By mid-January, we had a venue, a rabbi, a photographer, a cake, four yarn balls, a card box, and a wedding dress. To give you an idea of how we acquired all those things, here's a super long post.
Rabbi: Mr. Unicorn is Jewish. I’m only half-Jewish, or Jewish-ish, as I like to call it. I fully intend to convert to Judaism once this wedding shindig is over. In the meantime, though, we needed to find a Rabbi willing to marry a Jew to a shiksa. It just so happens that the synagogue Mr. Unicorn and his family attend is a Reform synagogue, and the Rabbi was thrilled to be our officiant. He has known my handsome fiancé since he was a wrinkly newborn, and now he gets to be the one to see him married under a chuppah. We had a meeting scheduled with him in February, and he turned out to be a super nice guy!
Photographer: After searching high and low for an affordable wedding photographer, we finally found one that wouldn’t cost us a kidney. For $1000, we were going to get an engagement shoot, a bridal shoot, rehearsal coverage, and 9 hours of wedding day coverage. To top it all off, NO TRAVEL FEES! Because she was local! It just doesn’t get much better than that. Or so I thought at the time.
Cake: I knew from the very beginning that I wanted Honeymoon Bakery to do my cake. Their pastries are to die for. Seriously. I was in there on a weekly basis when I lived in the area. Their cannoli? Deadly delicious. As are the eclairs. And don’t get me started on the fruit tarts. So I took some paint swatches (courtesy of Home Depot) and picked out a gorgeous cake. The whole thing took about fifteen minutes, really. I picked a color, design, and a flavor, and DONE! No need for multiple meetings and cake tastings and such. Cake isn’t really that important to me, but I felt I had to have one. What’s a wedding without a beautiful cake??? I chose with a three-tier cake, pale peach base color, and ivory piping with a swirly, twirly, lace design. I about died when I saw how much cakes were. Thank goodness my grandparents had already offered to pay for the cake as our wedding gift. Otherwise, I was ready to fire up the KitchenAid with my good friend Betty Crocker. My mother went ahead and paid the extra $100 to have it delivered to the venue. With such a pricey cake, why take any chances?
Card box and Dress: Remember the day our venue contact just kinda disappeared? Well my mother and I were in the area anyway, and we weren’t going to let the trip go to waste. So we had some pastries at Honeymoon Bakery—I highly recommend their chocolate-espresso mousse—then we hit the streets. Our first stop was a cluttered antique store. I loooove antique stores. All the junky clutter and cool old stuff appeals to my nostalgic, romantic side, I guess. I had a very clear idea of what I was looking for: a vintage suitcase to use as a card box at the reception. The store manager was very helpful and eventually we found what I was looking for. Doesn’t it have potential???? And cutesy picture of Mr. Unicorn and me.
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| Personal photo. |
Just as I was getting ready to pay, an unexpected visitor swooped into the store.
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| Personal photo. |
Why yes, that IS a hawk perched delicately on an expensive vase in front of a wall full of glassware. Recipe for disaster? You betcha.
We paid, and the store manager quickly hustled all the customers out of the store. How the story ended, I don’t know. But I had my vintage suitcase!!!
Next, my mother spotted a bridal boutique. I was a little reluctant to go in. They had the dreaded Twilight dress in the window display, and all of the mannequins looked a little rough. One was even missing an arm. My mother insisted we give them a chance. So we went in. The store manager was a super nice lady, but just by glancing at the racks I could tell that they didn’t have much selection, and I seriously doubted I was going to find the dress of my dreams.
Well I shouldn’t have doubted. At one point my mother pulled a dress from the rack that kinda, sorta looked like what I wanted. But I didn’t wanna get my hopes up. I had three appointments set up for the following week at bridal shops all over Atlanta, and I was prepared to go to them all. So I set my vintage suitcase down—behind the nice lady’s desk in case some Twilight-loving evildoer should want to steal it—and went to try the dress on.
Wonder of wonders. It was MY DRESS!!!! It fit like a glove. I don’t even have to get it hemmed. It had all the details I wanted in a dress. And best of all??? It was under $1000. My mama paid for the dress, and we pranced outta there feeling very pleased with ourselves. Who would have thought that the first dress I tried on would be The Dress??? Now I just need to find the perfect shoes and a birdcage veil.
How many dresses did you try on before you found THE dress?
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