Bridal Show! 3 Months, 2 Weeks & 6 Days Left!

Hi, and welcome to the Married Doula!

I am severely, SEVERELY behind. I need to get my butt in gear, but financial things and just too darn lazy (pregnant) are always getting in the way.

On the bright side, I do have the most amazing bridesmaid/maid of honour (if my mom counts as more of an "honourary maid of honour", as my fiance's sister will actually be doing most of the work!) to kick my butt to get going, like take me to a local bridal expo this weekend!

I was 14 weeks 3 days, so of course I needed to take a few photos of my outfit for the "big" day...

And we were off! I managed to get away for the while day, sans-toddler (that never happens), and we got to walk around and see all the different booths and companies offering things for your wedding. It was so nice to have a day to just be excited and get some ideas for how I want the day to look and those little details you don't often think of. For the most part, we will being doing everything (decor, food) ourselves or having family friends do it (dj, photographer, officiant), and our location is free and definitely won't be booked (no one has heard of it), so most of these things didn't apply to us, but it was fun to enter for prizes and just talk about the wedding all day. 

We didn't get many photos, but the ones we did get were hilarious!

The groom's shorts, if you can't read it, say "Property of the Bride", and the bride's thong actually had a matching "bridesmaids" one you could order, but my fiance's sister said she was good not having matching underwear with me. Haha!

I love those kinds of personalized things, I'm not huge into planning the design of the china (we'll be outside, let's face it, we'll just get nice plastic plates & utensils - less clean up!), but the honeymoon flip flops that leave "just married" footprints in the sand, oh yeah, I can get excited about that! 

We also saw this style of hanger for the bridesmaids, maid of honour, groomsmen, etc - I totally fell in love! It's one of those odd things you really don't need, but I really love the idea of them being able to keep it and remember the day always, we might just have to order some!

We also looked at a spa day rather than a big bachelorette party, as I'm obviously going to be quite big and pregnant (30 weeks at the wedding) and not drinking or doing anything to crazy. I think that would be soooo nice to get massages, relax in the pool, maybe get manicures and pedicures a week before the big day. Very fun! 

Lastly, the fashion show. Let me just say, I've never been to one of these, but I was pretty darn excited about it. Not so much for the dresses (I already know I'm ordering mine online), but the atmosphere of it all - a room full of excited brides! We didn't get many photos, but we did get a few ideas, like deciding on the style of the bridesmaid dresses (see in a future post!) and the fact that they will wear cowgirl boots, like these lovely models:

And what not to do, like this groom's camo lapels (we're redneck, but not that redneck):

These singing flower girls (so adorable!) inspired me to want to find a tiny kind of matching dress & boots for our niece, whose parents will be in the bridal party, and who will be 9 months  at the wedding.

I also won a free set of eyelash extensions (not sure how I feel about that, yet, as I will be wearing my glasses at the ceremony and my lashes already touch with a bit of mascara on, but we'll see), so that was pretty cool.

All in all, I may have found a good deal on the suit rentals, may start a registry "just in case" for people who don't know what to bring, and might have found a second photographer whose dream it is to shoot a pregnant wedding, especially in the forest. We'll see how it goes, but mostly it was just fun to have a day dedicated to getting excited about the wedding - as stressful as planning is, I am getting excited, and actually yesterday as I was getting worried about planning, I just looked at my fiance and thought "I get to marry him. And I will have a big, beautiful belly, just like I always wanted. This is my dream, right here, and those little things wont be so important - the fact that I get him, and our family, is." That make me feel a lot better (and a little teary-eyed)!

~ The (almost) Married Doula