(Much better than Wedding Dress Nightmares)
From the very beginning, I had a dress preference from the six I originally liked. But first let’s look at the ones I didn’t choose.
Image via J. CREW
The Bettina was beautiful, but not exactly what I was looking for in a wedding dress, mainly because I couldn’t see myself walking down the aisle with any jewelry or a veil with it. The neckline doesn’t lend itself to a necklace, and I feel like in a veil I would just be completely covered from toe to forehead. So for me, that one was out.
I don’t remember where I read it, but I know I’ve seen some statistic that disagreements over money are what most commonly end marriages.
Image from Active Rain
I’m going to try really, really hard not to let that happen to us. If I may toot my own horn for a moment (toot toot!), I’m pretty good with money. I’m not a financial guru or anything. But I don’t have any debt. I pay my bills on time. I try to save money where I can.
Mr. Whale on the other hand…He does…fine. He’s not a spend-a-holic. But he’ll tell you flat out that he hates money. He wishes it didn’t exist. (As an economist, I try to explain to him how it does make our lives easier, but…nevermind. It’s not important for this.) In any case, he spends what he needs to. But after going back to undergraduate once and now being a graduate student, sometimes even just buying what you need means going into debt.
And because Mr. Whale has some debt, I’m trying to get used to the fact that I, too, will soon have debt. I don’t have to assume any part of his debt, of course. We could keep our finances separate, and he could deal with it on his own. But after more than a year of living together and keeping separate finances the entire time, I can tell you that unless you’ve got a ton of money, keeping things separate is tough enough on its own. We evenly split the groceries, the rent, and the utilities. And when we go out to eat, we just take turns on who pays. But it’s a hassle. Every month I have to get all the receipts, add them up, figure out who owes what, then we settle up via paying more or less rent. And what if we have a fancy meal that costs a little more than usual? Should we still just trade off on who pays for that meal? Ugh. It’s a mess.
I don’t believe there are enough ways to thank everyone for attending our wedding, but I figured making OOTG goodie bags was the least we could do for all of our friends and family who are staying in hotel rooms during our wedding weekend. So before we go any further, I need to ask all Sword guest to leave this blog post. I mean, they can probably guess some of the items that will be included, but still, I want them to have a slight element of surprise!
ricangen81 shares this photo of her groom’s DIY guitar boutonniere.
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I have two really amazing sisters—we’re only a year and a half apart, each. Here’s a picture of us:
Personal photo
Oh wait, this picture is from Halloween over 17 years ago! Apparently, I was a bride and my two sisters were my bridesmaids—that’s Sister E on the left and Sister A on the right. I love our bouquets and hair bows, but clearly the best part is the turtleneck underneath my frilly dress. Halloween in Wisconsin is cold!
I tried to find some more recent pictures of us, but somehow all the pictures of us either involve hiking or running. For real, I have dozens of pictures of us in the Blue Ridge Mountains, doing 5Ks, off on training runs, etc., but nothing formal. Here’s one shot I found from Christmas a few years ago. Sister A (the youngest) is the tallest on the left and Sister E is on the right. Oh, and that’s my little brother creeping in the background. Classic.
So many months ago, I first told you about my dress. A quick synopsis—I never went dress shopping and my girlfriends coerced me into one David’s Bridal dress that I didn’t like. I didn’t want to spend thousands of dollars on a dress, but I love designer dresses.
Enter—Church Street Bridal and their shipment of dresses from Kleinfelds last January.
I was simply perusing the selection on my phone during my lunch break when I saw “the one.” I knew immediately it was my dress, and bought it online without ever having tried it on, or trying on any styles like it. Lucky for me, I LOVE my dress.
Finally! Here are the pictures from CSB’s Facebook album that I totally fell in love with:
Front / Photo via Church Street Bridal
Thank you everyone who gave me suggestions on my last post! You guys rock! I really have no idea what I would do without you guys. I took your suggestions and messed around with some shiny old forks I found and look what I got!
Are they perfect? Well, no. But I did get two that look fine and that’s good enough for me.
So let’s start at the beginning now, shall we?
Because you guys never got to see my wedding dress before I started recaps (in fact I really only mentioned dress shopping in one or two posts), I decided to dedicate a post to sharing some pictures of my beloved wedding gown. I know that bridal portraits are not as common everywhere as they are in the South, and a lot of people don’t “get” bridal portraits, but a pre-wedding photo session was something I always knew I would want to do. I also highly recommend bridal portraits because they are the perfect time so make sure everything (hair, makeup, dress, jewelry, etc.) fits and looks the way you want it to before the big day!
Momma Coach and I headed out one afternoon back in August to meet our photographer, Megan, for a little photo session. I really wanted to get some photos outside and in a completely different setting than we would be in at the Piazza. Megan suggested an area near White Rock Lake in Dallas, and I am still so in love with the photos she got (especially some of the last ones near the weeping willow!). The day leading up to the photos was actually quite hectic. Momma C and I ended up driving all over Dallas in order for me to get my hair done at one salon, makeup at another, put on my dress back at home, pick up my bouquet, and then finally head out to meet Megan. We ended up being super late (which Megan was so nice about—love her!), but we finally made it and had the best time. The whole experience also made me super thankful that everyone was coming to me on the wedding day, instead of the other way around!
Be prepared: this post is pretty picture heavy and it’s a whole lotta Coach in one post. If you don’t feel like looking at my mug for the next 20 pictures or so, feel free to skip this post 
Now that you’ve been warned, I’ll just let the pictures speak for themselves…
All photography by Megan Fortner
