The Dress

First and foremost, let me gush: I BOUGHT MY WEDDING DRESS! Am I aware my wedding is 16 months away? Why yes. Am I also a recovering law student who has a compulsion to do as many things as soon as possible? Bingo. 

Anyway, let me back up. A few weeks ago I made an appointment for this past Saturday to go dress shopping at a place called The Wedding Shoppe, Inc. in St. Paul.

  

I had kind of made up my mind that I was going to "get it" Saturday no matter what. I'm a pretty no nonsense girl.. and I know what I like when I see it.  I also have a habit if making decisions, and then falling MORE in love with them later. I did this for college, law school, hell..the home we live in. I always wind up happy and excited with what I pick. This is not to say I "settled" at all with my dress..but I knew- could I keep looking for months to get a dress that had one TEENY detail I liked a bit more? Sure. But why do that to myself? I am aware I've only been engaged for 2 months, and I only tried on about 10 dresses total, but that's cool with me.

Anywayyyy, the appointment was from 9-10:30, but I brought just one girl (Dana) for the first half hour so I wouldn't be TOO overwhelmed, and because I thought it'd give me time to pick dresses/get settled in. Well, turns out the consultant picks all the dresses (or did for me) SO I ended up trying on a few with just Dana. The other 5 (3 more bridesmaids, a personal attendant, and my future MIL) showed up while I was in dress 3. We circled back to the first 2, and I knew #2 was my favorite before they got there. Needless to say, I ended up putting on dress #2 THREE times. First, when it was just Dana, second, when we "cycled back to it" and third, after trying on a few styles I knew I didn't like, but did it just to humor the consultant and my girls. I knew it was "it" when the consultant asked me if I wanted to put it on (for the third time) and I smiled like an idiot and jumped up and down a little bit. 

To be honest, I'm a bit surprised by my reaction. Similar to the proposal, I was far more composed than I "imagined" being in my head. Especially after we went to a wedding Friday night and I lost.my.shit. at the first dance (of a couple we're not even close to) because NOW when I see "wedding stuff" I think to myself "Oh, in 16 months I'LL be doing that" and I lose it. Don't even get me started on the father daughter dance...oy. Anyway, I didn't cry at all. I came CLOSE once, and I'm sure I would have if I had spent any more time REALLY thinking hard about why I was wearing these beautiful white dresses. I just felt like me, and happy, and pretty in it... OH, and comfortable. I did not want to worry about mobility at all.

SO, while that MIGHT give you an idea of what style I picked, I can't say too much because my lovely fiance, M, stalks this here blog (hai, boyfweynd.) I can show you a different photo though! M's sisters were over the other night and asked M what style HE thought I'd pick. He said, "strapless, sweetheart, that 'goes out' a little bit, but not TOO poofy, and maybe a little detail, but the detail will be clean and simple and elegant." okay, so I lied, I will say one more thing: the boy knows me. WELL. 

We asked him to "elaborate" on his description and draw a little sketch. This is what he came up with:

 I'll wait while you get a tissue to wipe your eyes,.... Lord knows I needed one after seeing this beaut.
A few questions, M:

1. Why do I have linebacker shoulders and a size 36DD bust? 

2. I have LONG brown hair, what's up with the granny curls?

3. Where are my hands? 

4. Those scribbles at the bottom? Oh, I was informed those are ruffles. (The only real direction I got from his as far as what he would NOT like were, "Too many ruffles. Like, more than 2/3 ruffles." Mkay, hun)

5. Those 2 lines on either side at the bottom of the dress? That's my train.

God bless you, M. His description was VERY good as far as "dress language" goes, but that drawing. I die. 

After dress shopping we went to brunch with everyone. Naturally I still forget I have a blog and took ZERO photos. Swear I'll get better at that soon. I only realize it when I sit down to write a blog post and have no photos. Which sucks. Sorry guys. 

SO, I will leave you with that, for now! Hoping to get a photographer lined up in the near future and schedule some engagement photos before the snow falls. :) 

-Kelly

KiKi La'Rue review: I am clearly not a fashion blogger

(Disclosure: I feel silly and a bit pompous doing this FTC disclosure, as if the frickin FTC cares at ALL whether I'm unduly influencing anyone.. but since I'm a few months shy of becoming an attorney, and my Bar Application is being gone over with a fine tooth comb, I have the legal-fear-of-god (yes, it's a thing) and therefore I am dutifully complying with the real disclosure: nobody paid me to say anything, I won a giveaway, was blown away by their customer service, and wanted to toot their horn. Mkay? Cool.)

SO, a while back, I won a giveaway on Raven's blog. (I'll wait while you stop over there, if you haven't already. She's hilar. --> does anyone else dislike these kind of abbreviations? I thought I'd try it on and I.just.can't. It feels awkward coming out of me... moving on.

Anyway I was sitting on my store credit for what felt like an eternity (probably was about a week) and I finally bit the bullet and got the Dancin' in the Moonlight dress in coral. Pretty, no? I've always wanted a one shoulder dress,... but with how small I am, it's a dangerous online buy. Sometimes it leaves a bit too much of my upper-boob area showing, and I look all sorts of unfortunate. I rolled the dice, because I loved the ruffles and the coral, but alas.. my freakishly small frame strikes again. It's a great dress! On a normal sized human. Anyway, I agonized over whether to sew some "bullets" in it (is that what they're called? to snug it up?) or doing something to make it work, because a) I felt bad after all the communication we'd had about GETTING the dress, and b) returning something is a lot of work.

I finally decided I'd give it a shot at returning it. YES it was free, but I may as well get something I like.

Silly me didn't pay any attention to the 14-day return policy. I emailed them and they SO graciously made an exception for moi, and worked with me to return the first dress, and get a second dress ordered. The shipping of both was on me, but hey, small price to pay for great customer service AND another "free" dress (using my shop credit/exchange). I ended up with a dress I like and that FITS wonderfully, and was not made to feel stupid or berated for missing the deadline! What more do you want in a clothing boutique? oh yes, for them to be in MN and not TX, but that's neither here nor there. ;-)

So I get home last night late after bar review and I see the hot pink envelope.. I rip into it, and try it on. I LOVE it. I had this great plan of waiting until M came home to take a "nice" photo of me.. you know, with my hair done..and preferably after I'd showered. Alas, I have no patience. (and I still haven't showered today... we have a wedding tonight so I wanted to do it closer to the time of the wedding so I look fresh)

Anyway, SO I started snapping away with my phone. Looked a little somethin' like this:

 Ah yes. Blurry. Oh and the only floor length mirror in the house is in the hall closet.. so, hey there broom in the corner!

 And then there was my attempt at showing you guys that my nails matched the coral stripes PERFECTLY.... just ignore my gnawed up fingers and ghetto chipped nails. My hygiene is apparently sub par while studying.

 And thennnnn I had the great idea to take an "artsy" photo in the mirror.. so you could see my cute little dresser and then me. Except, I look like I have no legs. Please, call me stumpy.

 Let's not forget the "instagram" style outfit shot. Fail. Gratuitous boob shot with awful lighting. BUT you can see the cool twisted roping detail at the neckline, that then turns into the straps!

 Another attempt at the full length mirror... this time my leg looks like it's disjointed and you can see not only the broom in the closet, but a roll of TP and some sunscreen. I'm so fancy, you guys.

aannnddd lastly, bringing it all back home, is TJ- keeping me humble. I think the photo says it all.

So, points to take from this post: 1) KiKi LaRue has FANTASTIC customer service, 2) adorable and affordable dresses! 3) I am NOT a fashion blogger 4) I got photobombed by my cat.

-Kelly