Gowns, Hurs, and Other Wedding Details--Part III

I designed my wedding gown.

I'd always wanted a patchwork wedding dress (inspired by a book my grandmother gave me when I was 8), but no one seemed to be catching the vision. COME ON. An 8-year-old designed it in her head, and no adult understands this???? It's fine. I'm over it.

What I came up with  instead stayed true to the main ideas: simple, unique, classy, off-white.

MaryAnn Wilde, a friend of a friend of my mother, made the masterpiece.

She helped me develop my ideas, took me fabric shopping, let me use all her coupons, and made it amazing.

It took half a dozen fittings, three new bras ("ooh, still not padded enough," she lamented), and came to $275, including fabric costs. I love that woman.

Jared's delicious suit came from Men's Warehouse. I had a roommate who works there, so she got us a sweeeet deal.

We were originally going to go with gray, but when he stepped into the navy blue Calvin Klein, missionary mothers all around the store started singing, I added navy blue to the color scheme, and he bought it on the spot.

We kept gray in the scheme with his vest, and I scoured the mall to find the perfect tie.  

Shoe shopping. Let's not talk about that.

Ok, ok--let's. I went to every mall within three counties looking for just the right color, style, and heel height. Type B's turn OCD during engagement.

Finally I gave up and bought some online. They were too blingy and too high, but inexpensive and supes comf! And a girl only gets to wear gold-bling wedding heels once, right? For the win.

Below is my hair. It is nice.

And look--it's my husband! He has intense kissing focus. He is nice.

But please look especially at that perfect fishtail-braid and curly chignon, which is hard to pronounce and took 90 minutes to construct.

That was nice until it made me late.

But the beautiful hairpiece? So nice! Looks like we didn't get it pinned down all the way,

but it's still lovely. My sister-in-law Marie has an Etsy shop of custom wedding hair pieces, and she made it for me.

So that was extremely nice.

Good thing I've got the floral connections, because my home-girl Tasha (formerly of Campus Floral) held nothing back when she put together my bouquet, Jared's boutonnieres, and the mothers' corsages.