“Mom, I bought a wedding dress. I didn’t mean to. MOM MOM MOM what do I doooooo???” 

I was panicked. 

Who accidentally buys a wedding dress?

Before they are even engaged?

This was bad.

Really bad. 

It all started last year when I went with my best friend to go wedding dress shopping for her wedding. We went to a couple of stores and while she was trying dresses on I’d leap around peaking at the other dresses available. So many beautiful dresses, but I never saw anything that was just 100% ‘me’. Mind you, 100% ‘me’ is usually a bit odd. The less other people like something, the more I love it. So I knew finding a wedding dress could prove to be a bit of a challenge. 

I started perusing random sites seeing if anything caught my eye. I ended up on a couple preowned wedding dress sites and that’s when I saw it. 

THE DRESS

It was ravishing. 

Unlike anything I had ever seen and so ridiculously ‘me’ it hurt. 

It was made in 1989 as a designer sample for Neiman Marcus.

I saved it and for the next month would click on the listing and just dream about wearing it. Finally, I resolved to just see if it was available. I had seen it was cross listed on Ebay and having never used Ebay I thought in order to see if something was available you clicked “make an offer”.

AM I AN IDIOT?

Y’all already know where this is going. 

So I “made an offer” of $100 less than the $350 listing price and patiently waited. Within minutes I get an email that says, “Congratulations, *username* has accepted your offer. Please pay now”.

WHAT???????? 

I wasn’t even engaged and now I was the proud owner of my dream wedding dress? 

HUH? 

Only one thing to do when in crisis. Call your mom. 

She talked me off the ledge and we decided that the best course of action would be to mail it to my parents house in North Carolina so that when Mr. H comes over to my apartment he doesn’t see a giant wedding dress just laying around. I mean I’m all for being open and honest, but I didn’t think he deserved a heart attack. 

She alerted me that it had arrived and I just happened to have a Raleigh layover the next week. It was perfect. We were like two spies writing in code. “The eagle has landed” I texted her when I got there. 

I’ll never forget unboxing it with her. I carefully slipped the dress on and the tears started. It was perfect. Exquisitely and enchantingly perfect. Not only that, but it also fit like it was made for me. What are the odds? Truly? 

AH okay, I think I’ve rambled on quite long enough about the dress, but what a God thing it was. I feel like for every aspect of the wedding I could write a whole blog post about. I truly ramble on worse than anyone I know.

I’ll just do a rapid fire summary below for anyone that’s curious.

Purpose 

While we are already married, it was really important for us to take the time to dedicate our marriage to God in front of our friends and family and to celebrate such a special milestone in our lives. 

Aesthetic

Downton Abbey + Sound of Music + 1800’s Garden Party.

Venue

The church ceremony will be at a darling little church in my hometown of Greensboro, North Carolina with the reception/dinner at a beautiful historical home nearby.

Officiant

We are thrilled to have a Pastor that is near and dear to our family do the service. He knows my dad from when they were young, has been a pastor to me when I was young and now my grandfather attends his church. We just love him. He is also doing Mr. H’s and I’s post-marital counseling. Most people do pre-marital counseling haha, but we are so enjoying our sessions with him. 

Dress

Y’all already know.

Veil

Geez, I could write a whole blog post on this too, but I found my dream veil and then a friend of my mom’s just happened to be getting rid of a brand new/never worn/exactly the same… veil. So she gave it to us. 

Bridesmaid dresses

Bridesmaid dresses are detestable. There I said it. The only ones I adored were $400+ which would never work so we decided to use “Dear Cleo” and go with a classic and timeless silhouette. 

Hair

Bliss and Co. in downtown Greensboro will be doing french twists on my bridesmaids and I. 

Ceremony Music

We’ll have an organist play a few songs which is such dream come true. Additionally, the incredibly talented Angelina Bassi will be gracing us with her incredible operatic talent. 

Flowers

I’ll be assembling all of the bouquets myself. We’re buying them in bulk from Costco.

Cutting Cake

I’ll be making it from Mr. H’s and I’s favorite carrot cake recipe. 

Website + Registry

We’re using Zola for the website with links to 3 registry sites. By far the most agonizing part of planning has been the registry. I’m abominably picky and unfortunately most antique stores don’t offer a registry service. I really think they should don’t you? Plus we’re old so we really don’t need very much. I’ve found a decent amount, but I’m still trying to find more options in different price points. 

Invitations and Save the Dates

We used Zola for the Save the Dates and then I’m making the invitations with Etsy calligraphy templates. If you can’t already tell, I love doing DIY stuff.

Honeymoon

We’re going to be going to Austria and Italy for two weeks. I could just die of excitement. 

Bridal Shower

Mr. H’s family is hosting a Michigan shower for me at the beginning of August and then my dearest friend Susanna is hosting a North Carolina shower at the end of August. I actually just purchased a vintage 1940’s wedding dress off of Ebay to revamp and wear for the showers. I can’t wait to get started on it. 

Bachelorette Party

Not doing a traditional party as it’s just not really my cup of tea. Instead my sweet momma and I are going to go to Paris together at the beginning of August to go antiquing. I couldn’t be more excited. 

Photographer

I am thrilled to have “Becca’s Pics” shooting our wedding. I spent almost an hour talking to her and knew immediately that it would such a joy to have her be a part of our big day. 

Rehearsal Dinner

We’re going to have our favorite restaurant, “Mytho’s” cater it at my parents house. I’m envisioning twinkle lights hung up everywhere in the backyard. It’s going to be so dreamy.

Reception

It’s less of a reception and more of a nice dinner for everyone. There will be an appetizer hour inside and then we’ll all move outside to underneath a beautiful white tent for a nice dinner.

Reception music

Since we don’t plan on having dancing at the reception it just seemed wild to pay $500-$2000 for a DJ to play background music during the dinner. Luckily, I found an incredible small business in Greensboro that is renting us a sound system for $99. It’s going to be perfect.

Still in the works

Wedding Favors

Suits for the groomsmen

Reception Dinner tasting

Buy cake topper 

Come up with a plan for ceremony decor

Anyways, that should wrap up the worlds longest blog post. Eeekk! If you’re still reading you deserve a medal. Haha! 

XOXO,

Mrs. H