no more doubts.

So I haven't posted anything about my dress since it arrived in March. My reason being that I was just SO unsure about it. I felt like I had jumped in a little too fast and bought my dress without doing much research, and I wasn't sure if it was really "the one" for me anymore.

Despite my hesitation, I had my first fitting on the weekend of my bridal shower. I'm getting my alterations done by a friend of Mr. M's family, who actually altered both of his sisters' wedding dresses as well. I would have had no problem altering my dress at The Bride's Room, where I bought it, but I figured I'd save the money and get it done at home. By someone who knows me. Or at least knows my soon-to-be family.

For the fitting, I brought my dress, veil, shoes, and jewelry. My mom, future mother-in-law, and littlest sister (and BM) Gaby all came with me. It was my mom's first time seeing me in my dress, so I wanted to make sure she got the full effect. I also wanted to make sure that I got the full effect, and was hoping it would get rid of the doubts I had about the dress. I put it all on and we got right to work figuring out what needed to be done.

Since I'd lost some weight since I bought the dress (officially 10 pounds as of today, yippee!) it was too big on top and needed to be taken in about an inch on each side. I'm decently tall (5'8") and wearing flats, so the dress length was perfect. I talked to her about removing some or all of the beading on top (I am really not a fan of beading and sparkles) and we decided to take it slow and just remove the sequins in the centers of the flowers for now. No problem. The only other thing we had to worry about was the bustle.

I had no idea how I wanted the dress bustled, but I did know I wanted it to blend in with the tucks and draping on the dress. Immediately the lady tried the overbustle approach. I wasn't feeling it. Everything on my dress flows down and to the side, so pulling the train up and over all of the draping just didn't look right at all. At first I was hesistant to say anything, but since I was already feeling a little so-so about the dress, I didn't want to like it any less!

I suggested we try an underbustle. She said she wasn't sure how it would look, but tried it anyway. Then she proceeded to "ooh" and "ahh" about how beautiful it looked and blended in with the details on the dress! She put a few pins in and told me to come back the next time I came home.

I went back a couple weeks ago while I was visiting my parents. She had already taken the sides in, and had worked on pinning the bustle exactly how she would sew it. She had also removed the weird sequin centers of the flowers on the top of the dress, just like we talked about.

Although she had taken it in a tad too far on the sides (nothing a little more diet and exercise can't fix in the next 3 months, or worst case -- letting it out a bit), the rest of the dress was perfect! I love.love.love the bustle. So much, in fact, that I will be wearing it bustled...all day. As in, including the ceremony. No train for this bride!

I love that I'll be able to move around without an entourage fixing my dress during the ceremony. And that no one will be worried about learning how to bustle it correctly before the reception. The best part is... I like my dress again! The train was just all wrong for me.

Did you have doubts about your dress? What did you do to get rid of them?

ceremony assistance...part one.

With the majority of the wedding plans so far, I've had a clear vision as to what we're going for. The ceremony music is one of the things that is a little fuzzy, to say the least. So who better to help me combat my indecisiveness than you, hive?

Let's start at the bridal processional, shall we? A lot of lovely brides-to-be have a specific song that they've been dreaming of walking down the aisle to since they were little girls. There is no such song in my mind. I have no clue what song I want to walk down the aisle to. I do, however, know a few songs I do not want to enter the church to, including Canon in D and the Wedding March (you know...dum dum da dum...that one). Nothing wrong with those songs, I've just been to a ton of weddings in my day and I'm looking for something a little outside the norm. I am getting married in the Catholic church though, so whatever songs I choose cannot be too far ourside of the norm. Also, we are having a pianist play at the ceremony, so I need songs that don't need other instruments to sound right. So what are the options?

The only two songs I've found that I like enough to use for the bridal processional are:

Prelude in C (Major)

(source)

and Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring

(source)

I really really really like Prelude in C for some reason, but I worry that it will be sort of anticlimatic if I use Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring before it for the wedding party processional . It just doesn't seem to have enough "oomph" if you know what I mean. But I really really like it.

I feel like Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring is the safe one of the two choices for the bridal processional. It's pretty and I really do like it, but it feels a little more "norm" to me.

The other issue I am questioning is whether to have an instrumental song like the two above, or to have one or two of our sisters sing a song for the processional instead. My cousin's wife walked down the aisle to her friend singing Ave Maria, and it was absolutely beautiful! If we went this route, I am clueless as to which song to have them sing to!

So I ask you, knowledgeable brides (and grooms)-to-be, which song do you think I should walk down the aisle to?

a. Prelude in C (Major)

b. Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring

c. Instrumental song, but those are both horrible choices! I will share a much better song for with you in the comments!

d. Have sisters sing, I will recommend a song in the comments!

slowly but surely.

Things are s l o w l y coming together on our wedding invitations! I sent the final guest list to the calligrapher today, so the envelopes should be addressed soon! We've been working hard to put together the parts that we can until we get the guts of the invites back from the printer. They'll be back tomorrow, and then the paper cutting marathon begins! I can't wait to see the final product come together!

Did you make your own invitations? Do you think it was worth all the hard work in the end?

a pretty little dress.

Ladies and gents, we have a flowergirl dress.  I had previously posted about some of the options, but never gave you the final selection!  I'm sure you've been waiting in suspense.  Or not.

Either way, when I first laid eyes on this adorable dress from TheBoutiqueBaby on Etsy, I knew it was the one.  

Since the seller only had pink and cream available, I asked if she could make the same dress in ivory to match the color of my wedding dress.  She said yes, and a couple weeks later I had a pretty little dress for our flowergirl!

While I was home a few weeks ago for my bridal shower, I had Ali try it on to make sure it fit.  She was being a little shy, so this is the only picture I have of her, and it is blurry! 

You'll just have to trust me when I say it is beautiful on her!  I love that the bubble hem matches the hem of the bridesmaids dresses, and the little fabric flowers are just too cute!  I also love that it is a little away from the norm, being short and all.  I can't wait to see her walk down the aisle in this dress!

Did you opt for an untraditional flowergirl dress?

my wedding workbook.

Have you guys heard about My Wedding Workbook?  

It's a free online wedding planner that is full of useful features like a budget planner to track payments, a guest list and RSVP tracker, and my favorite, the CHECKLIST!  

I love looking at the checklists on wedding planning websites to make sure I haven't forgotten anything.  The best part is that on My Wedding Workbook, the checklist tasks can be added to your calendar, and you can receive email updates to remind you that you need to finalize your reception menu, for example.  It's pretty sweet, so you should head on over to the website and try it for yourself!  

in love.

I'm pretty much in love with this rehearsal dinner designed by Amy Nichols and featured on Style Me Pretty. I want to know what the wedding itself looked like if the rehearsal dinner was this beautiful!

If I wasn't having such a hard time finding ribbon in our wedding colors, I would totally use this idea for chair decorations at our reception! Who knew something so simple could dress up a wooden chair so much?

Photos by Timothy Teague

I'm also loving the way the napkins are rolled and tied with ribbon. This one, I think I may try to replicate!

With only 3 months left to go, I've been trying to limit my intake of new ideas, because honestly there's just not enough time left to implement any more ideas! But its so hard to not be inspired while looking at wedding blogs! Is anyone else trying not to be inspired as their countdown starts winding down?

a simple slideshow.

I was fortunate enough to win a 16x20" canvas print recently from UPrinting.com, so tonight we picked out which picture we want to blow up and put on canvas.  We picked this engagement photo, taken by h.vivio photo.

We'll probably display it near the entryway at the wedding, along some other pictures from over the years.  We were originally going to have a slideshow in the normal sense of the word, but then we got lazy.  I don't want to figure out where to get a projector, etc. for the wedding.  Nor do I want to stop everything that's going on in order to play a slideshow during dinner.  I'd rather people look at pictures at their leisure if they're interested while they're having a drink during the cocktail hour.  So we are going to string up some photos along a wire, a la Mrs. Cherry Pie, or maybe a ribbon to dress it up a bit.  We'll put the canvas print somewhere in the mix and we'll be all set!

I've delegated this project to my fiance, and I'm glad I don't have to worry about it.  I do have to get on the ball and find pictures of me from my childhood, but besides that, it's all him!  Here are a few pictures I think we'll hang up.

New Years 2008

Random date night 2007

St. Patty's Day 2007

Bahamas Trip 2006

More from the Bahamas

A friend's wedding in summer '06

Dance recital, I must've been about 9 here.  I primarily want to use this one to embarrass my sister/MOH!

Easter morning, probably in '92 or so?

I must be about 6 or 7 in this one.  Check out those sweet bangs.  Gotta love the early '90s.

Unfortunately for you all, Mr. M's sisters don't put old pictures of him on facebook like mine do, and he hasn't scanned them in yet.  So no old photos of the other half quite yet.  I'll post some after he scans them!

Are you planning on having a slideshow at your wedding, or did you opt for the photo display route?