dress shopping

After spending the past few weekends hunting for the perfect wedding dress, I finally found it! It was quite the search. My mom and I, often accompanied by friends and family, went to five difference places and visited one of the places three times! This past Saturday, on my third visit to Lillian Lottie, we got the dress! I had been in the weekend prior with my mom, her friend of 25 years Bernie, my friend Melis, my dad and my brother and we had it narrowed down to three dresses. But I ended up leaving in tears. It's hard when everyone loves different dresses and you're not sure which your favorite is. I showed tons of people the pics that week, trying to get a feel for which looked best on me. Then I came to the realization that I didn't think any of the three dresses were for me.

So, when I came into Lillian Saturday, I showed Becca (the most awesome person ever) pics of some dresses I had pinned early on in my wedding planning that I just loved. She found some that were similar and turns out the very first one I tried on, was the one I loved. I almost didn't want to try on the other 8 or so dresses, but I did. And was still in love with that first one. Everyone else loved it too. And - it's like it was meant to be...they only had the dress in for that weekend. Someone had wanted to try it on, so the shop had called to get in a loaner for that weekend only. Perfect.

Becca even had tears in her eyes when I realized it was my dress. She's never cried for a bride before. :)

christmas shopping

I love Christmas shopping.  Figuring out that perfect present for your loved ones and imagining their face when they unwrap their gift...

The bad part about Christmas shopping?  Finding unnecessary items that you want for yourself and can't pass up.  Or decide to pass up for the time being but know you will be back on payday.

In addition to these jeans and these boots that I caved and purchased over the weekend (you can never have enough skinny jeans and boots I reasoned) here's a snapshot of  a few m0re things I now have my eyes on after shopping for gifts these past few days:

~ The perfect apron to wear during holiday baking ~

{available at crate and barrel}

 ~ Champagne glasses to have on hand for holiday toasts ~
{also available at crate and barrel}

~love this - pretty and homemade~

{available at esty.com}