the dress + the veil

I can add two big fat red check marks on my list - my wedding dress and my veil.
No offense to other brides out there! But nothing could have dragged me into a bridal store - visions of squealing girls and heavy hideous gowns and crying bridezillas came to mind. I wanted to get my dress made. But at the request of john I dragged myself to Ritche on Avenue road with my parents and sister in tow yesterday morning. Let me tell you that i was more excited about having breakfast at Mcdonalds.
A lovely lady named Anna helped me out. Since I was unprepared, I flipped through a binder of dresses and marked them as i went (i never leave home without floss and post-it page markers), as the girls next door oohed and ahhed over their friend bride-to-be.
Anna brought in five dresses. I tried on the first and second but didn't really like them.
Oh, but the third dress! When I tried it on, I just knew. And that's when i started crying. I didn't even have to try on the others.
Anna clamped me up and I went to show my parents. My sister (also the MOH) and mom started crying and my dad tried not to look because he wanted to reserve all his feelings for the day of.
Anna showed me some samples of veils and I fell in love with a chapel veil lined with lace. It was quite a splurge but I wanted to make sure that the veil is as translucent as possible in pictures.
I gave Anna multiple hugs, thanked her profusely and left feeling even more excited. All my prejudices of bridal stores were dissolved that Saturday afternoon.