The first thing I got was my dress

The first thing I got was my dress. You’ll find that I’m less traditional in many ways and this is one of them. Sure, I tried on some dresses in store, but I only went to one salon. It was one of the most expensive in the area, so of course I was immediately turned off by the prices. I am Ms. 12k after all. What would I look buying a $4000 dress that took up a third of the budget? So anyway, I tried on a few gowns, but quickly realized that the only thing I’d get out of it was the style of dress I wanted to wear.

After leaving the bridal salon, I cracked my knuckles and sat down to find the same dresses but for less money. I ended finding my dress, one I hadn’t tried on in the store but fit every characteristic I’d been looking for, on OnceWed.com. The premise of the site is dresses that have been worn (once wed) but were in good condition and were being sold by their owners. I lucked out and found a dress that had never been worn. Brand Spankin’ New. So yes, my dress has been hanging in my basement for 6 months and no, I’m not going to have a fit and fall out if my fiancé sees it. He’s not going to love me any less and it’s really not the end of the world.

The next big item on our list was the venue. We knew we wanted to invite a bunch of people and I thought since we wanted to have it in Detroit, I figured we’d have no problem finding a large, inexpensive venue in the city. Silly girl. This took for-ev-er – about 5 months! Every venue was either too expensive (50+/plate – excuse me!) or too small.

When we made our first rough draft guest list, it came to 250+ people. After realizing we’d never be able to find an affordable venue that big, we cut our grudgingly cut our guest list down. We ended up finding our venue, the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History on a whim. I’d considered it at the start of our search, but a policy on the website proclaimed that there was to be absolutely no dancing on the atrium floor. Not dancing was not a possibility. But what they actually meant was we’d need to rent a dance floor. So it was settled, the venue was chosen.

Past those two big things, we’ve managed to secure our photographer, DJ, and graphic designer for the invitations. I’ve also created and sent the Save The Dates already. We’re really relying on a lot of our talented friends to come through for us. All three of the people I’ve mentioned are good friends of ours with amazing talents. Lucky us. Too bad I don’t have a talent to lend to people. Unless they’re looking for someone with a lot of ideas but no execution, I’m not your girl.

We’ve got lots to get through still, but I’m happy to say the big stuff is out of the way.