I Said YES to the Dress!!

Only 237 days to go! :)
Trent and I have now officially been engaged for a little over two weeks. It has been a two weeks filled with planning and talking about our future (in my opinion anyways - you'd have to ask Trent about how much he likes all the planning!).

Over the past two weeks, we have booked our caterer and our reception site, found a photographer and set the date for our engagement pictures, and began asking our wedding party to be a part of our special day. I've been looking at all kinds of wedding websites to get some ideas about every thing you could imagine about a wedding, and I've gone wedding dress shopping and found THE dress!!

Saturday, September 25, I went dress shopping with my mom and my sister as well as my future mother-in-law and sister-in-law. We went to a bridal shop in Boone and to one in Ankeny. The Bridal Connection in Ankeny is where I found my dress. I had tried on a lot of dresses before I tried on the one that eventually ended up to be mine. I never would have picked the dress that I ended up falling in love with and purchasing, so I owe the great find to the consultant that was helping me that day. When I first tried on the dress, I really didn't want to like it. I had already tried on a dress that I really liked, and I had it in my head that I wasn't going to like this new dress. When I was in the dressing room with my sister, I said very nonchalantly that I kind of liked the dress, and then when I came out of the room to show the rest of my crew, I could tell that they all really liked it. I stood in front of the mirror and tried to find something that I didn't like about it, but I really couldn't come up with anything. The consultant then told me that I should try a veil on with it so I could get the full effect, so she grabbed one and put it on my head. It was also a veil that I never would have picked on my own. I looked at myself and started trying to imagine myself wearing this on my wedding day. I thought about walking down the aisle and seeing Trent at the end waiting for me, and I just lost it. I had tears all over the place and when they asked me why I was crying, all I could say was "I really like it." I looked over at the four women that came with me and they all had tears in their eyes, too.

We decided to try a few more on and go back to the one that I thought I liked before and then try 'the one' on again to see if I still had the same reaction later. When I got back in the dressing room with Kellsey, she asked me what made me cry, and I told her, "I was just thinking about Trent seeing me in this dress." We tried on a couple more dresses, but when I came back to the dress I had such a strong reaction to, it was clear that after hours of trying on dresses and none of them being good enough, I was able to say, "This is the one."

I truly can say that I had the best wedding dress shopping experience ever. The staff at The Bridal Connection was great. I could tell they really cared about me and they were just as happy for me when I found my dress as my family members were. I am so happy that I got to share the day with my mom and sister and future mother- and sister-in-law. I can't wait until everyone gets to see me in the dress we all fell in love with that day, especially my future husband!