Happy 2012!!

It's 2012 Jan 1st and you know what that means....exactly 10 months 5 days till the big day! I have most of all the big things done for the wedding planning including getting my dress. I really wasn't planning to even dress shop until after the new year but for some reason I just had a change of heart & decided to go. I also kept saying that I didn't even want to look at David's Bridal but lo and behold I did go there and it was wonderful!! The first day my Mom, sister, & I went shopping it was to Elegant Brides in Edwardsville. I had heard nice things about the place so decided to go there first. I was extremely nervous about dress shopping especially since I'm not the skinniest minny on the block. My boobs are huge and thats not always the most pleasant thing when trying on clothes at the store. My first dress shopping experience was just ok. They had hardly any dresses in my size so that sucked. Everything was more expensive than I really wanted to spend. It was so busy the lady supposed to be helping me was really not that helpful. Every single dress was strapless. Seriously whats up with that....not everyone likes strapless dresses. Especially us chickies with huge boobs. Their was one dress I really liked. It was def overpriced but it was soo pretty and princess like. My Mom & sister felt like I should def keep my options open and do some more shopping. I called David's Bridal while we ate supper and made an appt for the following day. I also invited a lot more people to go. My whole wedding party of girls to be exact.
I was hoping that having all the extra people would make it a lot of fun and helpful with all those opinions. LOL I know people say only take 1 or 2 people with you but what the hell. It was just fine. From the moment I walked into David's Bridal everyone was so nice. The experience was wonderful. I had printed out several pictures of dresses I wanted to try on which I had also done the day before and that worked well. The lady assigned to me was so helpful. They had tons of dresses in my size & had a nice sale going on. My sister had also picked out several dresses she thought would work. I had shown them to my mother in law right before we left to shop and she picked out her favorite. I tried on prob about 7 or 8 dresses. It is so much better when they are actually your size. Some I knew right away were a no and others got put into the maybe pile. One particular dress everyone kept saying ohh ahhh it looks so good. Yuck is what I was thinking lol & so was Jaimee (she told me after the fact). I kept kinda going back to one particular dress and it was the front runner so far. I don't really even remember now what it looked like except for it was strapless and similar to the one I liked the day before. All the dresses I tried on were similar sweetheart neckline, pretty design on the bodice, strapless. The 2nd to last dress I put on was one my sister picked out in a bridal magazine she bought for me. It was also the fav my mother in law picked out from the pictures I had printed. It was different than the others. Not only in the way it looked but once I put it on I just kept smiling. It was PERFECT! It just felt right and comfortable and NOT strapless which is what I wanted. My sister in law Erin said, "I never thought I would say this but it is rustic." That is what I was looking for, that is what its all about. A dress that fits the whole theme of our wedding & reception and us!! Yay for me!! It was actually pretty easy dress shopping and fun. I'm so glad I invited my mom sister, 2 sister in laws, 2 nieces, & cousin to experience it with me. Here is the winner. The back is my favorite part! So bring on the new year & all the eating healthier & working out so I can feel & look good in this baby!!!