The Bridesmaids Dresses Revealed! (photo-heavy)

After I said yes to my dress, hugged the store manager AND my attendant and paraded around a bit, it was time to choose the bridesmaids dresses.

A lot of people expressed surprise when I mentioned we were aiming to get both my dress and their dresses chosen in one day. Honestly, it wasn't any additional stress and it was necessary for us. At that time, we were pretty much scattered: Rev. Fun hailed from Atlanta, BM Badonk lived an hour away, BM Tiny Dancer was in college about three hours away and BM Blackout and MOH Mem worked in the healthcare field and had to schedule days off two months in advance - if we had a weekend where we were all together, we were going to take full advantage and get sh-t done, for real.

Again, I had a pretty strict set of ideas in my head: no strapless, I wanted MOH Mem to be in a different color, I wanted them to be all the same style and I wanted them long. Even though I had what I wanted picked out (I won’t shove the DB Dress Your Wedding image in your faces again, but I will tell you that you can find it here), I had sent an e-mail to my girls telling them I was open to their opinions and ideas. I assured them that I would not pull a Topanga, but I also let them know that they didn’t have to like the dress in terms of style - they just had to be comfortable and able to dance.

source | "Those. are. the most BEAUTIFUL dresses I have EVER seen."

My main goal was finding one dress that fit everyone. When you have a variety of heights (I’m talking from 5’4” to right around 6’), weights, shapes, booties, bazoombas and not to mention a variety of skin and hair colors, it seems next to impossible, but I was confident that I had chosen quite a few dresses (including backups, of course) that would fit and flatter everyone.

My Bride Moment: I Said Yes To The Dress!

Early in my planning, I kept forgetting I was a Bride. I mean, obviously I was doing bride-esque things, like booking our venue and failing at favors, but it was a weird combination of having been thinking about doing this for so long and diving into doing it head first that kept me somewhat detatched.

Bridesmaid Y and I went to a bridal show in the first month of my engagement (I'm telling you, folks, I wasn't messing around) and I definitely experienced some sort of overwhelming, awe-inducing, 'whoa this is real' feelings. But - and I'm willing to bet many brides and/or brides-to-be would say similar - nothing, nothing, NOTHING compares to picking a dress. 

I have so much to say about this day. I'll save the suspense and tell you all now: we were able to leave with not only my dress chosen, but also the dresses that my bridal party will be wearing - which was very important to me, because having everyone together is a rare occurrence.

We went to a local David's Bridal for our dresses. Being the lunatic stalker thorough person that I am, I scoured reviews, ideas, hints, any and everything related to this type of experience beforehand. Unfortunately, I encountered numerous negative reviews - even from Wedding Bee - and I began to freak out inwardly. Of course, I know enough about the internet to know that often only the extreme cases warrant reviews, but I still started to have mini anxiety attacks. What if they don't know what they're doing? What if I get a complete bitch and end up snapping? What if they won't let me use the appointment for both me and my girls? What if all of the dresses look hideous on me? What if MY dress, my dream dress, fails everywhere like the favors did? I was sincerely, legitimately concerned.

Here's the thing: every single thing that I worried about went flawlessly, every single thing that I thought I wanted didn't work. Yup, you read that right. It was a day of 'no way! Really?'

A slice of humble pie: observations about other relationships

I've been writing this post in my head for a while now. I wanted to write it in a way that was honest, but not too mushy-gushy; accurate, but didn't throw other people under the bus. Forgive me for the length - I promise it's worth it for tons of 'about us' goodies. ;) 

Then I realized, the problem was me - well, specifically my super opinionated nature. Whoopsies. 

Jon has been my best friend since we started dating back in 2004. Even during the Year From Hell (also referred to as The Year of Bad Decisions and The Necessary Evil Year - just depends on the mood), we talked daily and spent time together. He is without a doubt one of the truest and best people I have ever encountered. We laugh together, we cry together (seriously, we can't even talk about Toy Story 3 without tears filling our eyes) and we do everything else in between.

personal photo | You may remember that this is also the night we met our DJ. . .

I'm pretty much a what-you-see-is-what-you-get kind of girl. In fact, the Best Man in our wedding once told me, "you get all of Steph within ten minutes of meeting you. . .good or bad, it's all there." To this day, I don't know if I've ever heard a more accurate statement.

So, needless to say, all of the people in my life - and specifically, our wedding party - knows me ridiculously well. Jon, though, knows me in a very intimate, almost intimidating way. I know, I know, it's so cliche to say "he knows me better than I know myself," or even, "we're soulmates." But I'm going to go ahead and jump on board that wagon because for us, it really and truly is the truth. 

Now I know that all couples do not co-exist like this. I know that it is incredibly strange that we (TMI alert!!) have absolutely zero qualms about one of us brushing our teeth while the other is using the bathroom (warned ya). I know that not every girl is super comfortable with her guy sitting on top of her and, well, tooting (. . .or vice versa. Totally guilty). I know that wrestling and de-pantsing in the middle of the living room is not totally kosher (as a side note, MOH Mem is also our roommate and girlfriend deserves major props because she is completely unbothered by all of our shenanigans. She often just cries with tears of laughter and pulls a random quote from our ridiculousness and puts it on Twitter). Truthfully, I cherish how different and ridiculous we are.