Sunday Fun: Fabulous Frocks

With awards season currently underway, I can't help but notice all the amazing gowns that have been showcased on the red-carpet. So many of these dresses can serve double duty as wedding gowns too. And luckily, white, cream and blush tones seem to be very popular this year. Here are some of my favourite show-stopping dresses. Which ones do you like?

The Golden Globes

A very classic Nicole Kidman


Simple and chic Gia Mantega


Lea Michele, for brides who feel like going pink


Another Glee gal, Heather Morris


Yet another Glee gal, Diana Agron. Love how light and flowy this is


Megan Fox


Hailee Steinfeld


Super-sparkly Carrie Underwood

The People's Choice Awards:

Selena Gomez. This would be a perfect after-party dress!

The SAG Awards:

Lea Michele (again)


Hilary Swank


Natalie Portman. Loving the baby bump!


Winona Ryder


Angie Harmon

And last but not least, my all-time favourite red-carpet look so far...

Heather Morris at the SAG Awards. Love love love this one!

All photos from a here, here, and here.

What have been your favourite red-carpet looks from this awards season? Where do you find your bridal inspiration?

(And is it just me, or do those Glee girls have amazing stylists? I only included 'bridal' inspiration gowns, but there were tons more out there that would totally work for the 'maids and the moms. Maybe I will have to do a followup!)

Random Musings

A few things...

1. I'm dumb. D and I went to his mom's house for dinner on Sunday, and she was showing us something on her camera so I started scanning through the camera looking for pictures of me trying on wedding dresses. Duh, why not? So I found a group of pictures that was from our very first shopping trip back in April. And what was the first dress in the picture? MY dress. Like, the dress I ordered and am patiently waiting to come in. I have NO memory of trying on this dress during this trip, but I obviously did, and it left zero impression on me. Is that something I should be worried about? How can MY dress have been the first dress I ever tried on and it left no impression on me? Ugh, bridal brain.

2. The Save the Dates are in progress. The magnets are supposed to arrive tomorrow, and I've finally collected all the supplies I need to make the cards (after literally, about 5 trips to the craft store). So yesterday I decided I couldn't procrastinate any more and it was time to start putting it all together. Starting with envelope liners. Ugh, how annoying are envelope liners? But at least they are pretty... So yesterday was spent tracing, cutting and folding envelope liners. Tonight I am taping those suckers in, and then it's time to start the little tags that will be stamped with our wedding date. Save the Date tutorial still to come. Why am I wasting my time with all these details that people will likely not notice? Hopefully you all will appreciate it!

3. D is home for the holidays! I'm a happy girl. He came home last Thursday, and is here until early January. He was lucky to finish his exams super early and just has to finish a paper by the end of this week. It's weird to have him around all the time now, but awesome. And it was awesome when he cut out half the envelope liners last night. And even MORE awesome when he called our venue coordinator to 'lawyer' her. Oh, yes... story about that drama to come!

What has been going on with you all? I'm off to save-the-date it up! Jealous?

Finding the Dress: I Said Yes!

Today, in fact! I went in today to make my absolute, final decision, and get measured for my dress. MY dress! I'm so excited!

But let's backtrack a bit... Last time I left off on this (quite extensive) hunt for the perfect wedding dress, I was torn between two styles - the ballgown or a mermaid style. I knew for sure that I wanted something plain and simple, with no embellishments or added details save for a sparkly belt. So, there was one store left that I hadn't been to that I wanted to visit, and I was hoping in the process, I would find my dress. Boy, did I ever!

So, a few weeks ago we woke up bright and early to trek out to this one last shop. It was over an hour from my house, so my mom, sister/MOH, and grandmother hopped in the car and after arriving at the store, I explained what I was looking for. In fact, I brought pictures. At this point, I had trying on dresses for a while and so saturated with images, and I didn't want to get confused. So, I brought pictures of both the Mori Lee and Jim Hjelm Blush dresses, and explained that I only wanted to see dresses that looked like them and nothing else. Controlling, much? Maybe, but I was pretty set on what I wanted and I didn't want to get confused. Unfortunately, they didn't have the exact dresses I wanted, so we looked through the racks to find something similar. After trying on a few dresses without success, a sales consultant walked by who looked strangely familiar. Why did she look so familiar?

Well, a few months ago, at the same bridal show that I won my engagement session at, there was a booth that had sample wedding gowns for sale. I tried on and fell in love with a dress, but unfortunately, it was a bit too small and too short (gotta love being 5'10!). I really loved it, but sadly had to leave it. And somehow I forgot about it. But, fast forward to us at this bridal salon, and it turns out, it was the same on that was in that booth at the show. So, I mentioned this to my consultant, and she knew what dress I was talking about and went to get it. Oh excitement! Unfortunately, the only sample of the dress they had in store was the same sample from the bridal show, and a girl had been in the day before, loved it, and put the sample on hold. Oh no! So disappointing. I mentioned to the consultant that I really loved this dress, and almost bought it at the show, and she said that they would still be able to order me one, but I couldn't try it on because it was on hold. Well, obviously I wasn't going to buy a dress that I couldn't try on.

But, (and I can't even make this stuff up!) while we were discussing my options, the same girl who had put the dress on hold called the store and said that she didn't want it anymore, leaving me to try it on. Yes! The consultant immediately grabbed the dress, put it on me, and I fell in love with it all over again. I had lost a bit of weight since the last time I tried it one, so it fit perfectly this time, and I just knew this was it. This was MY dress! But I didn't buy it that day.

All signs were pointing to the fact that this was my dress, but I didn't want to jump into things and buy it. I had to make sure. So I came home, and thought about it, and thought about it, and couldn't STOP thinking about it, so today I went back, and put it on again, and didn't want to take it off. This dress was MY dress, so I ordered it! Now I just need to wait for 4 months...

Side note... Was anyone surprised at how easy it is to measure for a wedding dress? She took my bust, waist, and hips, and then ordered the size that averaged my measurements (which happened to be the same as the sample, so I know it will be fine). Is this pretty typical?

So Friends, this is the end of my dress saga, at least until it comes in! I am so happy with my choice and so excited for D to see me in it. In fact, I'm just SO ready to get married... Why do we have to wait until July, again?

I have made the decision not to put a picture of my dress on this blog, because I really want to try and keep it secret from as many people as possible until the big day. But let me just say, it fits in to all the criteria I had, and more. It is absolutely lovely! And I can't wait for all of you to see it... in approximately 7 and a half months!

Did you struggle to find the right wedding dress for you? Did it turn in to a huge ordeal, or did you know right away?

Finding the Dress: Narrowing it Down

** D! Dress spoilers! Don't read!**

Okay, so when we last left, I had me my heart's desire, and then had a disastrous shopping experience with our lovely neighbours to the South. The one decision I had made, the lovely Rachael, was still in my mind, but I let many, MANY months pass by and it was time to get back in the dress-shopping game.

In early October, a few of my bridesmaids were in town and we decided to make a day and go dress shopping with my mom and future mother-in-law. I picked three new shops to go visit, and after an early wake-up call and a quick Starbucks run, we were at the first store waiting for it to open (oh, yes, it was that early!). We went inside and after meeting our shopping consultant, she led us into the room where all the dresses were kept and we started pulling styles. Unfortunately, even though they sold Maggie dresses, they did not have the Rachael, and they had just sold the Essense dress sample that I loved, so we didn't really have anything to go on. So, after explaining what I was looking for, and pulling a bunch of dresses, we started trying them all on. There were some definite contenders, and then I tried on the dress that was the 'winner' of the day: Mori Lee's 4524.

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This dress was totally gorgeous and very similar to the Rachael, but at a fraction of the price. It was the one that gave me the most of the 'feeling,' made my mom cry, and we kept comparing everything else to it all day, calling it 'Number One.' The only thing I wanted to change about it was the belt, adding a different sparkly belt instead. Love. So after the first appointment, this was for all intents and purposes, the ONE.

Our next stop was a fairly new bridal salon just outside of Ottawa, that had fairly limited styles, but was the only salon in Ottawa to carry Jim Hjelm Blush. They also had consignment dresses, so I thought it was definitely worth a look, because you never know what you will find. The store was closed just for us (that is, they only take one appointment at a time, which was nice), so we all walked around looking for dresses. As I said, their selection was fairly limited, so we ended up pulling only a few styles. This is where a huge wrench was thrown in my wedding dress plans... I found a dress that I loved, but that was SO absolutely and completely different from what I thought I wanted, and now I was confused. The dress... Jim Hjelm Blush 1050.

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Gorgeous. This is more of the style I thought I wanted when I first started looking at wedding dresses, and after months of not really looking and this I was set on a ballgown, it's like I totally forgot this style even existed! I had never tried on a dress with this shape, and I. Loved. It. Loved it. I think there is just something so elegant and stylish about a fitted dress, so after trying this on and loving it, I was confused. Everyone who was shopping with me (BMs and Moms) said they still liked the first one (Mori Lee) on me, and that it was more 'my style,' but I just didn't know anymore. What to do, what to do?

So we left the second shop and ventured to the third and last stop of the day. This store carried dresses that were all of a certain style, and not really what I was looking for. Lots of all-over bling, ruching, pick-ups, etc. Now that I was more settled on either an empire-waisted ballgown or a mermaid style, I didn't want to try anything else different on. I didn't want to get more confused. So, needless to say, there wasn't anything noteworthy in this shop, and I went home still debating which dress I liked more (the Mori Lee or the Jim Hjelm Blush). Big choice!

I promise there is an end in sight! I have only made one more trip, and my decision is now made. Yay! The (exciting, I'm sure) finale is coming up. Yay, wedding dress!

And for anyone from Ottawa reading, these are the three shops we went to. I have nothing but good things to say about any of them. They were nothing but friendly and helpful during my time shopping there.

Sinder's Bridal Salon

With Love Bridal Boutique

All That Glitters Bridal

Finding the Dress: A Complete Waste of Time

After my fairly successful trip here, where I really narrowed down my choices, I decided to schedule another trip to go look at dresses with my cousin/bridesmaid, N. We were both living in Toronto at the time, so we decided to drive down to Buffalo in New York to see if they had more styles available compared to what we had in Canada, and to pay a visit to David's Bridal, which we had heard of but never visited. This was a bit of an impromptu trip, so prepared with the addresses of a few shops and N's GPS, we hit the road.

The first store we hit up was located in a very residential neighbourhood around the outskirts of Buffalo. We basically only chose this store because they sold Maggie Sottero dresses and I wanted to show my cousin my much-coveted Rachael. Okay, so, we arrived at the shop, and while walking through the parking lot, noticed it was fairly empty. This was okay though, since we didn't have an appointment. We entered the salon, and there was no one there except for two ladies standing at the front desk, who both worked there. I went over and explained that we didn't have an appointment but was wondering if I could try on some dresses, and I even knew specifically which one I wanted to try. The lady who I spoke with seemed very hesitant to help us, but finally agreed only because I knew what I was looking for. I told her the style name and she went back to the stock room to look for it while we waited in the front room. She came back out, called to me to come back into a changeroom, and when I met her there, I noticed it was the wrong dress. I guess Maggie Sottero has a style called Rachelle, and a style called Racheal (my dress!), and she had pulled the Rachelle. No big deal, I explained that it was a different dress, gave her the spelling of it, and she went off to find the right one.

She came back into the room carrying a dress, and it was the same one again (Rachelle)! So I told her again, no, that's not the right dress, and she seemed pretty confused. The other lady who was at the desk originally came over with the Maggie Sottero style book, so we looked through and I pointed out the Rachael that I wanted to try on. She then proceeded to tell me she didn't have that dress, because they didn't carry dresses they did not like, and they did NOT like that dress. Umm... okay. Kind of random, but no big deal. So I asked them if they had any similar styles that I could try on, and she lead me back into the stock room. After looking around for less than a minute, she stopped and said to me, "You know what, I don't think we have anything here you would like. As I said we only carry dresses here that we like, and we don't have any styles like that"... So, that was pretty much it. It was definitely my Pretty Woman moment, and so frustrating! Keep in mind, there were no other customers in the store, and it was open for several more hours, so I really didn't understand why it was so inconvenient for them to help me!

As we were leaving, I asked them if I could at least have the price of the Rachael, since I was from Canada and wanted to compare the prices. She was somewhat helpful outlining the price and payment schedules, and how long it would take to order the dress. She was so close to redeeming herself, until she asked me when my wedding date was. I told her July 2011, and she snidely remarked "Oh, well you are kind of jumping the gun here, aren't you?" Umm... excuse me? It was April when were there, so although it may have been a but early based on some suggested timelines you see online, she had just finished telling me it would take about 8 months to order in a dress... So how is that jumping the gun? It was definitely time to leave. So as we were heading out the door, I went to pull on my (cute, not sloppy) boots, and she called out "Oh! Someone wore her comfortable shoes today!" Like she was accusing me of not coming in wearing Jimmy Choo's or something. Um, excuse me? So I kind of gave a fake laugh, and booted it out of there. Ugh... Who did she think she was? This was some random little shop in upstate New York, not a high-end salon in New York City! It definitely left a very bad taste in my mouth.

Our next stop was David's Bridal. I had never been to one before, and we don't have them in Canada, but I had seen commercials and heard people talking about them online, so we decided to pop in and see what it was all about. We arrived at the nearest David's Bridal, again without an appointment, but the girl at the welcome desk was super friendly and booked us right in for an appointment. I didn't realize the dresses at David's were off the rack, so we headed over and started to pull some dresses that caught our eye. After about 15 minutes, I heard this loud voice from across the store calling my name. Like, loudly calling my name. Like, pretty much yelling it around the store. I searched around until I found the person to whom the voice belonged to, and met my consultant. She stopped yelling, grabbed our dresses, took us to the back room, and set me up in a change room. Then she disappeared. Luckily, I had N and another girlfriend, A, there to help me in and out of the dresses, because the consultant totally disappeared. I think another customer came in randomly and she started helping them instead. By the time she came back to see how we were doing, I had already tried on all the dresses we pulled, and decided that they weren't really the ones for me. So that was it. David's Bridal is definitely great for the bride on a budget, and they do have some beautiful dresses there, but I just didn't like the quality of the fabric and found the cut of the dresses didn't flatter by body too well. And even though the dresses are off the rack, they would need a lot of alterations. So, goodbye David's!

All in all, we had a fun day, and the experiences had at both bridal salons kept us laughing for quite a while. We still managed to make a good day trip out of it and did some shopping and had a delicious dinner! Oh, and I found a super cute dress at TJMaxx that I can wear for a shower or other bridal event. For 20 bucks. 20 bucks! I loves shopping in the states!

And, because there has been a LOT of writing in this post, and no pictures, here is another gratuitous shot of the elusive Rachael.

I Love You Rachael!

Did you have any interesting experiences while shopping for your wedding dress? Or while shopping for anything? Have you ever had a Pretty Woman moment?

Finding the Dress: The Hunt is On

**D! You might not want to read this one because it has some serious hints about my dress!!**

So now that I knew what I was looking for, it was time to go dress shopping. In the time leading up to my first appointment, I found one more inspiration picture to add to my collection: the D1032 by Essense of Australia.

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I basically picked where to go based on which bridal salon had that dress. Luckily, there was one not too far from my house, so I rounded up my posse and off we went!

Since this was my first true wedding dress shopping experience, I really didn't know what to expect. I pretty much assumed it would be like an episode of 'Say Yes to the Dress.' It wasn't really, but it was still fun!

The first shop I went to was called Bridals by Al-Mor. I brought my mom, future mother-in-law, sister, future sister-in-law, another girlfriend, and my grandma, so it was quite a large crowd! Once we arrived, the saleswoman pulled the Essense dress and we started looking for styles off the racks. Since I had an idea but wasn't really sure exactly what I wanted, I told everyone just to pull what they wanted to see me in, and we would go from there. Once we had a bunch of dresses, I started trying them on. (And I can't find the pictures, so unfortch you'll have to imagin what they all look like!)

The Essense dress was definitely nice and an early favourite, but the flowers weren't as nice in person and the material was a little stiff. My mom was concerned about how the fabric would hang in the July humidity and if it would wrinkle really easily. So although the dress was nice, it wasn't THE dress.

The saleswoman had pulled a style similar to the Essense that she thought I would like, so we put that on next. This dress, friends, is what I thought was going to be the one:

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Ohhhh goodness... this dress was gorgeous! I had definitely narrowed down my style and figured out what I wanted. I loved the fitted bodice, the empire waist, and the full ballgown, which was a HUGE shock. I really thought I would want something a little more fitted and sexy, but there was something so fun and cute about the ballgown style. Also unexpectedly, I loved the sparkly belt! I didn't think I wanted any bling at all, but this added something so fun to the dress, and I really loved it. I didn't, however, love the price tag. At almost $1500 CDN, it was quite a leap over my original budget. So we took lots of pictures, and I definitely came away from the experience having really narrowed down what I was looking for. Now, to find a similar style that wouldn't break the bank!

Did your dream wedding dress fall within your budget?

Finding the Dress...

This is probably one of the most exciting parts of planning a wedding and the one that most brides look forward to the most. I was definitely excited to start the search, and started it in a pretty common place - wedding magazines! Since our engagement will be about 35 months (woah!) before it's all said and done, I didn't want to invest myself too much too soon. However, once I started looking, it was hard to stop! I did limit my self to actually trying on dresses until we were about a year and a half from the wedding though.

Dress shopping is something that I thought would be so easy, but so far has proven to be a lot more difficult than I thought! From the beginning of our engagement, from the first time I picked up a bridal magazine and flipped through it, I had a pretty clear idea of what I wanted and what I didn't want.

Maybe not...

The types of dresses that caught my eye from the beginning were simple and elegant, with not a lot of bling or embellishments. That in itself was a bit of a problem. So many dresses that are popular now are full of sparkles, embroidery, pick-ups, and are generally cupcake-y in nature. I preferred dresses with nothing on them, and I knew I didn't want any lace or sparkle or add-ons of any kind. Boring, as my sister so emphatically told me, but that's just what I liked!

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All gorgeous, but keep in mind this was very early in the planning process, and before I had tried on any dresses. Once I actually went dress shopping, well, that is another story!