Wedding Planning: Dress Shopping!

On December 2nd, my Mom, my friends and I went to search for "the dress"! We had SO MUCH FUN! First, the girls came over in the morning and we had some breakfast. Then before we left, Melanie handed out buttons she had made for the day!!! They were so adorable! So of course, we put them on right away, took a few pictures and we were on our way!

How cute are they!? I felt so loved! Thank you so much Melanie!

Posing with our buttons...From L to R: Claire, Melanie, Me, Mom, Ame! I have to say how much I appreciate the people in the picture above. First of all, my Mom took the time to come down to Florida and spend time with me, playing in the parks and dress shopping. We had so much fun and I can't wait for her to come back again! Secondly, my girlfriends all on their own, came up to me and told me they wanted to be there to help me find my dress. All of them rearranged their schedules at work to be there with me and my Mom. I have no idea how I got so lucky as to have the greatest friends and family, but I feel so truly blessed.

So our first stop was "A Princess Bridal" in Maitland. I had found this shop on the Internet because they carried some of the designers that I was interested in. As we were driving along 17-92, trying to find the shop, we passed this insanely yellow building. My friend Ame said "Hey, maybe that's it...hahaha." It couldn't be....but sure enough when we turned the car around to see, we were faced with quite possibly the ugliest building I have ever encountered! Please take note of the cactus patch above. Nothing says wedding like a cactus!

I hope we can have a trellis like that one at the wedding. Maybe it could frame the David.

Once inside, my friends picked out many wedding dresses for me to try on. I was too overwhelmed to pick any out myself! We were the only people in the shop besides the shop owner, Sherry and her daughter. We quickly learned that you should never judge a book by its cover. The dresses at Princess Bridal were awesome!! The shop owner was so nice and was extremely helpful. She made the whole experience very comfortable and laid back. She even opened an hour early for us to come in, and opened on her day off the following day for my Mom and I to come back and decide between two dresses! I would highly recommend this shop to anyone looking for a dress in Orlando! Don't let the yellow building and cactus patch scare you away!

On our way out, we grabbed some more shots in front of the building!

We stopped for lunch at one of my favorite places called First Watch.

We went to a second shop called Long's Bridal. We had a great time trying on all of the beautiful gowns and the owner was so friendly and helpful. Although many of the gowns were lovely, I decided on a dress from the first shop. My Mom and I went back the next day and bought it! It was a sample dress, so not only was it 50% off, we could take it home that day! My Mom took it on the plane with her the following day and it is now hanging up in their house in NJ! Mission accomplished!