Dress Shopping

When Ashley and Lance decided to quickly get married before he deployed, I remember Lance feeling so guilty for taking away her dream of a big church wedding, with the dress, and reception. Jay told him he wasn't taking anything away, and he was giving her a future. He also said we'd give her that wedding, only it will be a vow renewal instead.

Traditional? No, but their entire romance hasn't been traditional. Their tiny private marriage ceremony wasn't traditional. But they were still blessed by God, and this ceremony will be blessed as well, we firmly believe that.

The church has been reserved, the reception hall has been reserved, the photographer has been reserved. She has also talked to someone about invitations, and talked to her hair stylist. Now the fun stuff starts.

A week or so ago, Ashley, Chelsea (who is her maid of honor) and I went shopping for her dress, and the attendants dresses. We had so much fun, and I did really good. I didn't cry, although I felt my eyes welling up a couple of times, because she looked so beautiful.

Ashley has always been a girl who knows what she likes and what she wants. She looked on the bridal shop's website and found a dress she liked. As new dresses were added to the site, she found she kept going back to the first dress. The same thing happened with the attendants dresses.

We went out for supper and then drove to the Bridal shop. We had a few minutes before her appointment, so she started looking at Mother-Of-The-Bride dresses, which of course had me laughing. I have not worn a dress in over 17 years...since Austin's baptism. I had fully intended to wear one of the beautiful chiffon pantsuits you see women sometimes wear. A dress? No. According Ashley, Yes. We'll see who wins that battle.

Ashley tried on the dress she liked online first. It was beautiful, and Ashley's face told us she thought so too. As I told Ashley when she asked what I thought of it: "It makes you look beautiful and sexy, in an elegant way". Her comment was "that works". LOL

She tried on several dresses after that, but her face never lit up as much as it did with the first dress. The lady helping her, said dresses look much different when your hair is up, but we had no hair ties, so she pinned it. Ashley has very thick, fine hair, and we laughed as the lady put pin after pin in her hair to try to get it to stay up. As you can see in the 2nd picture, it was up, sort of, with the help of over 20 bobby pins. haha

After she tried on dresses, they helped her try on different head pieces. First she tried on the tiara, and when she made the funny face you see in the picture, she said "Do I look like a princess Daddy?" She's such a nut. LOL


She had Chelsea try on the attendants dress that she saw on line, and when Chelsea came out of the dressing room, Ashley's face had the same smile she had when she tried on her first dress. Chelsea tried on others that were suggested, but again, Ashley's face was not the same.

In the end, she selected the first dress she tried on, and the first dress she had Chelsea try on. I told you, this is a girl who knows what she likes. :) Three words describe both dresses: simple, elegant, and feminine. All words that describe Ashley.

They were going to have her try on shoes, but in the words her Father would have loved to have heard, she said "I'm not going to get shoes here, we can get them cheaper someplace else."

In the end, the night really was all about the dress. In the picture on the right she has on "her" dress, and as you can see by her smile, she loved it and was genuinely happy, which made me genuinely happy (that and the fact that it was on sale hehehe). 

Wedding Planning

They say that wedding planning can be the most stressful time in a couples relationship and I firmly believe that's true....even when the couple happens to be the bride and her mother.

I'm not a "momzilla". You know the kind...they have their opinions on how things should be done and since they are paying for things, planning WILL be done their way. Or there's also the kind with no taste/trashy taste. I'm neither of those. As long as what Ashley wants isn't crazy out of budget, then whatever they decide is fine.

Problem - Ashley is HORRIBLE when it comes to make a decision. She really, really is, and she readily and whole-heartedly admits it. She just hates to make a decision. She's been like this since she was little. She'd put on one outfit for school and then go back and change...sometimes multiple changes. She always second guesses herself and worries it should have been done differently. We even tease her that we're surprised she actually was able to make the decision to accept Lance's proposal. lol

The public wedding and reception is about a year from now. I'm a planner by  nature, but people out there even have me beat. We are being amazed by how early places and people are being "reserved". I told her that the big items must be taken care of now, especially since they can't be overly flexible about the date, due to the window of when he'll be home on leave.

So far the church is reserved, the reception location is reserved, the photographer is reserved, the dj is reserved, and the hair salon is reserved (as if that's one thing that had to be done now??? lol, but she was in there getting  a haircut and booked them while she was there).

She has someone in mind to make the invitations, but hasn't contacted her yet. She thinks she knows where she'd like to hold the rehearsal supper, but hasn't booked that yet, and she thinks she knows what she'd like to do for the gift opening time the day after, but isn't sure where yet.

I am  not pushing her to decide colors, styles for dresses or hair, centerpieces, etc. All that can come later, but the above mentioned items are things that need to get done before they are booked as well. Then we can relax for a while.

Have you ever tried to push a rope? That's what it's like getting this girl to decide on anything. I asked her "most girls who are getting married are over the top excited and are actually making their mothers crazy because they want to plan everything right now. But you act like you maybe don't even want this wedding to happen. Are you excited?" Her response was "Very much so, I just hate having to decide everything. I want some to just say 'it's done' and we're done with it."

The funny thing is, after I push her to decide on something like the reception location, and I push her to set up the appt to meet with the contact person, and I drive her to meet with them, she always thanks me afterwards for doing that. She's happy I've been a "nag". lol

For her sake (as well as my sanity sake) I'll keep pushing her to get these last few "big" items taken care of and then we all can relax a bit and enjoy the summer. If not, I'll  just make sure I keep the ibuprofin on stand-by. :)

The Date Has Been Set

Ashley & Lance have set the date for their public wedding ceremony next Summer.

The church has been reserved and deposit paid.

The reception location has been reserved and deposit paid.

The photographer....well, that's still undecided at this moment. But hey, I feel good we have those two main locations done. We'll keep plugging away at the rest.

Planning this ceremony is a lot harder than I imagined, because the groom is serving in the marines overseas. He won't be back until a short time before the wedding, and Ashley doesn't want him to feel left out, so she wants to confer with him on every. single. detail.

She's so sweet and naive. I keep trying to tell her that when it comes right down to it, he cares is that she's there, he's there, and the minister is there. The rest is just blah, blah, blah for the most part.

Sure, there are some details he is interested in, but if you try to have him discuss whether to have netting or ribbon around the centerpieces for the tables, and you're going to see his eyes glass over.

So for the next year I'll be helping to plan a wedding.

Donations of advil and wine are appreciated.