I Have A Dress!!

Wedding planning has been pretty slow recently! We're at 419 days today from our wedding day, so of course there isn't much I can really do right now. I did, however, find the perfect wedding dress! I've tried on probaby close to 40 dresses total and I haven't felt this way about any of them. It is absolutely beautiful! I of couse cannot give any details, but if you're not John Hoyt and you want to know about it, I would be happy to tell you personally ;-) It was actually completely by chance that I got the dress. I heard about the Atlanta Running of the Brides through an e-mail from The Knot and I remembered that I had always wanted to do that, so I decided to go for the experience. The only person that could go with me was my very close friend, Tori, so we met there that Friday afternoon (March 19), right before we started our Spring Break. It took us both forever to get there because traffic in Buckhead was AWFUL! I finally got there first and started sorting through dresses. I had about 5 in my arms before I found the one. I almost didn't pick it up because I had so many but I just grabbed them and carried them to the middle of the floor. There were so many brides there! I dropped them and waited for Tori to get there. I started trying them on and liked a lot of them, but I just kept coming back to my dress. If someone would have described it to me and asked if I would like it, I would have told them no, but I just fell in love with how traditional it was and how unique too. It will need a little altering and we are going to have some additions added, but other than those few things that are easliy taken care of, it is perfect! It was so hot in that place and there were so many beautiful brides. One bride and I had the same taste, so when I would get done with a dress, I would pass it on to her. She was really sweet. There were so many sweet girls. The funniest part of the day was that while I was trying on dresses, one of my sorority flip-flops somehow got swept away in the huge dresses, never to be seen again. I can just imagine some random girl finding a random black and green flip flop in her dream dress bag. Tori and I searched and searched, but I ended up leaving with just one shoe :). When a bride would decide on a dress, everyone in their group would scream really loud and everyone would cheer with them. When I decided on my dress, Tori and I screamed so loud! There were only 2 of us, but we made a lot of noise!! I bought the dress of course and took it on Spring Break with me to PA to show mom. Right now it is at the Butler's house until I can get my coats out of my closet. While on Spring Break, Katelyn, Tori and I went to Kleinfield's in New York City to try on dresses. They are the dress shop featured in "Say Yes to the Dress" on TLC. It was so much fun to be there. TLC was taping, but we didn't get to be on TV :(. Our consultant, Erica was so sweet . I really loved some of the dresses I tried on there, but I was mainly there for the experience and I didn't love any of them more than my dress. I am planning on talking to a caterer soon to kind of get an idea of what I want for food, but other than that, nothing is really going on wedding-wise. Our engagement announcement was in the Braselton News this week. We got 5 newspapers :) I'm hoping it will be in the Gwinnett Daily Post in a few weeks too, and I want to put it in the AJC. I know that's a lot, but it's free for most newspapers, so I want the world to know! Too bad you can't put it in USA Today. :)

Weekend of Wedding Planning

This past weekend was a very successful wedding planning weekend, but it was also bittersweet. We said good-bye to John Hoyt's grandmother, Lovie Mae Holder. She passed away Wednesday morning and the viewing was Thursday and the funeral was on Friday. Mom, thankfully, was able to be at the funeral and had the honor of playing the piano at the service. We are planning on finding a way to remember her at the wedding.

Friday evening, Mom and I went to Atlanta to a small bridal boutique where I found an amazing dress. Unfortunately, after I tried it on and fell in love, I caught a glimpse of the price tag and saw an outrageous number, and had to walk away.

Saturday was a more successful day. Mom, Aunt Donna, Gran, Bethany, Katelyn, Jackie and I all spent the day hunting for the perfect dress. When we arrived at David's Bridal, I immediately began to get excited. I tried on four dresses and found one that was beautiful, but didn't really seem to fit me well. Katelyn tried on a bridesmaid dress that I really loved. The problem I'm encountering now with the bridesmaid dresses is that there are several different fabrics. I thought I could get away with everyone having different fabrics as well as different styles, but we took a picture of two different fabrics side by side and one looks a lot darker than the other, so I will have to decide which fabric I want I guess. We'll see :) Next, we drove to Atlanta to Bride Beautiful. There, I found two gorgeous dresses that I was absolutely in love with. One had some beading on the train that I wasn't too fond of, so immediately the other jumped out as "the dress". We kept that in mind as we headed to the next shop, New Natalie's Bridal. This place was very different. The selection was huge and I felt so overwhelmed by how many dresses there were. I chose 5 dresses to start out with. Of those 5, 1 really stood out, but the color was a darker ivory than I wanted, so Katelyn went to find the same dress in a lighter ivory. The dress, aside from being a little too big was gorgeous! The color was amazing and it was almost everything I wanted in a wedding dress. Everyone approved and it jumped to the top of the list. Jackie described the dress at Bride Beautiful as va-va-voom, but this dress as va-va-voom-voom!! I am still thinking about it for a few weeks. If I decide to get that dress, mom and I have decided to add a few touches of lace at the top and possibly the bottom to make it the perfect dress and to also make it a little more unique. The dress really made me feel beautiful and fits our wedding theme perfectly!

On a completely different note, I am still looking at caterers but I have decided on a photographer for sure. I will be sending the deposit off today. Her name is Melody Hendricks and she is amazing! You can check out her gallery and blog at http://www.memoriesbymelody.net/.

Things are still going pretty smooth! I'm obviously having so much fun planning the day for John Hoyt and I to finally get married! We have begun looking at honeymoon destinations, but he is planning the whole thing. We also have been spending a lot of time looking at houses. We have found several that we really love but we're waiting for about nine or ten more months before we buy. It's hard to believe that in the next 15 months, I will be graduating from college, becoming a homeowner, getting married, and Taylor's graduating from high school. It will all happen very fast, but it is all very exciting!

PS: Thank you to all the girls that went with me this weekend! I am so happy you were there with me and it was so much fun spending time with you!

We Have a Date!

For those that don't know, we finally have a date for our wedding! We will be getting married on May 21, 2011! We came to a decision on Thursday (2/25) night. I called Friday morning to book our location, the Braselton-Stover House in Braselton, GA for an evening wedding. I went by the house on Friday evening to make the deposit and talked to the owner for about an hour and a half and filled out all the paperwork. So far, that is all the updates, but I am trying to get all of the paperwork organized and still doing research. My mom is coming down to Atlanta this coming weekend to help me go dress shopping. I have made all of the appointments and will be going to 5 bridal boutiques between Friday and Saturday. I'm going to be updating my website today as well, so check it out! www.theknot.com/ourwedding/EvinWinkelman&JohnHoytRichardson