The Story of Us: The Dress + A Father's Blessing {Part 17}

We flew down the 3rd weekend of February and had a jam-packed 2 & a half days planned!
Wedding dress shopping, a dermatologist appointment, and Ryan asking permission from my dad to marry my awesome self.

My wedding dress shopping experience was interesting to say the least. I had tried on a couple of *ahem* "modest" dresses in Utah and was horrified with the fit. These "modest" dresses obviously didn't like to accommodate a bust-line, which I obviously have. Suffice it to say, I looked like a stuffed sausage or like I was wearing a potato sack and was therefore discouraged with dress shopping.

Luckily, my mom had done some prep work before my weekend in CA {of course}, and found a Vera Wang line of dresses at David's Bridal that was inspired by the movie "My Fair Lady" featuring Audrey Hepburn {my absolute favorite movie of all time & one of my absolute favorite designers}...so it was pretty much meant to be! I took my mom and Aunt Carol, tried on the first dress and that was it. DONE. I tried on a couple other dresses just for fun...but the first dress was definitely it. It complemented my shape PERFECTLY and looked like it had been made just for me. The only issue? It was strapless.

I was encouraged by the non-LDS saleswomen to wear a bolero with the Vera Wang dress...over my dead body. I may be overdramatic, but what is the point of purchasing a gorgeous dress then ruining the integrity of it by throwing a cheap bolero over the top?! Despite my disgust with the idea of a bolero, I still needed sleeves on my dress to make it appropriate in order to be married for all time & eternity in the San Diego temple. Thankfully, my dress was saved by a extremely talented woman in my home ward who had offered to add sleeves and to do alterations on my dress as a wedding present. She even has a post on her sewing blog about how she did it, it's super cool!

After procuring the dress, I had a dermatologist appointment to attend. They did the typical "you're butt white and we need to look at the bazillion moles you have on your body" test, when I noticed something strange on my right forearm. I pointed out the suspicious mole to my doctor, then he scraped it off and sent it out for testing.

We are now almost to the close of our weekend...we are leaving Sunday afternoon and I'm still wondering when Ryan was going to ask my dad for permission {yet again, I'm lacking some major patience}. He randomly disappears Saturday night...and it hits me, THIS IS IT. My dad had cornered Ryan upstairs and I was sooo tempted to creep up there to eavesdrop on what was being said. What the heck was going on?! After almost 3 hours, they both walked into the living room all smiles :) Permission had been granted under many conditions, one of them being that Ryan would make sure I finished my college degree {like that was ever in question??}.

After our short & productive weekend we jet our way back to school to start making more plans...but how much planning can I even get done without a ring on my finger?!