Jan's Journey: Zach and Jan Wedding: dream dress, dream price.

I thought I would take a quick study break to take a minute to reveal my biggest secret of my wedding.

I got my dream dress and even got to design it for under $400 (including the belt around the waist).

Crazy right? I thought so too. BUT. Since it worked like a complete dream for me I wanted to share the secret with each bride to be.

I found a dress on Pinterest and tried to find out where that bride had purchased her dress. There were some things I loved about the dress but other things I wasn't too fond of. In any case, I wanted to find the store so I could look there myself. Turns out it lead my to an Etsy page. This girl had her dress made and then sent to her. I pondered the idea and was terrified but extremely interested. I spent HOURS looking at different Etsy stores. Once I found one I liked I would look at every review and try to find the good reviews and the most terrible ones. I would follow one shop and then it would bring up related shops and on and on I went for, like I said, hours. I finally came to a lady name Angel. Angel had over 300 reviews on wedding dresses alone that she had made. I still wasn't so sold on the idea so I emailed her. I had her send pictures of dresses she was currently working on and had her send me pictures of dresses she had done in the past. Her work was incredible.

Since I helped model some wedding dresses my senior year of high school for Allyses Bridal, I knew what I liked and what I didn't like. (Side note: if you want to do this, go try on dresses before you just find a picture of what you like. Sometimes you like something completely different of what you thought you would like.) I want something simple that I would be able to move freely in but also something modest and something I felt fit my personality. After I decided to may be have Angel make my dress I looked at Pinterest for what I had in mind. I found something VERY similar and then tried to find every angel of the dress I could. I then sent those pictures to Angel with the adjustments I would want made. I wanted a different fabric for the sleeve, no lace appliqué around the waist, and made very sure she knew I needed it to be modest for where I would be getting married. Angel was SO good to work with! She confirmed that she could create the dress and repeated all the differences I wanted in more "sewing" terms, and was very patient. She also sent a measurement guide and told me what measurements I would need to take if I went through with the purchase. There were some fears, I'm not going to lie. She lives in China so I was nervous about quality and if it would arrive on time, I worried if I would measure correctly, if the dress would even fit, etc. BUT I knew if I really didn't like how it turned out I could have my aunt who is a seamstress work some magic or try and sell it online for what I paid for and find a dress at a bridal store.

So I went through with it.

Angel sent me pictures of how to measure the places that needed to be measured and said she would have it done and to me in 4 weeks. Pretty great I thought. I stayed in touch with Angel the entire time she made my dress. I had her send me pictures every other day or so so that I could see how things were coming along and she even let me make slight modifications if something wasn't how I wanted it. She was SO patient and easy to work with. PLUS. My dress was at my door step in only 16 days. She knew I was stressed with how little time I had so she made sure it was done quickly. Her name fits her quite well I think.

So did it fit?

LIKE A DREAM!!! Way better than I would have EVER thought. I didn't need a single alteration. Not even one. I then searched Etsy again to find a belt to add a little to the dress.

There was only one thing I wish I would have done different. And it was my own fault. I was sure that I would wear Toms when I got married. I did a pageant where we did the whole heal thing and was self conscious about how I walked in them. (It's a pageant thing.) So when I measured my length that I would like the dress I did it in Toms. After we got our engagement pictures back we thought it would look better if I was in heels. SO my dress was a smich shorter than I would have preferred but still perfect.

How was the quality?

Like I bought it from a bridal store. Seriously. I'm almost a little worried about writing this to how people will look at my dress now, BUT I had to share this hidden gem of wedding planning. I got so many compliments of how simple and elegant it was. You would have never known the difference.

Why did I do it this way?

I'm not usually a risk taker. And it wasn't that I couldn't afford an expensive dress.. However, I got to design exactly how I wanted my dress to be. It was totally unique and totally me. I LOVED IT. And that is how every girl should feel about her wedding dress. That's why I wanted to share this. YOU can have your dream dress for a dream price.

Were you nervous?

Yes. Swear words, yes. At one point I even thought "this isn't going to work.. what were you thinking?!" BUT it did. Like a dream. I know there are some people who just can't do it like this. You're afraid that something that is a BIG part of the big day will go totally wrong. That's okay! Find you dream dress at a near by bridal shop! They are great too! Just know you have a fantastic reference to use Angel.

What's her contact information?

You can reach her by email: AngelWen79@gmail.com

If you are nervous about it, I would LOVE to help you or answer questions. Angel and I become quite close and as I recommend people to her I send her an email. We have stayed in touch so if you need any help at all please let me know.

Side note: she is not paying me to write this. She actually has no idea I'm writing this. I just wanted to share this secret so that other girls have options. :)

Here are pictures of my dress.

I couldn't find a great picture of the back but it had a slight "V"

Plus a little add in: Zach got his suit from True Gentlemen. His good friend owns the company and does an AMAZING job. You can find them on instagram with: @truegentlemansupplyco or there website here. They let you customize every inch of the suit. Zach even put our wedding date in the suit! They are a great company. If you use them let them know Zach and Jan sent you :) Again they aren't paying me to do this.

Here are some pictures of Zach's suit: