You've Gotta Fight For Your Right. . .

. . .to get maaaaaaaaarriiiiiiied! Anyone?

As I'm sure many brides-to-be before me can attest to, there are seemingly a million and five decisions to make when it comes to wedding planning. . .and at least three times that amount of influence to lean one way or the other.

I am far from an easily-influenced girl. 

source | I do what I want!

That having been said, I am a considerate person. I try to take opinions and feelings of those I care about into account when making decisionsAt the end of the day, though, there are a few things that I refuse to concede. If this makes me a (gasp!) Bridezilla, then, well. . .refer to the above video for my exact sentiments. ;)

Here are a few of my No Budgies:

The Shoes. Not everyone is pleased with my choice (which I still word as a 'recommendation' - I won't force anyone to wear/buy these shoes, but everyone knows how much it means to Mr. Palm Tree and I) of TOMS. I am an All In type of girl: if I align myself with a cause or claim to care about something, I'm 100% 'bout it 'bout it. In all fairness: sure, they aren't the most to-die-for, OMG-worthy shoes. But, in my opinion, they aren't supposed to be. The TOMS motto is One For One: you buy a pair, we craft a pair to fit the need of a shoeless child. They're supposed to be reasonable shoes. It was an easy way to support A Cause that wouldn't take over the meaning, or purpose, of our day so we went with it.   

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.