Wedding Week: The Bridal Look

In honor of Wedding Week, today's Wedding Dress Wednesday will actually be about *my* wedding dress! Yipee! Without going into all the details of wedding dress shopping (which could be a whole post by itself), I wore an Angelina Faccenda gown that I found at Bride Beautiful in Sandy Springs, GA. And I couldn't have been happier with my choice. Here's two out of the million reasons why:

1. The buttons. Oh, the buttons! If there was one thing I would not compromise on my wedding dress wishlist, it was a button-back. And mine had them all the way down to the end of the train--even better!

2. It had pockets. 'Nuff said.

I also got my shoes from Bride Beautiful, and then had them dyed a soft yellow at a shoe shop in downtown Athens. I loved my two yellow shoes! And the best part is that I still get to wear them. For my garter, I wore the garter my mom wore at her wedding. It was very special, despite how much it cut off my leg circulation. The garter also served as my something old, borrowed, and blue, which is probably cheating according to the wedding police. Oh well! :)

For my accessories, the pearl necklace and bracelet were both gifts from Kyle, which made them even more meaningful to wear on the day we would become husband and wife. To pull the look together, my earrings were teardrop pearls with a little bit of sparkle. I donned the three flower clips in my hair during the reception for some bridal hair pizzazz, the perfect trade-off to avoid the hindrance of two veils while dancing!

The rings we gave each other are simple and classic, mine a round solitaire in a four-prong setting with a pave diamond wedding band, and his an unassuming white gold band. Perfect for us.

Now for the veils! Yes, veils with an S. I wore a fingertip mantilla lace veil and then a blusher on top to add some volume. Otherwise my head would've looked super flat compared to the fullness of my wedding dress. There was lots of this going on:

So here are my lovely veils, you can tell that my blusher had a mind of its own that day:

I carried a bouquet of ranunculus, narcissus, roses, and lady mantle. It was hand-tied with pieces of my wedding dress leftover from alterations and a yellow ribbon. I had my mom dry it out while we were on our honeymoon, and now it will live forevermore in a pretty vase in our living room!

And finally, the reception look! First, I slipped on this custom-made lace bolero, one of the few parts of my wedding getup I can actually wear again. I'm so excited to try it out with some outfits this spring!

As mentioned earlier, I traded my veils for these fun flower clips to add emphasis to my side-swept 'do during the reception.

I waited until the reception to put on my tossing garter, which was a nod to mine and Kyle's alma mater, the University of Georgia. (GO DAWGS! Sorry, it's kinda obligatory).

My seamstress added a french bustle to contain all that dress during the reception, though at the end of the night there were still a few shoe marks on it. Either we invited a lot of klutzs or it was a good party! ;)

So there you have it, the perfect recipe that made me feel like a treasured princess for a day. I'd love to hear about your wedding getup, or your getup-in-the-making if you are engaged! Anyone do a trash the dress or after session where you got to wear your dress again? I loooove looking at those kind of pictures (hint hint).

{All photos by Shannon Belletti}