My Wedding Dress

When I got engaged, my mom told me she had two wishes for me and my wedding dress. The first was for me to wear her dress. I tried it on and while it fit, my mom got married in the 70s, so the dress had long sleeves and it was made of polyester. It had a neat vintage feel to it, but just wasn't my style. Good thing my mom understood. She said she will use the fabric to make my baby (someday) a baby blanket. Her other wish was for me to purchase my dress from a wonderful organization, "Brides Against Breast Cancer."

This organization has a great story...the founder is a breast cancer survivor from Portland, OR and wanted to do something to give back, so she had her friends donate their wedding gowns and then re-sold them at a fraction of the price and donated the money to grant wishes to women diagnosed with Stage 4 Breast Cancer and not that much time left to live. Word of mouth, her organization grew and pretty soon, she went on the Oprah show and BAM! All of a sudden she started getting donations of new wedding gowns from designers and boutiques all over the country. While she still accepts gently used gowns, the bulk of her collection consist of new gowns - sold at a fraction of the price. A true win-win for everyone...the bride-to-be purchases a beautiful, designer gown at a fraction of the price and all the proceeds go towards a wonderful cause. Brides Against Breast Cancer doesn't have a store, but they travel the country and hold wedding gown shows in nearly every major city.

I went to a wedding gown show with my mom in Seattle in January 2008 and we found "the dress." I knew it immediately once I tried it on. Not only did it fit me perfectly, but it was so simple, but yet elegant at the same time. My mom, Ms. Waterworks, was crying so I knew it was the one. I bought it, along with a slip, and a veil - all of those three things PLUS sales tax all for under $300. It is wonderful.

Fast forward to now. Since it has been awhile since I purchased my dress and we set a wedding date, I was starting to wonder if there was another dress out there that might be more perfect for me. Especially after I saw my best friend, Jen, get married in a gorgeous lacy, antique-looking dress. So I thought it might be worth going back to see if there was another dress in a different style that might fit me better.

So I took the day off to attend another dress show in Portland with my mom and this time, Jen, my matron-of-honor was able to join me. After trying on some vintage dresses, while they were beautiful, I still couldn't bring myself to return my original dress - the simple and elegant one. So there you have it, I didn't purchase a new dress but re-confirmed my original purchase was still "the one."

I would post pics of the dress and me in the dress, but that would be bad luck...so you will have to wait until the BIG DAY!!!

Brides Against Breast Cancer - a great organization

Me shopping and trying on new dresses
Me with Jen, my matron-of-honor and her baby son, Kelley

My mom and I wedding dress shopping for the 2nd time - it is still THE ONE!

We FINALLY set a wedding date!

Well, after being engaged for over 3 years, Clark and I FINALLY set a wedding date and secured a venue for our ceremony and reception! It is official because we put a deposit down - we are getting married at the McMenamin's Edgefield in Portland, OR on Sunday, September 19th, 2010.

We are having an outdoor ceremony in a private garden area and an indoor reception just next to the garden. We chose McMenamin's because of all the wonderful things to do at this place - two par-3 golf courses, a Spa, pool hall, movie theatre, numerous bars and restaurants, and most importantly...they brew their own beer, make their own wine, roast their own coffee, have an ice creamery onsite, and even have their own distillery onsite. There are over 100 guest rooms and it will be a fun mini-weekend getaway (we hope) for our out of town family and friends.

We will have fun weekend activities for our out-of-town guests to participate in including a beer and wine tasting on Friday night, golfing with the Groom on Saturday morning, spa day with the bride on Saturday morning, and movie night on Saturday night. On Sunday, we are having a midday ceremony and a brunch reception afterwards. To check out all the amenities McMenamin's has to offer, see our weekend activities, and learn about how we met, how Clark proposed, and our wedding party, please visit our wedding website we created to keep our family and friends updated: www.mywedding.com/andreaandclark

Cheers to wedding planning and celebrating the big day!

Clark and Andi (and our trusty fuel-efficient Prius) in front of McMenamin's Edgefield