Wedding Deets - THE DRESS

I know!  

It's kind of the best part if you're into that kind of thing. 

I mean, minus the whole "blah blah blah partner in life, together forever, feel so great to have found the one...."

I'm more about the dress, myself. 

Just kidding.  

Oh and also.  No, I'm not showing you my dang wedding dress.  I know a lot of mothers (ours, and others), are about to have some sort of traditional FIT (you, not YOU!!), so don't worry.  The man (or anyone besides my mama and sisters) won't see the dress until August 10.  

Phew. 

What I want to tell you about is WHERE I got my dress.  I got it in a large convention room in a hotel.  A room that had THOUSANDS of other dresses, connected to a wedding trade show, and my designer dress cost $500.  

I got my dress from Brides Against Breast Cancer Tour of Gowns, and if you don't know about these guys yet, you need to RIGHT NOW.  

BABC accepts used or new dresses - fully donated, and then sells them at a huge discount all over the country.  Proceeds go to provide free services for breast cancer patients and their families.  Last year $2million-ish was donated.  That's a lot of services!  

Basically, it went like this.  I didn't want to spend $3,000 on a dress, and sometimes the cheaper dresses just....aren't? something....for a girl who isn't 115lbs and super tan all the time.  Someone had heard about this show coming to Greenville, and we decided to "check it out" just for fun.  Suddenly, we were able to spend what we wanted to on a gorgeous dress AND have all the proceeds go to a great cause.  

It was kind of epic.  I bought the first dress I tried on, and we had a blast- events like this have such a wonderful atmosphere.  They're almost entirely volunteer-run, and everyone is excited to be there.  

After we get married, I'm going to donate my dress right back so that some other person can enjoy it AND it can keep working for the cause.  I know some people save their dresses for one reason or another, and that's perfectly fine, but I also know some women who save their dresses because they aren't sure what else to do with it, and selling it for money seems kind of cold.  I GET that, and if you're in that boat, why not donate your dress to BABC?  I can't think of a better cause, and how fitting, isn't it, that a dress that can make ANYONE feel girly and lovely can be used to benefit women with a disease that sometimes can take away feelings of femininity altogether. 

Got any other philanthropic wedding things that I should be thinking about in our final few weeks of planning?  I'd love to hear about them!

43 days, too.  <3