, my mom, sister, and I were in an organization called National Charity League (NCL). At the end of your senior year of high school, or chapter of NCL has something they call Presents. This is like a Debutante Ball, where the seniors are “presented” to society. It’s all very Southern, and I was looking forward to it the entire time I was in NCL. Presents is why some (read most) girls suffer through all the boring meetings. The charity work we did was fun, but those dang monthly meetings, not so much.

Anyway, for Presents, we all wore white dresses, which were basically wedding dresses. Of course, we were given guidelines, like they couldn’t be strapless, and your straps had to be at least an inch thick, etc. But to buy this dress, I went to bridal salons in my area.

So, I’ve kinda been wedding dress shopping before, and I know what it’s like to try on white dress after white dress.

**Mr Frenchie, if for some reason you are actually reading Weddingbee, this is the post you are NOT allowed to see… unless, of course, you want to be in the doghouse! Kisses, I loooove you. :)**

I know the feeling of falling in love with a picture, only to try it on and have your dress dreams crushed because it hangs on you horribly. I did this at the beginning of my search - I fell in love with tea-length dresses with poofy skirts, only to realize I’d look much better in a long dress that fit closer to my body with a bit of an A-line. Hello Miss Frenchie, the object is to try to make you look smaller, not bigger! Anyway, so I don’t bore you to tears, I will only tell you about my wedding dress search after I realized I wouldn’t be a short dress bride.

The Wednesday after I first went met with Lynn at Jinny’s Bridal, I took BM J and her adorable son L to look at my top wedding dress contenders.

The first dress I showed her I had liked, but my mom liked it MUCH more than I did. Unfortunately, I don’t have a picture of this dress, because Jinny’s had taken the tag off and only had a style number on the sales tag. My guess is it was a knock off of another dress, because it was only $500, but I don’t know for sure. The dress was a typical A-line cut; it had jewels in the booby area, a ruched bodice and the skirt went out at the hip a little and fell to the floor. This dress was by far the poofiest one I tried on. I actually really liked the way it fit, but I wasn’t a fan of the random lace trim on the bottom of the skirt. Plus, I also didn’t understand how a dress with more parts to it was less busy than a solid lace gown. Anyway, BM J liked that dress, but I could tell she wasn’t in love with it.

The next dress was Antonia Marie, also by Maggie Sottero.

Antonia Marie was a beautiful dress, and the neckline looked fantastic on me. The fabric was very light, but too shimmery for my taste, and there was something about the bottom lace on the bodice that did not appeal to me. BM J also liked this dress, but wasn’t a HUGE fan. She said she loved it, but I could tell she wasn’t in love with this one.

The last dress I tried on was Paigely by Maggie Sottero

This was the dress I fell in love with the minute Lynn had me laced up. I loved the lace and the way it fit me like a glove. I was originally a little nervous about being so in love with Paigely. After all, she was the first dress I tried on after almost purchasing a dress I didn’t really love. I also knew Paigely wasn’t Mama Frenchie’s favorite, and that it might have been hard to ask her to buy me a dress that she didn’t love. In the end, Mama Frenchie generously purchased the dress of my dreams, and I could not be more excited to wear her on my wedding day.