Real Brides: Julia

Me and Taylor met at college, we both got degrees in construction management at Ferris State University. He helped me out a ton in a really tough class and I had zero idea of his interest in me. We both parted ways for the summer and when we came back to school the fall of 2016, something was just different, so I pursued him and the rest is history! We actually got married on our 5 year dating anniversary, October 9th.

My dress, I had no idea what I would choose, I was excited for the process just to see that mystery solved, see my dream wedding dress. I only went to two bridal stores and I ended up getting mine from Three Diamonds Bridal in Sanford. The town of midland where I’m from, Sanford, and several other surrounding areas were dramatically effected by the flooding in the dame break earlier that year and I knew how much their businesses suffered and I really really wanted to get my dress from them so I could support them. They certainly delivered! I had two dresses I was stuck on before this one, two dresses so vastly different from each other that I just wasn’t sure. I felt like one was the princess version of me and the other was the party version of me. So I decided to sleep on it. So arriving at Three Diamonds Bridal the following evening my mom and sister who came with me, I had a gut feeling my sister would be the one to choose “the one”. So I actually tried on two dresses very similar to mine, that my sister picked out, but I liked the front of one and the back of the other. The consultant goes “wait a second” my dress had been in the room of the previous bride’s but fell off the hanger so it was not on the floor. So it was meant to be, I put it on and the consultant added the belt and it just really added something, and then once the veil was added, that was it. I just stared at myself and I didn’t feel like it was several different versions of me but it was all of me, I felt like a bride, which is what you should feel like. Through the whole process I really just wanted to show Taylor and ask his opinion, because he was the one person I wanted to see it the most. So I think that says a lot too.

Every time I tried my dress on during fittings I love it more and more, I could never stop staring at myself in it and seeing it the day of and all the pictures after; it’s just flawless. Timeless. And very me.