Wedding Dress Shopping with photos!

I have been so excited to write this post since I went dress shopping! This won't be a particularly wordy blog, mainly photos with a description of how I felt in the dress. So lets get going!

The first shop we went to was called Heritage Brides, and was in Hatfield House. It's a beautiful barn setting, and is very private. Sam (the bridal consultant) was lovely, and I would highly recommend this shop to anyone looking for a wedding dress! We very almost bought a dress from here, and we did buy my headpiece from here. Obviously, most of the dresses were not a perfect fit, but a lot of them did up which was a pleasant surprise! And now, without further ado, here are some of the dresses I tried:

This was the first dress that I tried, and it was a nice start! I liked the way that it brought me in at the waist, and the neckline was also really nice. It was just very surreal being in a wedding dress!

This was really similar to the first dress - it had the tulle skirt that I loved, and I really liked the plunge neckline. However, I didn't like the t-shirt sleeves as they felt too informal, and the back was completely see-through, and I wasn't comfortable with the way it showed my back (which is crazy when you consider the dress I ended up with!)

This dress was when we realised that I needed a ballgown shape. It really showed off my waist, and was so comfortable to move around in! But I didn't like the type of lace that was on the skirt, and the top felt a bit too plain for me. But definitely the favourite at this stage!

This one was hilarious. I'd made it clear from the start that I didn't want a satin dress, mainly because my prom dress was satin and I didn't want to feel like I was at prom on my wedding day! But once we put this one on (mainly so that we could confirm that I definitely didn't want satin - I didn't think I wanted a ballgown and was proved wrong there!) there were about 100 other reasons I didn't want satin. It wasn't as comfortable, it felt cheaper and it didn't really do anything for my figure. This one didn't stay on very long at all!

This one was a wild-card. It was a sample dress so I could have taken it straight away rather than it being ordered in, and it was chiffon which I liked. I'd mentioned in my original description of my "dream dress" that it was a Grecian-style. This dress was nice, but again, the t-shirt style bothered me. 

This theoretically was my dream dress. In my head, I wanted strapless with lace on the top, and then a chiffon skirt with a short train. Obviously in this particular dress, the top doesn't fit, but something just didn't feel right. I liked the shape it gave me at my waist but my bottom half just didn't look right, I felt out of proportion. It was a little disheartening to try my "perfect" dress and be so underwhelmed.

This is where myself and Sam disagreed. She was so sure that I was going to love this, but it is a two-piece, not a dress! And I knew that I definitely wanted a dress. I did love the skirt, but I tried on a couple of corsets with it and just didn't feel bridal at all! I was so sure that this wasn't what I wanted, and after we'd tried a couple of different tops, we knew it was time to move on to the next one. 

This one was special. Mum cried, I was breathless, and I felt incredible in it. I loved the neckline, as I felt it was sexy but also really respectful - I knew we were getting married in a catholic church and I didn't want to have too much on show! Mum was ready to get it on the spot, but I didn't like the underlayer on the skirt. Sam had said that it could be removed in alterations but it seemed a bit risky to me to order a dress when you haven't seen what the finished article will be. So we said that we would continue shopping at the other places and come back if we couldn't find anything better (which actually, we didn't think we would!)

The next shop we went to was The Wedding Gallery in St Albans. I cannot recommend this shop enough! Alice was so phenomenal the whole time, and actually I think it was her who picked out the dress I ended up wearing! Maureen the Seamstress was also an absolute miracle worker, and made my dress fit like a glove. The shop itself is incredibly private, from the front it is literally just a door, and then the shop is out the back. Though there's no natural lighting in the actual dress area, it's still so beautiful and light. And the selection of dresses were stunning! I don't think there was a single dress I tried that I didn't like. 

This was the first one I tried on here, and it was SO booby! The pictures don't do it justice. I'm not adverse to showing a bit of boob, but this was borderline inappropriate, particularly for a catholic church! I also didn't like the pattern of the underskirt and I don't like the illusion necklines either.

You may recognise this one! This was a really tough decision, as the sample size was a size 8 (hence why I'm holding up the straps, it felt like I was losing the circulation in my arms when I put them on!). Mum, mother in law and sister all loved this one but I took some convincing. I LOVED the lace pattern, the flowers on it were so beautiful and the neckline was stunning. We added the belt as I felt it needed something, but I wasn't a huge fan of this particular belt. I decided to keep trying dresses and potentially come back to this at the end. 

This one is really similar to mine, and the main reason I put it on was because it was my size, so gave me an idea of how my actual dress would look in my size. Again, I really don't like the illusion neckline but the back on this one was really pretty and very similar to the back on my dress. 

I'd mentioned to Alice that I wasn't sure how comfortable I would be with so much of my back on display, as it's always been a bit chubby and I didn't want to have to work ridiculously hard to make it look good. So she showed me this one which has a beautiful back, but unfortunately I couldn't stand the front! So my dress was still a winner. 

This dress was almost the one. I LOVED the shape, the neckline was so flattering and the top of it was so perfect! The shape of the skirt was amazing, but the only thing I didn't like was the underlayer of the skirt. It's really hard to see in the photo, but there are loads of massive chiffon roses, and I really didn't like them! They possibly could have been removed but this one was a sample dress so it would have had to be an alteration rather than removal in production. It could have altered the shape of the skirt, and it just seemed too much of a risk. I still love this dress though!

This was the first really fitted dress I tried. I like the way that it looks in this photo, but I still have insecurities about my stomach and even though this is really structured around my waist, I was less comfortable in it. It was also really hard to walk because it was so tight around my legs, but if I could just stand still all day, then this would be a contender!

I love this one, but it really didn't suit a winter wedding. This is the sort of dress I would choose if we were having a beach wedding in the summer somewhere tropical. As mum said as well, it is so much less "wow" than the dress I did pick. It's also very similar to the style of bridesmaid dress I wanted, so overall it just didn't suit our wedding. It is so beautiful though!

After trying this one, we put my actual dress back on and worked out whether I was comfortable enough to risk it - I had no idea what it would look like if it actually fit! But I was so in love with the back of the dress, and everyone else there loved it, and as my family's opinion is so important to me, I decided it was the front runner so far. However, I still hadn't had that "the one" feeling, and we had another appointment with a shop the day after, so I decided to hold off buying it until we'd had that appointment. Over the evening we had dinner and drinks (quite a lot of drinks!) and the more we talked about it, the more confident I became that it was the dress I should have. 

The next day we went to Dress In Love in Hertford. The consultant in this shop was lovely, and the dresses were nice but none of them came close to any of the other 3 I loved. I was also slightly bothered by the large window opening onto the street, as people kept peering in and it made me feel a bit self-conscious. The other two shops were so private, I hadn't realised how much I'd appreciated that! We didn't take photos of all the dresses here, but here are the photos of the three that we did take photos of:

This was the first one I tried, and was so different to any of the dresses I tried in the other shops! But if I thought the fitted one in The Wedding Gallery was tight, it was nothing compared to this! I was waddling to get to the mirror, and before I even saw the dress, I knew it was not the way I wanted to walk down the aisle! It made my bum look pretty good but just wasn't worth the discomfort.

The colour of this one was really interesting, and I liked the lace trim at the bottom. But the shape was just wrong for me, I didn't like the way it made me look. 

By the time we got to this dress, I did notice a definite theme to the dresses being picked for me! But this again was just not right. I didn't like the style of the lace at the bottom, it had too much gold on it, the belt was slightly too low and I didn't feel pretty. 

In this shop, I had both my bridesmaids, and we knew we were going back to The Wedding Gallery to look at bridesmaid dresses. Amy hadn't seen my dress yet, so I was waiting for her reaction to finally make up my mind. And it sealed the deal for me! She loved it, I loved it even more putting it on again and everything just felt right. 

Here are the photos from the final fittings, and I'm still so happy with my dress! I wouldn't change a thing about it.

That's all for now, I don't know what the next blog will be about, or when it will be, but I'm so glad this one is finally out! Dress shopping was so much fun, and it's nice that I can now share it properly. 

x

We're Married!

Hello! When I started this series of blog posts, I figured that it would end once I got married. I knew there would be the option to start up a new post if I wanted, but this one no longer made sense once I became Mrs Holmes. However, I don’t think that the actual marriage ceremony is the end of the journey to become Mrs Holmes, so I will be carrying on this blog series until further notice (probably forever). 

So the big news for this post is that we did it! 394 days ago I started this post, 3 days after we got engaged. It’s now been 9 days since our wedding and I can honestly say I’ve never been happier. I don’t really know what this blog post should include, as there is so much I want to write about! But as I said, this is not the last post for this series. So for this one, I’m just going to run through what happened from the time I went back to Oxford for the wedding until the wedding. 

I had booked off from the 7^th to allow time for some bridal beauty prep, some family time, some chill time and time to arrange all the wedding stuff still left to do! I picked up my dress and the bridesmaid dresses en route (massive shout out to The Wedding Gallery in St Albans at this point, I cannot fault a single part of my experience with them!), got home in time to get my nails done, and then had a lovely chilled night with the family. My cousin Amy (also my maid of honour) also announced her pregnancy that evening which was very emotional! It’s been so difficult keeping it a secret but it’s now out for the world to see, and her little baby is the most perfect human ever. I even felt the little one kick the night before the wedding and it was the most magical thing I’ve ever experienced.

The 8^th was also a great day. I had some puppy cuddles in the morning, and then we went over to Milton Hill House to set up our reception, have last minute meetings with photographers and Fiona, and also check into our rooms. Seeing my dress hanging in the window was so surreal, and really bought it all home. Setting up the room was a real team effort, and it was so worth all the work – it looked even better than I imagined! (The photo doesn't include half the detail!)

We then had our church rehearsal that evening, where we practiced walking down the aisle, when we had to say what and what we needed to do for the rings, where photographers would be positioned etc. It was so weird going through the ceremony, it’s ridiculous but I think at this stage it still felt like a dream, it didn’t feel like it should have been happening to me! After the rehearsal, I said my goodbyes to Anthony (my bridesmaids confiscated my phone as I’d been so strict with Amy at her wedding!) and we went for a nice dinner. Then an early night, as I was so aware that I probably wasn’t going to sleep! Amy was a massive help – we were sharing a room, and we spent about an hour just talking about life, which was so grounding and kept me distracted from winding myself up about the wedding. When we decided it was time to sleep, I fell asleep straight away – I just wish it had stayed that way! Any time I stirred during the night, I’d wake with a start and it was so difficult to get back to sleep. The little sleep I had was very broken, and at 7 I admitted defeat and got up, and though I hadn’t slept much, I wasn’t expecting to sleep at all!

The morning of the wedding, I was a bag of nerves! I really struggled to eat anything (but did force a small pastry down on the advice of every married person I’ve ever spoken to!). I was so ready to be married to Anthony but was nervous about messing up during the ceremony, as well as worrying about the weather (it was raining at this point.) That being said, I loved the atmosphere in the room, and Mel did an INCREDIBLE job of all of our hair and make-up. The last 10 minutes was manic, everyone throwing dresses around, zips getting stuck, stuff absolutely everywhere, and the bus leaving very soon (which the bridal party needed to be on!). After the madness, I actually ended up at the church early – I’m probably the only bride ever to have got to the end of the aisle 10 minutes before the ceremony was actually meant to start! The service was so beautiful. I was a sobbing mess walking down the aisle; I just saw Anthony turn around, and I lost it. Pretty sure I ugly cried but we’ll have to wait for the professional photos for that joy! I was really emotional for the rest of the ceremony, but I managed to keep it together. Any time I looked over at Anthony, he’d catch my eye and give me a smile or a wink, and it melted my heart every time. I’ve never been surer of anything than I was about marrying Anthony in that moment.

When the ceremony finished and we left the church, we had a few precious minutes of privacy, in which we let the momentum of what we’d just done sink in. I barely remember it and I don’t think we even really said anything to each other, but the atmosphere and the chemistry in that room was something I’ve never experienced; it was beautiful. We did a walk back through the church where we got some confetti shots and some family photos, at which point it started to snow! So romantic (but very cold!) so we hurried up the photos and headed back to the hotel. However it didn’t get much warmer, as we went pretty much straight outside for our couple photos, which was basically a 20-30 minute walk in 2°C weather. However, I have no issues with the cold! I barely felt it because of the adrenaline, and I’m so grateful that it was sunny for our photos – it only rained in the morning while we were getting ready.

The dinner was amazing – both of us were still so high on adrenaline that we really struggled to eat, but the food wasn’t wasted; it was shared among the table (to some more than others!). The speeches were all also incredible, very emotional but again, I managed to keep myself together. The next time I lost control of my emotions was our first dance. It was such a perfect moment, and though Anthony picked the song, it really hit me hard on the night, it was such a good choice (“how can a moment last forever” by Celine Dion for anyone who is interested, you may recognise it from the live action Beauty and the Beast).

The rest of the night was just an amazing party – another shout out here to Visually Sound Events (our DJ) – Matt was so beyond amazing, people can’t stop complimenting us on the music, and he was so accommodating and helpful in the booking process! For any events requiring music or lighting, definitely give him a shout. I also highly recommend having Twister (the game) and pizza (the food) at your wedding – it was such a hit, and playing twister in my dress on my wedding day is something I will never forget!

The only other thing I wanted to talk about (here comes the inevitable) is my amazing husband. I don’t know how I didn’t see it coming, but of course he had a surprise planned for the evening reception. Little did I know, but while we were having night-time photos and mingling with our evening guests, Anthony’s work colleagues were working their arses off to put in several incredible instalments in the main room. We had a working fountain at the back of the room, which was also lit and created a beautiful glow around the room! We also had a small cinema booth (which played a selection of films close to us), a seated replica of Kings Cross Station, and a Disney colouring booth. I had no idea about any of this, and it was such a beautiful surprise! They were all such a hit with the guests as well, and I can’t wait to see the professional photos of my reaction!

I know this is a super rambly post, but I’m still so all over the place. I’m the happiest that I’ve ever been, and am really enjoying just spending time with Anthony. So on that note, I’m going to leave it there and go spend some time with my lovely husband, but rest assured that there will be plenty more posts to come!

Thanks to everyone for sharing this journey with me, I look forward to the future!

x