Real Brides: Eva

Photography: Raymond Hamlin Photography

Photographer's Instagram: @rhamlinphoto

My wife Alissa and I first met, as all good millennials do, through a dating app and started chatting on Election Day 2016. We texted for a couple of days before meeting, and our first date was on November 12, 2016. Our date was an 8-hour marathon of nonstop talking. It consisted of lots of laughter, a fun dinner at the Dog & Cask on Route 17 in NJ (where we stayed until closing), and an awkward kiss. Our love story unfolded pretty quickly. As soon as we started talking, any other dating prospect seemed irrelevant. On our second date, Alissa asked Eva if she would ever consider moving to Connecticut as Alissa was planning to move there in the near future. So you can see, given that we live in Stamford now, things turned out well and according to Alissa's plan. Eva quickly learned that Alissa was a 7 am texter, determined planner, and someone who still believed in making a relationship official by asking the question, “Will you be my girlfriend?”. Alissa quickly learned that she was, in fact, attracted to a blonde, that Eva wanted to save the world, and that Eva and her pit bull Delphi were a packaged deal. (Delphi moved in as well, and is one happy furry daughter!)

I started looking at dresses in December of 2019, just a few days after Alissa proposed, and I could not stop Googling all the different style possibilities. I looked through almost every designer, from budget-friendly to more high-end, and I continuously went back to two Moonlight bridal styles: J6777 and J6780. Everybody told me that I had so much time, since we were anticipating a 1.5 year-long engagement, but I couldn't help myself and kept dreaming of my wedding day look. In June of 2020, after browsing online through what felt like a thousand dresses, I knew that one of the Moonlight bridal styles I originally liked was the perfect dress for me. I called a handful of stores in the tri-state area and none of them had these dresses on site. I had an amazing experience at Lady Gray Bridal in Beacon, NY. Though these dresses were not at the store, Tina assured me that she would do her best to get them shipped in from Moonlight. She worked it out and although I tried a couple of other dresses at the store, the two from Moonlight that I requested were both beautiful. J6780 blew me away and without a doubt completed my wedding day. I am grateful for Moonlight Bridal and for Tina at Lady Gray Bridal for making my wedding day vision come to life.