I picked a dress! It involved looking at a few places and being disciplined with myself on my dress budget. technically, my parents offered to pay for my dress because they know I'm probably too pragmatic and didn't want me to make decisions based on cutting costs alone. As it is, I got my dress 20% off as the boutique was having a sale, and it was one of their more affordable dresses to begin with.
It's a floaty A line dress with lace and tulle, and gives me the ethereal Elf princess vibe I was hoping for - certainly it will do when I add a cape veil. I was thinking over various deep V dresses and trying to work out how to alter them to make them closer to my vision, and couldn't entirely see the dresses looking quite like I wanted. In the end, the dress I picked has an illusion halter neck with a boob window! Which I find hilarious. Plus unlike the plunging necklines the mesh helps me feel that the girls won't be falling out on the day. I love that it feels light and airy - a lot of the dresses felt kind of heavy and rigid to wear.
And we're hopefully almost sorted on venues and catering, which will mean most of the important stuff is chosen. Can't move forward on the rest til the date is fully confirmed and everything is signed, but I'm hopeful. It feels like there's a lot more SLOOOW emailing to and fro than I expected. Filling forms, then filling more forms, then meeting again. Then more forms.
Can I just say, for an institution that should WANT people to get married, the Church of England doesn't have the easiest criteria for letting people marry in any particular Church. You have to either lived in their catchment area, or have been baptised/confirmed there or have your parents do the same. But like, people move around. I've lived in a ton of places, but they aren't necessarily places I want to drag my friends and family to, just so I can get married. Fortunately we've found somewhere near a venue we like that is also in a catchment area DXDude has lived in, so hopefully we'll be OK. We're aiming for Spring 2023, and that's going to come sooner than we realise!
I'm already looking ahead to decor. I'm loving thrifting mismatched decor at present, and you can usually find things for really affordable prices. I reckon I'll be more likely to find new homes for decor after the wedding (or keeping some of it, when we move somewhere bigger) if it's not like 12 identical vases, candle holders etc.
I do love that it's feeling more real, and that DxDude has his own ideas for the wedding. Like a lot of guys he didn't have much idea of what he wanted initially, but as he's taken time to think about things and realise that we don't have to have a traditional wedding, or a wedding that looks like other people's weddings, he's gotten a lot more into adding personal touches or thinking up ways to reduce the cost together. I also wan't really sure what I wanted at first, so it's been fun trying to work it out! Ultimately, it'll just be really nice to see our friends and family in one place.
