What Are You Doing New Year's Eve? - Becoming a Bride

Yup, it's that time! The time which comes for every bride- when she must don the outfit in which she will marry the love of her life. For me, that outfit was the dress you see above. You'll remember that I decided on a ballgown. For me it was the perfect choice for our formal holiday evening wedding. I felt so beautiful, and it kept me warm the entire night.

But now let's get going on the nitty gritty of "putting on the dress". My dress had a zipper, so it was actually very easy to put on, but of course for photography's sake, we had to make it look super hard. thus we got photos where there are literally SEVEN people, helping me up my dress. At least we were able to include everyone!

I promise, my dress was not tight on me. In fact, it was big on me. I was concerned, in the weeks before the wedding, that I would lose TOO much weight and the dress would be falling off of me. Luckily, I was the perfect size so my dress would sit just right on my hips and still leave me room to enjoy all the delicious food I knew our reception had in store for me. But still, knowing all this, it LOOKS as if that zipper would only go up with the strength of seven women. Oh, the things we'll do for a photo ;).

Eventually, we couldn't milk it any longer and the deed was done! My dress was on! I clapped my hands and showed off my "Aaawesome" bracelet which I had been wearing constantly since I had borrowed it from my aunt the day before. You see, I decided it would be the perfect "something blue" since my family had them made to honor my Uncle B who passed away a few years ago (it's green-blue).

Oh yeah, we also decided at the last moment to pretend we were buttoning all the buttons on the back of my dress. I love my face in that photo :).

When everything was said and done, we stretched out my train to see my dress in all it's ball-gowny glory. I have to say, that I loved that train. It was the perfect length and no matter how many photos of it were being taken it always seemed to fall naturally and beautifully.

We decided to pin my something "green-blue" to the tulle under my skirt to keep it safe.

Aaaand... then all of a sudden I felt a little tug at the back of my dress. And who do I see? Why it's our darling puppy Stosh who just wants to get comfortable and have his 15 minutes in the spotlight. I think we actually confused him a bit because the first time he did it I leaned down to pet him and everyone was taking pictures, then we shooed him away. He tried it again, and was yelled at. Then he just sat in the corner and pouted (as only puppies can do) poor thing.

My MIL arrived from the hair stylist (I love what she chose for her hairstyle I have to say) and immediately began putting the finishing touches on my make-up (remember she had already done my foundation and 'skin' make-up while I was at the salon). It was SO hard for me to just stand still and let her finish my make-up because time was winding down until I would be getting MARRIED!!!

It was while she was putting on my make-up that it really hit me that I'd be getting married. I was looking at the clock and realized we had to leave for the church in less than half an hour and suddenly it came over me like a wave. My wedding day was here. All the prep work was done and all that was left to do was to marry Mishka and then have fun at our party. I was ready to get moving and get marrying!

But there were still a few important accents that I was missing. First of all, my shoes! Which of course, since they were 4 1/2 inch heels I could not get into myself. I could barely see my feet in that ball gown, but darn don't those shoes look pretty :).

Next, it was my earrings. You can't see them very well here, but don't worry, there's a detail shot coming later. A short story about those earrings. We were originally planning to do something totally different for my earrings. Then when we were at Priscilla of Boston looking at flower girl dresses, we glanced at their jewelry and saw these beauties. My mom said "Oh, Ang, this is exactly what you need for your earrings." Unfortunately, they were way to expensive so we decided to look into other options. A few weeks later, we heard that Priscilla was closing. When we went to pick up that flower girl dress a few weeks after that, the very same earrings were 80% off due to the store closing that following week. How could we say no to a deal like that?

Finally, we put on my grandmother's pearl necklace. It was my mother's mother's pearls, the same grandmother who's wedding ring I wear to this day. My grandfather always spoiled her when it came to jewelry :). The pearls were the perfect "something old" to finish my wedding day look.

After my ensemble was complete, there were a few "bridal portraits" which my dad insisted on taking. You see, when we were all together at my grandmother's for Christmas, my dad decided it would be a great idea to pull out my grandparent's wedding album. There were two photos in particular which stole his heart and he asked if there were anyway the photographer could try to recreate those photos. It turned out to be a GREAT idea since both photos he wanted turned out to be some of my favorites from the whole wedding day.

One of the most gorgeous photos of me, I think, that has ever been taken. Those are my bridesmaid's bouquets laying on my skirt, if you couldn't guess. And again, it's the perfect photo to take with a ballgown. If I had any other type of dress, it simply could not have been done.

This is the photo of my grandmother and my great-grandfather that the second "photo request" was based on. Wasn't she a beautiful bride? And, though I usually don't like the look of older wedding dresses... I LOVE her dress!!

Here's our take:

We just couldn't keep ourselves from smiling, but I can't say I'm sorry. I think the photo captures some of the joy my father and I were feeling, and I know he truly appreciated honoring his mother in this way.

Next Up: Bridal Details