studio L: Say YES to the dress... (I GOT MARRIED!!!)

The most incredible and exciting event of 2009 was MY WEDDING!!!!!! I can't believe I met THE man who is literally the answer to every prayer I've ever prayed and all of the ones I couldn't even verbalize. Jonathan Hunkin is the perfect man for me and is the love of my life. He loves the Lord, is strong, secure in who he is, adventurous and funny, and the way he loves me still blows me away. Even right now, I'm listening to him sit at his keyboard playing worship songs and hymns while he sings and it makes my heart SO happy!

But this is a blog about style (! :-)), so I wanted to start blogging about some of the style elements of my wedding. Although I did book some style/make-up jobs last year, most of my summer and fall was consumed with decisions that would make my wedding day exactly as I dreamed it would be! I was very hands-on in the design process...out of necessity and budgetary concerns, but also because I wanted to be. I love all of the elements of wedding planning (MINUS the stress!) so I had fun with it. I knew I wanted black bridesmaid dresses, bling, and calla lilies...and a beautifully elegant (but definitely not over-the-top or fussy!) dress for me!!! There will be several blogs about my wedding design, so I will start with my very own SAY YES TO THE DRESS moment.

Every wedding magazine and planner (and episode of TLC's "Say Yes to the Dress") will tell you the dress sets the tone for the entire event. I knew I didn't want a prolonged search, but you hear so many stories of months of searching and hundreds of dresses. I really hoped my dress search would not be drawn out or include travel to other cities. I also knew I was on a tighter time frame. Most people have a year to plan a wedding (at least)...and Jonathan knew and told me he wanted to marry me in early summer and we picked November 7th as our wedding date. I had a relatively short amount of time to plan, but it was an adventure and I knew we didn't "need" that much time to plan! We were more focused on preparing for marriage, not a wedding day.

One summer Saturday I decided to just at least go look with a couple of friends...just "see" what's out there but insisted I was not going to try anything on--just look. The first place we went was a stuffy and impersonal boutique in Green Hills. I won't name them, but it wasn't anywhere I'd recommend...not welcoming or helpful, and the selection wasn't "wow."

Next, we went to Arzelle's on West End. I had been there as a little girl when my aunt Lisa got married. Of course, my friends found a couple of dresses for me to try on...and I agreed. I didn't have any real set ideas of what I wanted but I knew what I didn't like. I had seen a Badgley Mischka bridal gown that I LOVED but it was $5,000. TOTALLY unnecessary to spend that kind of money on a dress, and way outside my budget. This is that dreamy dress:

I tried a few and wasn't feeling it...until the last one. I loved it, but when Bonnie (owner of Arzelle's & fabulous seamstress) told me she could create custom beaded sleeves to resemble my dreamy dress, I was SOLD and placed my order! I admit it, tears filled my eyes, and my sweet friends were crying. Here's a couple of pictures from my fitting (Bonnie is holding up scrap material to get an idea of what we wanted to create):