Wedding Wednesday {THE Dress}

I finally made it back to Hayden Olivia yesterday to pick up my wedding dress after getting it cleaned and restored, and I got super nostalgic for wedding dress shopping!! There was a sweet girl who was there for a fitting and her dress was almost identical to mine! It totally made me want to do the whole thing all over again. 

{sigh. I love this place}

Can married girls go wedding dress shopping??? Please?

In case you forgot, here is my wedding dress in all it's glory:

And here it is now:

Sad day. 

All wrapped up in a box waiting for my daughter {hopefully}.

Anyways, I realized that last year when I did Wedding Wednesdays, I was super sketchy about my wedding dress because (duh) I didn't want you to see it before the wedding!!

So here is my never-before-seen edition of my wedding dress shopping experience! YAY!

First, I went to Virginia with my mom, and my now MIL and SIL to go dress shopping. I kinda liked this dress, but was iffy about the sash...I wanted lace, and this dress had no lace!

A few weeks later, my mom came to Charlotte and I tried on several dresses:

and a few others that are too ugly to show!

I fell in love with this dress:

But I didn't like the sash it came with...and it was oh so plain. 

I decided I wanted to be like Kate Middleton (mind you, this was like a month after the royal wedding) and so we were thinking about adding a lace bolero:

I loved the back...but felt a little too matronly and covered up. 

Then, I fell in love with this dress:

Ugh...I was SOOO distraught! I went with my sweet friend Kathryn back to both stores (of course they were at different stores!) and tried on both dresses again.

We agreed the JLM dress was probs the winner, because I *sparkled* in it. (OMG, sorry I sound like Tierra from the Bachelor!!)

But what to do about the "add-ons"? We all agreed the first bolero was not right...

...so maybe just lace straps?

...or a different bolero? 

...or a snazzy belt? 

...or different lace straps? 

...or a different lace belt? 

It was all so overwhelming, but what I did know was that I wanted this dress! I could figure out what to do with it later!!

So the dress was ordered in June 2011 (almost 2 years ago...where has the time gone?!?!) and I spent the next 6 months decided what else to add.

I finally decided on this sash from Modern Trousseau (its called Sylvia). 

We added a fancy veil (another story for another Wednesday), and my wedding dress shopping was complete! :)

{omg worst look on my face ever in this pic!}

Who wants to go wedding dress shopping again with me?!?!?!? For my....vow renewal perhaps?!?!