Just trust me.

Before becoming engaged, I occasionally browsed through a wedding magazine, here or there... nothing too serious. (Truth: I had two wedding magazine subscriptions starting freshman year of college and I inherited most of my SIL's old magazines after she married my brother).  So, when a girl who has weddings on the brain accumulates a five-foot stack (no joke) of wedding magazines, it's really no surprise that she'll give into temptation and officially start brainstorming wedding ideas.  For me, my eyes could only focus on one thing: the dress.

The inner control freak in me was dead-set on having my dress picked out before I even got engaged.  Looking back, I think I wanted to have my dress picked out in advance to impress my friends and family with my level of devotion to weddings in general.  I can't even tell you how many times I found a picture, showed it off to my mom, and asserted "This is my dress."  Sometimes my mom agreed, and sometimes she balked.  Either way, I figured it didn't matter since it was my dress and I knew what I was looking for, since it's my dress for my wedding.  Without further ado, here are some pictures of dresses that I was sure were "it":

Image via Jim Hjelm (style JH8904)

Image via Jim Hjelm (style JH8850)

Image via Jim Hjelm (style JH8859)

Image via Jim Hjelm (style JH8663)

Image via WeddingBee Classifieds / Dress by Paloma Blanca (style 3854)

Image via Pizazz! Wedding Boutique / Dress by Maggie Sottero (style Vogue Royale)

 (Fun fact: I decided this was THE DRESS about an hour before Mr. Snow Cone surprised me and proposed!)

Image via Allure Bridals (style 8770)

OK, congratulations on making it to the end of the parade of wedding dresses.  As you can see from the pictures, my wedding dress checklist consisted of:

- largely made of lace/tons of lace detailing

- straps and/or cap sleeves

- interesting back, maybe a cut-out?

- nothing too poofy or too big in general

- a ribbon sash around the waist

I was pretty much set on this checklist; I couldn't even fathom the need to try on any other style, since I had done my hours upon hours of research.  My self-appointed "expertise," combined with the fact that all of my previous dress shopping (proms and high school formals) always ended after about 3 or 4 dresses, made me absolutely positive that finding a wedding dress would be nothing more than a piece o' cake.  Trust me, I knew what I wanted!  Just trust me! 

Did you have a dream dress picked out before even getting engaged?  Or, were you smarter and actually able to let experience rather than just magazine photos sway you in your search?