That’s right, girls! I have a wedding dress! I just cannot believe it.

I wasn’t originally planning on going wedding dress shopping so soon. In fact, I wanted to put it off as long as possible. You see, the very idea of trying to organize this big outing with all of my bridesmaids and mother in tow so I could parade about in different dresses stressed me out to the max! And after watching so many wedding shows, I thought that was how it was just supposed to be. I am beyond delighted to report that my experience was not the least bit stressful!

Grandmother Dandelion was in town and because I don’t get to see her often, I really wanted to do something wedding related while she was staying with us. The original plan was to take her to tour the venue with us. However, the venue wasn’t open for touring because of an event so that was out. At home just a few days ago, I was watching “Four Weddings” with my mom and grandmother. Dandelion Mom brought up the idea of going wedding dress shopping the next morning. At first I was totally against it because it gave me such anxiety. But, I really did want to do something for my grandmother and I knew she would love to see me trying on the different gowns. So I agreed. And after sending my M.O.H. a quick text asking if it was okay if I somehow by the grace of God found The Dress without her, we went to a bridal shop called Azalea Bridal & Formal located in Snellville, GA. I just canNOT recommend this shop enough! I had gone wedding dress browsing before and it was not fun; the store was super uptight (to the point that I was not allowed to touch the gowns and the employees had to dress me with my arms stuck out to the sides) and I left feeling incredibly discouraged at the prospect of ever finding a gown that both spoke to my style of traditional & unique AND within my tight-tight budget.

My wedding dress good luck charm!

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Hello there garden! I’m one of the newest bloggers here on BridalBuds and I’m so excited to document my experience and trade ideas with you guys. Let’s start off with just a little bit about me and my fiance:

Mr. Lion and I!

(not the best photo, but the only one I could find on this computer!)

Well Mr. Lion and I will have been together for five years next month!  I was 16 and he was 19 when we met, and we are now 21 and 25 respectively. For the bulk of our relationship it’s been semi-long distance, since we attended different high schools and colleges. Mr. Lion graduated with an accounting degree and now works in the accounts payable department of a third-party logistics company (yeah, I don’t really know what that means either…). I’m currently in my senior year of college, studying art and set to graduate in December 2012. I’m a photographer, running my own portraiture and wedding photography business (www.rachelkathrynphotography.com). Mr. Lion is a self-taught guitar player and pretty incredible, if I do say so myself!

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Here is another big dilemma that I have encountered while wedding planning…the wedding party.

I personally have had the opinion that you should either have no wedding party or have 10 people each.  Here is why I am leaning towards the first.  The whole wedding is about people getting together and about family and friends.  I would rather have the actual ceremony be just about me and Mr. Pom.  If need be, I’d include our parents and have them stand next to us.

Here is an extreme scenario…I was in a wedding recently and a few days leading up to my friend’s wedding she completely lost it.  Everyone I am close to knows that I don’t want a bridal party but Mr. Pom and I are still discussing it and I’m leaving the final decision up to him.  Well, my friend decided to go a little crazy and “yell” at me over text messages saying that great, if it’s Mr. Pom’s decision then she won’t be in the wedding and she doesn’t understand why I’m not picking her to be the maid of honor.  Common sense, and some form of etiquette, would tell me that you should never ASK to be in a wedding…

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Right now I’m in a bit of a wedding planning lull.  My law school semester has just started, Mr. Peach has graduated and received his MBA and started working and summer is slowly saying goodbye.  However, the past 72 hours have been wedding madness!!

So remember when I wrote about my bridesmaid dress change of heart? Well earlier in August, we travelled back to Priscilla of Boston to show my Aunt my wedding gown.  While there our AMAZING bridal consultant told me she had good news.   Priscilla would be coming out with a bright pink fabric for bridesmaid dresses this season!!!!!!!!  Bright pink was exactly what I wanted I just couldn’t find it.  Great.  She told me to touch base with her at the end of September when the full collection was in stores.  Fantastic right?

So this past Wednesday, news broke that David’s Bridal would be closing Priscilla of Boston.  I freaked.

Photo: weddingbee.com

After several freak out phone calls to Peachy Mom and Peachy MOH the news finally went online on Priscilla’s actual website.  In its released statement, Priscilla pledged to completed all orders already placed with them, all dresses would arrive in store before it closes on Dec. 31^st, but alterations would have to be the bride’s responsibility and done elsewhere.  Still not calm yet.

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I currently live in Texas but Mr. Cherry and I will be tying the knot in Media, Pennsylvania. We are so excited to be getting married where all of our family can be present. However, it has been very tough to plan things with out seeing them! I have been so blessed to have AN AMAZING Mother-In-Law (MIL) to-be! She has been so wonderful. The first task we had when planning the wedding was choosing where to hold our reception. With her help we selected the Townehouse in Media, Pennsylvania. (I plan on doing a post about how wonderful they are VERY soon! Amy at the Townehouse is fantastic!!) My MIL went to the venue and took great pictures for us to decide. When I tell people that I chose my venue without seeing it they are shocked! I probably would not have done this but I was lucky to have someone who knew me so well! My MIL knows exactly what I look for in things! (She did help him pick out my engagement ring as well!!)

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Dear wedding guest who used invisible ink on your RSVP card, I wanted to personally thank you for adding on some stress to the already stressful process that is wedding planning!

How in the world am I supposed to know who is/is not coming when I sent out 70 RSVP cards? It could be anyone! Believe it or not, I’m not psychic, people!!

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Shortly after arriving in Atlanta, Georgia for our layover we called the parents to check-in and let them know we were safe on the ground at least for awhile. That’s when my mother-in-law broke the news. Her morning Facebook browsing uncovered that our aunt, uncle and co. would be leaving on the same cruise with us the next day!

I was originally seriously pissed, and here’s why: the family joining us on the honeymoon hadn’t bothered to RSVP in anything close to an official manner and didn’t show up at our wedding… but they were going on our honeymoon!

{Our personal photo}

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I can’t believe it’s been a year since Aladdin and I have been engaged! We opted for an extra long engagement, partially by choice, partially by necessity. Right before we got engaged, my wonderful future sister-in-law was proposed to. Unbeknownst to me, it is a Filipino superstition that two siblings cannot be married in the same year, which means Aladdin and I would have to default to 2012. Truthfully, I love being engaged – it’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me! In retrospect, I’m thrilled that we’ve had so much time to truly map out the details and how we want this wedding to reflect us as a couple. With what seemed like ample time, I’m beginning to feel the tick..tock.. of the days flying by and our wedding nearing quickly. I’m relieved to say that we have had our venue for quite some time, so that has stress has been alleviated. We fell head over heels for  the Spanish architecture of the breathtaking Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables. Doesn’t it just transport you from the US to some European Villa?

Boy was I wrong!  It seems like lately the easiest part of all of this was finding Mr. Peach! I’m a perfectionist who is very detailed oriented, so every decision turns into a list of pros and cons, should I or shouldn’t I, is this right or wrong etc…  Choosing the bridal party wasn’t any different.  Mr. Peach knew how concerned I was with this decision and agreed to only ask his groomsmen once I decided who I was going to choose and how many bridesmaids I would end up with.  MOH was a no brainer, but after that things got harder.  I started with a list of contenders for the remaining spots.  If that list stood, my bridesmaids would have looked like this:

So I had to start really narrowing the list down which was very hard as like most brides want to include as many people as possible and not hurt people’s feelings.  Especially when those people are some of my closest friends who will know every detail about my wedding planning.  I asked Mr. Peach and Peachy Mom and Peachy MOH and all of them said-remember this is your wedding and your choice.  Your friends will understand and still will have a blast sharing this special time with you.  And they were right I guess, but that didn’t make this decision any easier for me.  So here’s how I made my decision:

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So we had our engagement pictures taken (finally) last week. First of all- let me just say that is was an absolute blast!!! Our photographers are amazing! But one of the most stressful things I had to do was decide what in the world Apricot Dude and I were going to wear! Let me share what we decided to go with, then provide some tips on how to pick and show you how they turned out!

I knew I wanted two different types of pictures. First, I wanted to do some more traditional, formal pictures that I know my Grandma would love. Secondly, I simply wanted some that were us. In jeans and comfy shirts, flip flops….just being ourselves! I was fortunate to find a dress for our more formal pictures that I LOVED. So I had one outfit down. Now onto number two- and I had no idea. I seriously think I bought 5 or 6 different shirts. I knew I wanted something solid, light colored and that sort of matched our wedding colors (peachy/corals/greens). Finally, I made a decision. Well, I thought I had. The day of our pictures, I had a few minutes to kill before my hair appointment so I ran into Banana Republic. Just browsing, I came across this fabulous shirt that I knew I wanted to wear for our pictures. It was like it was just calling for me! So I bought it and it turned out to be perfect!

Now for Apricot Dude….he was pretty open to basically whatever I thought would look nice. We settled on his favorite yellow button down shirt and khakis for our more formal pictures and jeans and polo for the others. It did take us quite a few stores to find a light green polo that we thought would look great with mine. (Quick word of advice: we found the EXACT same Tommy Hilfinger polo at TJMaxx for half the price of Macy’s!)

Here are a few tips that I have when looking for engagement outfits because there certainly are LOTS of decisions to make:

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