wedding dress shopping. cake.

goooooood morning our lovies,

today & tomorrow we'll be sharing our wedding dress shopping stories. like most newly engaged woman finding "the dress" was high on our priority list! both of us being into "fashion & style" we knew all of our family & friends would be highly anticipating seeing what we had chosen for the big day. however, from a young age our mother always stressed that the day we got married should be about the marriage and not the wedding. verrrrry sound advice, in fact some of the best advice we've ever been given. the other best advice we've heard about marriage is "happy wife, happy life!"

so with out further adieu, her's cake's story while she hunted for "the dress" in the battlefields known, as wedding dress shopping!

the first thing cake did as a newly engaged woman was buy all the bridal magazines and tear out all the dresses she could found and stuff them into clear plastic sheets and categorized them in a white binder. but the sad truth was there weren't that many she liked.  she immediately knew she didn't want ruching, heavy beading, pick ups, white-white dress, heavy satin . . . .  and the list went on and on and on; but on the other hand she didn't know what she wanted, was her vibe boho? vintage? classic? short? strapless? lace?

sooooooo, she set a date that worked for her mom & valley and booked her first appointment at Priscilla of Boston, at their Chicago location. her consultant politely looked at all the pictures cake had provided and listened to the long list of things she didn't want. ha. once the consultant came back with dresses she asked cake, "okay, which one is your least favorite?" after some thought she pointed to a melissa sweet drapey, cowl-back dress.

but you guys, once she had it on and walked out of that fitting room . . . . whoa. she looked tall, elegant, classic, red-carpet ready, statuesque . . . .  any maybe a little Grecian too. which unfortunately a nearby costumer who was with another bride commented on as well, "you look so beautiful and like a Grecian goddess!"  it was so sweet but unfortunately cake couldn't get the comment out of her head, she didn't want to look Grecian. ugh. the hunt continued.

she made appointments are david's bridal, mary's chicago brial salon, another small bridal boutique in chicago . . . .  but she couldn't get the first melissa sweet dress out of her head. so she gathered all three of her sisters, mom, and future mother in law and booked another appointment at Priscilla of Boston. Of course in the mean time she had done ooooodles of googling and had firmly decided she could make the dress more of a vintage 1930s and not Grecian, if she added the right accessories. so off cake & her entourage went to re-try on the first dress. face plant. in the end cake said "yes to the dress" and everyone reassured her that with the right styling the dress would "totally read as vintage NOT Grecian"

one of the stylings cake found that convinced her she could make the dress her own.

now is the time for cake to introduce you to Veronica Shaeffer, aka the most amazing woman a bride could know. she creates custom bridal dresses & accessories while mixing vintage and classic vibes together. hello, she's perfect! she made a cap like head piece with a detachable cathedral length veil. it was beautiful and made all the difference. cake topped off the look with a faux bob hair style, red lips, a vintage Chanel bracelet, valley's signet pinky ring, and cake's signature black nail polish.

up close look at the cap that was created for cake's 1930s wedding vibe

here you can see the cathedral veil is attached

and now the veil is gone leaving just the bridal cap

the melissa sweet dress cake bought was just over $1500, for those of you who are wondering. no need to go crazy and spend thousands of dollars. not that there is anything wrong with that but for us it just seems silly. and in the end our mom's advice had sunk in. so while the whole process was fun and 100% worth it cake wanted to make sure the whole wedding day was about the marriage and not just a wedding.

professional photos by peter thurin

hope you enjoyed.
tomorrow it's valley's turn,
just wait until you hear how untraditional her wedding dress shopping was :)

x&o.

cake & valley

ps. here's a picture of little baby georgi with cake's wedding veil. see it really is all in the styling <3