I'm a little behind in my updates, but there hasn't been too much to tell until recently--except one big hiccup. Back in the first week of February my mom and dad went back to the David's Bridal in Raleigh, NC where my mom and my sisters and I found my wedding dress during my visit. They were supposed to approve the alterations and have the dress shipped to me. When they went back to look at it...my mom was horrified to find that it was in worse condition than when I tried it on.
I was already a little taken aback by the fact they were fitting me for alterations on the floor model dress and that they weren't ordering me a brand new one. I didn't have the foresight to insist on a new dress or a discount, which after the fact, I wish I had done one or the other because I didn't think it was fair to pay full price (even sale price) for a dress that so many other girls had tried on. There were slight deodorant stains under the arms and some loose beading, and I was assured it would be good as new and they'd go over it with a fine toothed comb before turning it over to me after alterations.
Well, here it was over a month later when my parents went to see it with the sleeves and bustle added, and my mom went straight to the store manager and advocated for me when she found so many runs and small holes in the top layer of fabric on the dress. It's a sheer organza-type fabric on top, and either we hadn't noticed them in the fuss of the day I initially tried it on, or the people handling the dress since then had been very careless. My mom insisted they couldn't have been there before because several spots were pretty bad and she thinks we would have noticed.
Either way, the holes and runs were there, and the manager was quick to agree that it was disgraceful and she apologized profusely to my parents. (Evidently, even in the condition it was in, seeing the dress on the hanger made my father cry--so I can't imagine him on the day of the wedding!)
Thankfully, in the end my mom insisted the only option was to order me a brand new dress (like I think they should have done in the first place) and they are able to take the measurements off the old dress to make the original alterations to the new one. After that is done and approved, then it will finally get shipped to me. I am not even going to open the box when it arrives. I'm taking it to the local David's Bridal in Albany and trying it on in front of people there to verify that it's what it's supposed to be. At least I still have time before the wedding if something else goes wrong with it, but let's hope that's the only issue there will be. I do feel like everything happens for a reason though, because I'm so much more content with it now knowing it is a brand new dress and I'm the only one that will have worn it before my wedding day!
I found this bouquet in a catalog at Bloomfield's today. That is one of the two local florists that are associated with our venue, The Perthshire. We get credit towards our table floral arrangements through our wedding package, so I wanted to check out the place this afternoon (while Jeff was off from work with me) to see what we could work with and to get some ideas. I like this bouquet as inspiration, but I would take out the deep orange Mango lilies and insert the button mums instead perhaps. I already know that I want the bouquets to be small and tight in a ball mason jar tied with twine and set on a swatch of frayed edge burlap. I want to create a contrast between rustic, harvest, and October, but with neutral vintage feeling elegance. The photos of the flowers below are the different types I'm currently considering including in the table bouquets.
