Three months and not for Brian's eyes.

Three months until we get married!! Especially after going to Chris and Ellen's wedding (which I'll blog about when I get at least one picture of me and Ellen together from the wedding... let's just say it was beautiful and I was crying the whole time. And I'm not a crier), I'm just really excited to get married. It's surprising to me that I've been able to maintain such a high level of emotion about something for so long; usually my emotions temporarily spike up or down in reaction to a certain event, but then I stabilize pretty quickly. In this case, every time I do something for the wedding, like order announcements like I did this week (!!) or talk to Caitlin about tents or decide on wedding favors, I get super excited all over again. Something about how I'm marrying the man I've dreamed of marrying for three years still hasn't sunk in yet I guess. 

In a celebration of sorts for reaching the three-month-til mark, I'm blogging about my wedding dress! Get ready for the girly side of Olivia; it doesn't come out too often, although probably more often on the blog. I went dress shopping my first week back in Provo with two of my bridesmaids and one pseudo-bridesmaid (she would totally be one if she could come to the wedding!). Elisabeth and Kristi are married and Ellen was obviously about to get married, so they'd been through the whole wedding dress hunt. And I really respect their fashion opinions (ha and their other opinions), which are a bit different from each other, but I thought it would be a good balance. We went to a few places, but David's Bridal had the most that I liked and was frankly the most helpful. I was a little frustrated that even the David's in Provo had mostly immodest dresses (come on people, we're in Utah). And it was weird to try on things without sleeves. But it was fun to be pampered and oohed and ahhed at. Here are a few we tried:

They really liked this one. I wasn't sold on the tule.

I liked the back of this one, but I'd have to put
fabric behind all the lace on the back, so it
kind of defeated the coolness of it.

I almost got this one. It's sleeveless and lacey
and is the trumpet style I figured out I liked.

By this point I'd knew I'd have to get something altered, and I really liked the lace over another fabric, and I liked the trumpet/mermaid style, which I wasn't expecting to like. I felt really flattered by the woman who helped us because she kept saying how I fit into dresses perfectly like no one else she had helped had! At least if my editing career doesn't work out, I can go into wedding dress modeling. 

Alright Brian, this is where you can't read/see any further. I mean it. Eventually, probably dress seven or eight, we found it (!!!):

All over beaded lace, trumpet gown style,
champagne fabric underneath, ivory lace overlay.
Sleeves not included.

The front and back have really deep Vs that
I'll alter to be shallower.

Ellen holding up the approximate gray of
Brian's suit to make sure it matches :)

I love it. Like love love love. I just felt the most beautiful in it, and that's how I want to feel the day I get married. The most beautiful. So I ordered one and felt great about it the whole time. I kept thinking about it before I finally got it in the mail, like remembering how much I loved it. Sometimes I wonder if it's worth spending so much on a dress I'll wear for a day. Less than 24 hours, actually. But I don't regret getting it in the least.

As soon as it came in, I went with Ellen to Janay's house, our miracle-worker seamstress. Look what she did for Ellen's dress:

Altered to have sleeves and a
sweetheart neckline. Her mom made
the sash. BEAUTIFUL,
both of them :)

Found for a steal in Chicago: not modest

She started working on mine about a month ago. I went back for my second fitting a couple nights ago. She amazingly is able to cut material out of the train and make sleeves! I'll have shallower Vs in the front and the back, and cap sleeves of the champagne material and then lace will go about halfway to my elbow, so shorter than Ellen's sleeves. Here's a picture of the first alterations: shallower Vs. Disregard the messy hair, please.

You can kind of see where Janay has cut the train.
Imagine the sleeves covering my arms like half-way down...

It'll be done in plenty of time for my wedding. My biggest concern is probably how hot I'm going to be getting married in June in this multi-layered dress, but if that's my biggest concern, I'm basically looking for things to complain about. Life is great :)

Oh, and did I mention Brian comes to visit in twelve days?? Another reason I'm perpetually excited. Twelve days until he comes, making a grand total of eleven weeks and three days of not seeing each other, the longest I ever hope to go without seeing him again. I think we can make that happen :)