Wedding Wednesday #3 - Anniversary Edition

Every Wednesday this month, I am recapping our wedding as part of our two year anniversary celebration. Today's our actual wedding anniversary, so you get an extra bonus post! Two weeks ago, I showed you photos from our ceremony and told you about our unity tree. You can catch up on that here if you missed it or need a little refresher. Last week, you were overloaded with photos from our reception, so don't miss that post either!

Today is all about our attire!

BRIDE:
First, let me tell you, my dress was a beast to find. Actually, it was one of the first dresses I tried on... but while it was love at first sight, I thought there would be something better out there so I kept looking. And looking. And looking.

My poor mother who sat through hundreds of dresses... sorry, Mom.

Finally, I realized that I was holding that dress so high that I'd be stupid not to buy it - no other dress was measuring up! So we went back to the local dress shop, put down my payment, got measured, and waited nine months for it to come in. The dress {Jasmine Couture T180, without the jacket} was made to my hollow-to-hem measurements and you bet your pretty face I called the dress shop every couple of weeks to check on my order!

The sample dress I tried on puckered a little around my thighs so the woman who measured me told me that it would be best to order up a size. After a bit more discussion, she suggested we order two sizes up so that the seamstresses would have more material to work with. They told me that it'd be easier to take in than let out due to the fact that the entire dress was lace.

Fast forward to when my dress arrived - after I had been working out with a personal trainer for months - and my dress literally fell off of me. The seamstresses pinned me up and took the dress for alterations. 

We repeated this over and over up until the Wednesday before the wedding - the day of my final fitting. I still wasn't happy with the way the dress fit. I stayed until closing time having them fix as many things as they could, but ultimately, I still left with a dress that didn't fit me the way it was meant to.

If I had to do it all over again, I would not choose the same dress again {heck, maybe not even the same silhouette!} but I really do think that I may be the most critical of the dress because I saw it through all of the stages.

Take a peek at our professional photos because they make the dress look better!

GROOM AND GROOMSMEN:
Simple, they rented tuxes from Men's Warehouse. In hindsight, it would have basically been the same cost had we asked the guys to BUY a grey suit with us gifting them ties and/or a shirt.

I never once thought we should have black tuxes. We had a lunchtime wedding, it wasn't a black tie event, and I loved the way grey looked with navy and pink! So, from the get-go I knew grey tuxes would be what the guys would wear. It just so happened they were basically the most expensive tux rental.

BRIDESMAIDS:
The three ladies that were my bridesmaids all had different body types and I wanted them to all be comfortable on our wedding day so I told them I wanted them to wear navy blue dresses and I wanted them to be short {not tea-length or long} dresses. Since one bridesmaid lives in Texas, the other two and I stopped at a David's Bridal closer to home and they both tried on a bunch of dresses and decided on a short, strapless, cotton dress. The third bridesmaid also liked the dress so we ordered the dresses that day.

The bridesmaids wore the navy version of the same shoe I wore {except mine were ivory}. Comfortable and pretty inexpensive!

I gifted a set of genuine pearls to each of my bridesmaids. The set was made of up a necklace, bracelet, and a pair of earrings. They wore their sets and I wore the exact same set for myself.

I know this is basically the longest post of all time, but I also want to leave a little note of my feelings for Trevor on today, our second anniversary. Feel free to skip over the rest of this as it's more for our memories than anything else.

Trev, you have been an amazing husband to me. I am so, so blessed to have you in my life and I am incredibly honored that God picked you to be my best friend, husband, and leader of our family. Our second year of marriage hasn't been easy but you never wavered - you and I are in this for the long haul, through thick or thin, and for better or for worse. You will make an amazing father someday, of this I am certain, and our family will be infinitely better because of you. Thank you for being the man that you are and for being the husband that I never dreamed I'd deserve. 

I said it two years ago, but I'll say it again and again until I die: I promise to fully share my life with you through days of happiness or sadness, abundance or want. I love you, always and forever.

Come back again tomorrow for a photo post of wedding details and next Wednesday for a wrap up complete with regrets and dos/don'ts!

Please leave any wedding related questions in the comments below and I will happily reply to you via email. You don't have to limit your questions to be about our wedding - I love helping brides no matter the size, feel, or location of their weddings!

With the exception of my horrible cell phone photos of my dress, all photos courtesy of Laurie Marie Photography.