The dress is ordered!

After a very busy Memorial Day weekend, I'm back on track with wedding stuff.

Last Saturday Stephanie (my future sister-in-law), Megan (maid of honor) and I met up at I Do I Do Bridal to order my dress. They let me try it on again to take pictures. I tried on a couple different veils, and one of the employees (actually, I think she's the owner) offered to give me an updo so I could get the full picture. It was great. We picked out a pearl accented veil and headpiece and snapped a few pictures.

The bridal shop was kind enough to print out a photo on the spot of me in the dress. Since I've got about six months to wait for the dress, it's nice to leave the store with something.

We looked at the bridesmaid dresses in stock, but we didn't find anything like what we're after. Almost all of the dresses were made with heavy satin -- not really ideal for a late May wedding in Phoenix. Plus, I'm hoping the dresses can become "little black dresses" for each maid's wardrobe following the wedding. We'll see.

Expect updates on catering plans later this week.

Is this hairdo 'Shear Genius'?

Several people have asked how I'm going to wear my hair on the big day. I really had no idea until I started trying on dresses and saw how great it looks with my hair up.

Admittedly, this doesn't really narrow things down that much.

However, I've been watching "Shear Genius" -- the latest competition-based reality show on Bravo -- and this week's challenge was to create wedding 'dos. Each team of stylists had to create styles for the bride, her maid of honor and her mom. I really hated most of the hairstyles, but the winning team's bridal creation was AWESOME. Whether it'll work with my hair, I don't know.

It's sleek and modern. The front is simple, but the back is intricate hair art. However, it may be a bit much for me -- do I have enough hair for that?

Let me know what you think of it. (See pictures of the front and side.)

We set the date and booked the venue

We've set the date.

Sure, we thought we had it set. Unfortunately, our top three venues were already booked on April 5. Our second choice -- Saturday, May 24, 2008 -- was open at the Phoenix Art Museum, so we snagged it while we could.

That is the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend. Neither of our families has a big, annual Memorial Day blowout, so we thought this would allow the out-of-towners (read: Chelsea's family) extra travel time, and still avoid the ridiculous heat of Phoenix summers.

As mentioned above, this does mean we went for our top choice (and yours from the feedback I've been getting) of locations: the Phoenix Art Museum.

It's so exciting.

Also, I've decided to go with the dress pictured in the previous post. I tried on what felt like hundreds (it was probably more like 50) dresses that week, and just kept coming back to it. So, now I'm just trying to get a decent price on it.