rehearsal dinner apparel + shoes

Now that I have a wedding dress and shoes, I can legitimately start thinking about a rehearsal dinner dress and shoes! It may be too early to make a decision on this, but if I have an excuse to buy a new dress and shoes, well, I’m going to take it. And the earlier I purchase things like this, the easier it is on my wallet, since I won’t have to buy everything all at once. I will circle back around to wedding day jewelry and hair pretties, but today, we’re going to talk about rehearsal dinner apparel.

First, let’s discuss the dress. I want to wear a white dress, obviously, but I have been having the hardest time finding something that matches my style and doesn't look too bridal. I don’t want to wear something that is too bling-y, because I have a specific shoe in mind, and I don’t want my dress and shoes to “compete” with each other. This has been hard, ya’ll!

I’ve been keeping my eyes peeled for something that fit my criteria, and I believe I may have found it! A couple months ago, I noticed the lovely ladies at Southern Weddings Magazine wearing the cutest dresses that matched my style; in fact, I liked every single dress that the girls had on! I found out that they were made by designer Camilyn Beth, and hopped on over to her website to take a look.

After a lot of indecision over the different designs (this one in particular I kept being drawn to), I’m planning on purchasing the Fresh Air Dress in Ivory. I’m just hoping that it will fit without too much trouble!

(photo from Camilyn Beth)

Now, onto my rehearsal dinner shoes! After purchasing my wedding shoes, a particular pair of cute, sparkly heels kept appearing on my Pinterest feed and in wedding blogs with more frequency, and I would pause briefly on these images, wishing that I could wear that those beautiful shoes on my wedding day, too. But then I thought, why not wear these for the rehearsal dinner? (I may have justified this too easily, but hey).

(photo by Jodi Miller Photography)

Of course, these beauties are from kate spade. Aren’t they just lovely? An added bonus – they match the wedding colors, as well!

ordered a wedding dress + shoes

Don’t worry, I’m not actually going to post pictures of my wedding dress. I am, however, going to tell you all about the process of picking the perfect dress for me.

I’m not one of those girls who spent most of her childhood thinking about her wedding, and I never, until I got engaged, made a board on Pinterest about weddings. (Now I pin to my heart’s content on my wedding board.)

So when it was time to think about a wedding dress, I really had no idea where to begin. I had heard about a collection of dresses called the Disney Princess Wedding Collection, and so I decided to look into those first, since I love all things Disney.

Side note: there are engagement rings floating around on the internet called Disney Princess Engagement Rings. These are not actually real, as Matt said he looked into getting one for me. Oh, well!

Anyway, the Snow White gown caught my eye out of all the others from the collection. I found a store near me that carried the Disney Princess bridal gowns, and went to try it on.

It just…didn’t work. I don’t know what it was, but it just seemed like the dress was wearing me, and I wasn’t wearing the dress. I was a little disappointed, but I decided to try on a bunch of other dresses in varying styles and designs to see what I would like the best.

There was one style that I kept being drawn to (pictured above - keep in mind that this dress is at least four sizes too big for me), but since this was early in the year and way too soon to purchase a dress, I used that style as a reference and booked an appointment at a boutique in Raleigh called Maggi Bridal a couple months later.

Maggi Bridal is unique in that it only books one dress appointment at a time, so that you are the only person in the shop while trying on dresses. The girl that I worked with was friendly, patient, helpful, and very mindful of my budget, which helped a ton in picking the perfect dress for me.

After discussing the different styles that I liked, she helped me pick out a few gowns to try on. I wound up picking the first dress that I tried on, that went completely against what I had originally told her, ha! Though I’ve heard that’s the way it usually goes with wedding dresses.

I spend more times that I would like to admit looking at pictures of myself in the dress on my iPhone. I can’t wait to wear it!

Going along with that, I’m still in the process of picking wedding accessories (are there any cute bridal panties that AREN’T sheer?! I don’t want to show off all my bits to my bridesmaids!), but the shoes I decided on fairly quickly.

I knew that I wanted statement shoes, preferably in pink, since it would go along with the wedding colors but would also give me that pop of color that I wanted. I saw these shoes on Pinterest that were perfect, but being Valentinos, the price tag was not.

I dedicated one night searching around on the Internet for a similar shoe style. Every time I thought I found a shoe that was similar to the original that I loved so much, I would discover that it was in fact the same shoe! It seemed it was meant to be, and with a little coaxing from Matt, I took the plunge and invested in the Valentinos.

Missed a Wedding Wednesday post? Here’s our engagement story, choosing the colors, choosing the bridal party, and picking the venue.