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Last September we headed down to attend a fitness retreat in Southern California. Around the same time I was on the hunt for my wedding dress. We had only gone shopping for dresses once before. On a weekend we headed to Seattle and went to a super cute boutique that my moms friend owns. I found two cute dresses but couldn't decide between the two, feeling like something was missing on both of them. I loved them but ultimately didn't feel like either of them were the one. When we returned home I was searching online for other dress options and realized I pinned the same dress on Pinterest over and over and over again. Realizing quickly the dress I pinned probably cost an arm and a leg, I wanted to look it up anyways and see what this dress was or who was the designer, I just had to know! I mean, you only get married once right? I was already thinking of ways to justify the cost to Ryan. Once I found the dress online I was happily surprised to see it was just in our budget! I had to call around to see where the retailers were that had this dress and one of the stores that had it just happened to be located near the airport in California that we fly into for our retreat! Once we arrived in California we grabbed some lunch at one of our favorite places in fashion island called lemonade. SO GOOD! After that we headed to the dress shop just south of where we were. The shop is called The White Dress in Carona Del Mar, CA. When we arrived I told the girl helping us the dress I came to try on and she agreed it was a gorgeous choice and assumed it would look great on me but really wanted me to try on a couple others while I was already there just in case. We talked about the style and feel of the wedding that we were going for and what types of things I feel most comfortable in. After debating pros and cons to different styles she quickly narrowed down a few other gowns to try on. I went into the fitting room and came out with the first gown, it was beautiful but everyone agreed it just wasn't perfect. The same thing happened to the 2 dresses I tried on after that and we quickly became eager to see what the dress we came all the way from Oregon to see looked like. I slipped into the dress in the fitting room and knew right away it was the one. The feeling I had when I put it on and the fact that there wasn't one thing I wished that was different about it. I wanted to compose myself and not act too excited so I could see their reactions when I came out in hopes for honest options. I walked out with anticipation and butterflies in my stomach and when I saw the look on their faces and saw my mom in tears I knew it was meant to be, I found my dress! The girl helping us said it was the quickest dress find she had ever seen. Hey, when you know, you know right?! For more of my tips for finding the perfect wedding dress you can find a whole post I did on it HERE. Hope you enjoy some clips from the beginning of our girls trip to Cali and the process of finding my dress!
