One dress to rule them all.....

So, Back in January, I took my butt off to my second attempt at trying on dresses.  I made an appointment at a small boutique in town, and with my mom, and bridesmaid April in tow, we went off on a search for gowns.

My mom and I got there first, ready to meet April there.  The girl who was helping me asked what I wanted and I said "Tulle skirt, after that, I'm game to try anything"  She pulled out a dress from the racks, and as soon as I saw it, I had this warm tingly feeling.  It was a strapless princess cut dress decorated with sworovski crystals.  She said that the sample was a size 10 (which in wedding sizes is Kate Moss), and I almost started crying because I knew I couldn't try that on.  I was shown a similar dress sample (this time in my size) to get an idea of how the silhouette will look, She pinned the tiny dress to the front of me, and, it was decided that this was the one.  And then my friend April got there.  This all happened in under 15 minutes.  I didn't even look at other dresses.  This one came in just barely over budget (and was easily customized for a very small fee, and I really do mean it was a small fee - $75 to change the neckline to sweetheart).  It was in all about $150 more than I had set aside to spend on the dress, but I think it was worth it. 

ENGAGEMENT PICTURES!

So, before I show you my engagement pictures, I'll tell you about my photographers (why yes, i do have several)

First is my friend David.  He is a local food photographer and has taken the photos for several cookbooks.  You should go to his website to see some of his amazing work.  http://www.gumbogood.com/  Go on.  I'll wait.

I went to him and asked if he would do the wedding, but he said that he doesn't like to do weddings and told me he'd do the engagement pics at a substantial price cut for me.  So, I jumped on that.  There will be a different photographer taking pictures for the wedding, and yet a different one for my bridal shots.  What can I say?  I'm a photography junkie, and I happen to have several friends who are fantastic at it.

So, Here are some of my favorites from the engagement shoot:

PS - So, y'all.  Apparently, I wrote this back in NOVEMBER, and never hit post... I just saved it.  I'm awfully bored today (It's 6:30 in the am, and I've given up on catching any zzzzzz's, so I'm going to try and get myself a nice steady backlogs of posts written today, so that on days I don't feel like writing, I can just pull up an old draft, and hopefully, that will keep me regular?  we'll see)