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Weddingbee Blog
Before becoming engaged, I occasionally browsed through a wedding magazine, here or there…nothing too serious. (Truth: I had two wedding-magazine subscriptions starting freshman year of college, and I inherited most of my SIL’s old magazines after she married my brother.) So, when a girl who has weddings on the brain accumulates a five-foot stack (no joke) of wedding magazines, it’s really no surprise that she’ll give in to temptation and officially start brainstorming wedding ideas. For me, my eyes could only focus on one thing: the dress.
The inner control freak in me was dead set on having my dress picked out before I even got engaged. Looking back, I think I wanted to have my dress picked out in advance to impress my friends and family with my level of devotion to weddings in general. I can’t even tell you how many times I found a picture, showed it off to my mom, and asserted “This is my dress.” Sometimes my mom agreed, and sometimes she balked. Either way, I figured it didn’t matter since it was my dress and I knew what I was looking for, since it was for my wedding. Without further ado, here are some pictures of dresses that I was sure were “it”:
Image via Jim Hjelm (style JH8904)
Image via Jim Hjelm (style JH8850)
Image via Jim Hjelm (style JH8859)
Image via Jim Hjelm (style JH8663)
Dress by Paloma Blanca (style 3854)
Image via Pizazz! Wedding Boutique / Dress by Maggie Sottero (style Vogue Royale)
(Fun fact: I decided this was THE DRESS about an hour before Mr. Snow Cone surprised me and proposed!)
Image via Allure Bridals (style 8770)
OK, congratulations on making it to the end of the parade of wedding dresses. As you can see from the pictures, my wedding dress checklist consisted of:
I was pretty much set on this checklist; I couldn’t even fathom the need to try on any other style, since I had done my hours upon hours of research. My self-appointed “expertise,” combined with the fact that all of my previous dress shopping (proms and high school formals) always ended after about three or four dresses, made me absolutely positive that finding a wedding dress would be nothing more than a piece o’ cake. Trust me, I knew what I wanted! Just trust me!
Did you have a dream dress picked out before even getting engaged? Or were you smarter and actually able to let experience rather than just magazine photos sway you in your search?
I gravitated to that style of dress as well. I ended up with the allure 8634 and I love it. It has the look of the Jim Hjelms without the pricetag! Good luck!
Girl we have some of the same likes! One of your contenders was my dress! And, I love that last one you ‘chose’! If I had seen it I may have had to search to try it on!
I love your dress sense. Those are the dresses I gravitated towards also. My friends and family really wanted me in an A-line dress but I ended up sticking to my guns. I love my lace Pronovias!
I am a Jim Hjelm label whore…and that’s what I ended up getting! But none of the ones you posted, although I tried some of those on!
I am a Jim Hjelm label whore…and that’s what I ended up getting! But none of the ones you posted, although I tried some of those on!
I’m a Jim Hjelm label whore. I tried on some of the ones you posted, and some Paloma Blancas as well! Love your choices.
Wow those are gorgeous dresses. I love all the lace! I’m keeping Jim Hjelm in my mental tabs.
Before we were engaged, my fiance had to go across the country for three months for some work training. I thought the proposal was coming, so I let myself buy my first magazine when he left. I began cutting out pictures of different dress elements I liked, but never found ‘the one’. He proposed about a month after he got home, and when I brought my pictures to the dress shop, I had the world’s greatest consultant. She had me figured out and I fell in love with the very first one I tried on!
I’m curious to find out if any of these were your final pick, and if it was actually a piece o’ cake!
I love the dresses you picked! I thought that was going to be my style of dress as well. Then I went dress shopping….
So many of the Jim Hjelm dresses were also on my “this is my dress” list! I ended up going with a Paloma Blanca (4101) that is more forgiving in the hips but still has the pretty lace detail. It has the keyhole back that so many of those dresses have. Yay for a fellow lace & cap sleeve lover!
My sister wore the vogue royale…. let me know if you’d like to see a non-model pic kathyf1323@aol.com
This is almost a duplicate of my inspiration dress file…and NOTHING like what I ended up with. 
I loved Jim Hjelm too! I couldn’t justify the cost though. I can’t wait to see what you ended up with!
Why do I have a distinct feeling this story ends with a completely different dress? For what it’s worth though, I love all of the bows on these dresses!
LOVE Jim Hjelm! But while I love those photos of the model, lace just isn’t me at all. I thought I knew what I wanted when I first started looking, big poufy skirts with lots of pick ups…however i think I changed my “style” every week until I finally bought a dress.
very nice dress! love it! I have the same lacey style for my wedding dress 
Magazines totally swayed my dress search. My problem was that I thought all sorts of dresses were pretty! It was good to try different styles on and figure out what worked with my body type. I’m loving your taste, Snow Cone!
I didn’t do any dress picking pre-engagement, but post? That’s a different story. I looked online and then would try to track down specific dresses. Sometimes it took hours of calling stores or emailing people. Exhausting!!
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Mrs. Snow Cone, Pittsburgh/Johnstown, PA Age and Occupation: 23, Public Health Graduate Student Fiance's Age and Occupation: 23, Engineer Engagement Date: April 9, 2010 Wedding Date: August 2011 Venue: OMOS Church ceremony/Sunnehanna Country Club reception About Me: I’m one of the lucky ones---I met my future husband at the ripe old age of 13, started dating him as a mature woman of 15, and have been enjoying the ride ever since. Here we are, 8 years later, living in Pittsburgh, planning a "homestination" wedding in the place our school romance began---Johnstown, PA. I thrive on talking a mile a minute, eating my weight in chocolate, and internet shopping. I love a lengthy to-do list almost as much as I love a healthy amount of chaos in my life. Mr. Snow Cone and I watch countless episodes of Friends and The West Wing on repeat, root for rival college sports teams, and make each other laugh each and every day. We’re putting together a small-town wedding with a big personality and a classically modern (or modernly classic?) look for 250 of our closest family and friends. It’s been 8+ years in the making, and sometimes I still can’t believe I’m finally getting to marry my high school sweetheart!
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