The first major decisions I made during the wedding planning process was selecting my dress. I ordered it 6 months after Christopher and I got engaged and it was the first dress I tried on! When my mom and I went dress shopping I wanted to keep an open mind about what I would wear for the day, but I did have one piece of criteria — lace was a must. I found my dress at September’s Bride in Holland, MI which is my hometown. They were so helpful and made the experience a lot of fun. The dress came with custom length and I only needed a very little bit of alteration after that to make it perfect. I remember when I first tried this dress on and LOVED it and thought I was in for a lot of trouble if I feel in love with dresses this easily, but each dress I tried on that weekend I compared to this one. I loved the way this dress made me feel. I was comfortable, felt elegant and 100% like myself. I came back to September’s Bride before I had to head back to Kalamazoo so I could try it on again and that’s when I knew I found my dress. Knowing what I was going to wear helped shape the vision of our wedding.
The accessories were not too difficult for me to figure out. Pieces with special meaning were what I had in mind when selecting what to wear. I knew that I wanted to wear my pearl earrings from my Grandma (on my dad’s side) and the watch that belonged to my Great Grandma (on my mom’s side). My brother got me a beautiful opal pendant for my college graduation gift so I wore that too.
One of the last details I had to figure out was what I was going to wear on my head. I had grand plans to make my head piece but then got really nervous that I wasn’t going to like the way it turned out and would have to buy something that I wasn’t wild about. Around this time is when I saw this headband on Anthropologie’s bhldn site and on Miss James’ blog Bleubird Vintage. I loved the mini birdcage veil and pinwheel flowers and also that it sat flat on one’s head. To me, it had the perfect balance between vintage inspired and easy to wear. I was a little worried that the ends would pinch my head too much and start to hurt my head by the end of the night, but I was happily surprised that I didn’t even notice it once!
My mom’s very good friend, Cindy, did all of the flowers for the day. She did a beautiful job with everything.
Blue shoes were very important to me but and after a long time of searching I almost gave up the blue-shoe hunt. Thankfully my mom found these beauts for me. They are from my favorite shoe brand Born, they are real leather, comfortable and stylish. It was very important to me to wear flats that day too. I wanted to be able to move as freely as possible. The lace look of them was a very fitting touch.
My mom put our hair in sponge rollers the night before the wedding to get our hair curly. I left mine in longer so they wouldn’t fall as fast. My mom use to do my hair like this when I was just a little girl and when I was considering how my hair should look this method came to mind instantly. My mom did a trial run the week before and after that I made my decision. Having her help me reminded me of all the times we shared when she would set my hair. It was a total mother-daughter moment.
Dress: Casablanca Bridal 1900
Photos by Joy Reisterer
