Wedding Details: What I Wore

So I’ve already done an in-depth post about designing my wedding dress but I wanted to do a separate recap on other dresses and accessories I wore for my rehearsal, ceremony and reception! One of the reasons for these in-depth wedding posts is for the sake of posterity, but I also loved gathering inspo from other brides to plan out what I wanted for my special day so I hope it helps current brides too.

Rehearsal Dinner

Our rehearsal dinner wasn’t as fancy as the original game plan, but I still wanted to dress up. I had bought a dress for the occasion and where else would I wear a fancy white cocktail dress? I especially wanted to wear it considering it took me forever to find a rehearsal dinner dress that matched my personality and that I truly loved! I love looking back on our rehearsal night. It was a super sweet (and super chaotic) whirlwind of a night that ended with Darrell and I sitting at the counter working on final wedding prep with my sister and Clayton, singing and dancing, just enjoying the moment.

You probably won’t believe me when I say I got this dress from Walmart. Yep. Well Walmart.com anyway. Crazy part is, it’s actually made from the exact same type of material as my actual wedding dress! Unfortunately, it just sold out at Walmart.com. I was able to track it down from the company I technically bought it from though the Walmart online marketplace. You can find the Adrianna Papell Bow-Back Mini Party Dress in Ivory here in just a few sizes for only $50.99.

I adore this dress! The structure and classic feminine details are so lovely and the bow was absolute perfection, and what sold me on this dress!

For shoes, I wore my mother’s wedding shoes on our rehearsal night. When I went through some keepsakes with my mom from my parents’ wedding, I tried on her shoes and they fit perfectly. The shoes were a really classic style and I loved the sentiment of wearing something of my mom’s.

Getting Ready

Since everything was pushed up, I hadn’t picked up some items like my wedding PJs yet and I randomly couldn’t find the bridesmaids’ pajama pants that day. Since my bridesmaids’ role looked pretty different in the new plan, they just came dressed up and ready to go. I grabbed a men’s button down from Walmart and threw on white jeans for “getting ready photos.”

Heart Eyes

I found these cute white heart shaped sunglasses on Amazon that I thought would be fun to wear on the honeymoon and soon after found some adorable light pink heart eyes sunglasses for my flower girls so I added them to their gifts and the photos were adorable!!

Veil

My veil was another item I had a hard time finding. I knew I wanted the horsehair trim but I wasn’t sure on length and I was blown away by the price tag on most. I found this 2” Horsehair Tulle Veil on Etsy. I consulted Anomalie when trying to decide on a length and went with the 54” inch Waltz length veil. I loved how high it set on my head with my ballerina bun. It made me feel like the star in a chick flick movie with the beautiful wedding at the end lol.

My Shoes!

My Jack Rogers are one of my FAVORITE accessories from the entire wedding! I love Jack Rogers for their classic look and comfort. I have worn them for years now and I basically live in them every April to October. When deciding on shoes I knew I didn’t want to wear heels since it is a long day and I didn’t want painful feet to damper my mood! These adorable “I DO” Jack Rogers are currently on sale!

Mizpah

When my maternal grandparents were dating, my grandpa gave my grandma this mizpah which is a broken coin jewelry that a person would give their lover when they’d have to be apart for a while. My mom wore it on this ribbon tied around her ankle on her wedding day. My sister carried on the tradition and wore it tied to her ankle on her wedding day and I was honored to have the opportunity to wear it on my wedding day as well!

Side note: Yes, I am aware I have weird spray tan marks on my foot and I needed a pedicure… limited time and salons had already closed!! Also, I had gotten my very first spray tan exactly a week prior to the day we got married. It was my test run before the wedding, so in no plan did I think I’d be getting married 7 days into a spray tan and no time or nowhere open to go and do anything to make it better. I am honestly still in shock I didn’t have a meltdown about the fading spray tan alone in those wild few days. But looking back at photos, for the most part I think it looked okay!!

Perfume

I really really wanted the Tiffany & Co. perfume “Intense” for my wedding day and a few months prior finally splurged and bought it. I later found out Darrell had planned to buy it for me as a wedding gift… Oops.

Jewelry

For jewelry, I wanted a little tiny bit of glitz but something still understated. I found this earrings, bracelet and necklace set on Etsy. It was more reasonably priced than most options I considered and I liked that it wasn’t too trendy but still elegant.

My Great Grandmother’s Engagement Ring

I have always admired my Great Grandma Alice’s engagement ring. It’s intricate design and white sapphire are so beautiful. The ring has become very frail and needs some repair so no one ever wears it but I begged my mom to let me borrow it for the wedding. The photo below shows my mother placing it on my right hand while getting ready.

Hankie

When I was an infant, my mom and paternal grandmother decided to make me a bonnet. The project morphed into a hankie bonnet which can be transformed from bonnet to hankie and back to a bonnet, over and over again and passed down through a family. It is intended to be given as a gift to a new mom. If she has a girl, the baby will wear the bonnet as an infant and then it will be tucked away until their wedding when a few stitches are clipped and it turns into a hankie. If she were to have a daughter one day, it would continue in the same fashion, but if she were to have a son, he wears it as a bonnet as an infant and then on his wedding day gives it to his bride as a hankie to carry.

The “project” soon became a side craft business for my mom and as a little girl and up through my teen years, I would help her make the bonnets to sell in state park gift shops and other little stores all over. From holding my finger out for mom to tie the tiny bows for the bonnet details, to sewing the bonnets from beginning to end myself in college, the “Magic Hankie Bonnets” have been a special project. It was one of the most important accessories I wanted to have with me that day.

Reception Dress

While I didn’t actually wear this dress until right before we left, the intent was that when we left the originally planned wedding, we were supposed to get in a car and immediately drive to Nashville to catch a flight for our honeymoon the next morning. I didn’t want to take my big wedding dress with me and due to the timeline for the evening’s festivities, it just made the most sense to leave the wedding in something easier to pack and it was an opportunity to add a little more flair to my “look” by going with a different silhouette and in this case, a whole bunch of sequins!! This was a David’s Bridal dress that went really fast on their $99 dress sale - unfortunately it’s no longer sold.

My Something Borrowed, Blue, Old and New

Something Borrowed: The mizpah.

Something Blue: The ribbon for the mizpah and the stitching for “I DO” on my shoes.

Something Old: My great grandmother’s engagement ring.

Something New: My dress, veil and jewelry.

And my dad (symbolically) put a penny in my shoe. Wearing sandals made it difficult to keep in the shoe and he spent several hours going around town to try to find a 2020 penny for my shoe.

Mink Fur Stole

This beautiful mink fur stole belonged to my Great Aunt Bubbles (or LaRue but we always called her “Bubbles”) She left it to either my grandmother or my mom and now I have it. It’s a gorgeous treasure and it made me feel very “old hollywood” glamorous in my sequin sheath. It was so sweet to have a little piece of Aunt Bubbles spunky personality with my on my wedding day! We miss her very much.

I would love to hear what special traditions or treasures you incorporated into your own wedding day or plan to incorporate! For what turned out to be soooo different than our original wedding day plan, these little things played a big role in this momentous day.

Update: Forgot to mention my garter, although nothing special, is from Amazon.