WEDDING WEDNESDAY: I SAID YES TO THE DRESS!

I can’t believe I’m even writing these words but this weekend I found my wedding dress! I am so, so, so in love with it and can’t believe I have to wait another 550 days to wear it. 🙂 I obviously won’t be sharing the exact dress I chose but I did want to let you in on a bit of the process and show you some of the runners up because I easily could have walked out with ten dresses… All of them were lovely in their own way but the one I chose is just so me and absolutely perfect for how I want our wedding to feel.

design darling wedding wednesday

{We all loved the top of this Tara Latour dress! The tulle skirt underneath had me feeling like Scarlett O’Hara… not quite right for a Nantucket wedding but beautiful all the same!}

design darling a & bé bridal shop dallas

There’s one designer I found right when I started blogging (now 6+ years ago!) and always had tucked in the back of my head for someday long into the future. Well, the time came and there was exactly one bridal shop in Dallas that carried the line I was most interested in. So I made an appointment for a weekend when my family would be in town for our engagement party, pinned a bunch of dresses to a private Pinterest board, and counted down the days until I could see how they’d look on me!

design darling wedding wednesday 2

{I loved the thick waistband and covered buttons on the Rue de Seine Sophia dress but it wasn’t quite right for me up top.}

I had the best experience at A & Bé Bridal Shop and truly couldn’t recommend it more highly. It’s a loft-like space in Dallas’s design district (they also have locations in Denver and Minneapolis) with great natural light (especially relevant since our reception will be outdoors!) and so many beautiful dresses to choose from. But easily the best part was our consultant Bethany, who instantly understood the look I was going for and asked me all the right questions when I started to feel a little overwhelmed with feedback from the rest of my group.

a & bé bridal shop dallas design darling

Speaking of the group, I invited my mom and dad, Grandy, my sister Reilly, and Will’s mom (and my cousin Emily whose flight was delayed but who arrived just in time to celebrate that night!). It was definitely a large group (which a lot of people advised me not to do) but I had done a fair amount of research beforehand and had a good idea of which styles I wanted to try on. I narrowed it down to three or four of my picks and then let everyone else choose one dress that they thought I might like. When I tried on the sixth dress (which was my favorite going in!), I just instantly knew. (I thought for sure I’d be the girl trying on four dozen dresses at six different bridal shops so I was very pleasantly surprised!) After that, we played around with embellished belts, different types of veils, and cheers-ed with a glass of champagne!

design darling wedding wednesday dress shop

{This Sarah Seven dress was an all-around favorite, especially once Bethany added grosgrain ribbon at the waist… but as much as I loved it, we found one I love even more!}

It was truly the most fun day I’ve had since I first said yes on Christmas Eve. It was so special to try on dresses with so much of my family present and I couldn’t have asked for a better experience. I keep staring at the photos of my dress (many thanks to Reilly who played iPhone photographer for the day!) and can’t wait until the day I get to wear it and marry Will!