Someday...

You know, it's really hilarious... Here I am, really learning who I am as a woman and enjoying the single life (that's enjoying living single, not enjoying the "singles scene" where everyone's looking to get laid), and becoming even more One with God than before... And what does He do? He turns around and tells me that it's now OK to start thinking about what kind of human husband I'd like, what kind of wedding and marriage I'd be most happy with, etc. No, it's not ok to go out and start looking the men over... That's so not the point. This is a very healing thing for me. Over the years, I lost heart, lost my dreams, and in the end gave up on it all. God's made it clear that it's now alright to rebuild those dreams - with Him at the center of everything. This time, He'll be the One to make these dreams come true, because they are His Dreams for me, His Beloved one. My heart will always be His alone, and His heart has plans for me. My dreams are His dreams, and really, they are about Him - yet it is His desire that they be lived out in marriage between myself and a man who's heart also belongs to Him.

So, of course, the first "stop" on my journey towards those dreams is at the bridal shops, heh. I've been tempted to just get married in the Wedding dress I was Baptised in. I may still do that. But it's fun to look around and see what's out there. I have old bridal catalogues from years past sitting on my bookshelf, and those are fun too, but, well, this is the age of the Internet, so LOL, www.bridalsitesgalore.com, here I come ;) And you, dear reader, get to join me on my adventure :D

My first 2 stops are at David's Bridal and Alfred Angelo's sites. I'll admit, I'm a "sleeves" woman and don't see a lot here that really makes me say "Yes! This is my dress!" But I'll pick out a few from each site that I like for one reason or another and put the links here.

Note: If any of these have color in the dresses, please understand that my dress will be pure white. I can't help what the dressmakers did in choosing colored fabrics/decorations for the dresses in any of these pictures.

Note2: If you are planning to actually view a large number of these, and aren't using FireFox, I guess in all seriousness, I have to "pop the question"... WWHHHYYYYY???????? Here, have a glass of refreshing FF to ease your IE pain! Oh, and for all those links below, you might want to use the Tabbed Browsing feature of FireFox by right clicking on each of the links below and choosing "Open Link in New Tab". Still don't want Fire Fox on your system (ANY platform!!!)??? Then please read my plea for your sanity at the bottom of this page, ok?

Note3: This is just a list of my personal favorites from each site. For a complete list, click here.

David's Bridal (Wedding Stories)
Style V8757
Style CQ102 (Includes a video!)
Style T8778 (I'd want the sashe to be white, with lace and a diamond edge)
Style 9T8274 (This dress is too big even for me! But I like the ideas implemented in it.)
Style V8518
Style T8619 (Same notes on the "sashe" as above)
Style CQ162
Style T8274
Style 2681
Style T8077
Style E8561 (Love the veil too :D)

Alfred Angelo's (Advanced Search Tool)
Style 1239
Style 1163
Style 1482
Style 1505

Hmm... I seriousely need to loose some weight. I'm glad I have time to do that ;)

Ok, I just checked out Bride Couture and JC Penneys Bridal Shop, and I don't suggest either one if you are looking for a wedding dress. The dresses at Bride Couture are just horrible in my estimation, and Penneys doesn't have any wedding dresses posted online for some wacko, unimaginable reason. Oh lands. I forgot. If you want to view wedding dresses at The Knot, you have to join them, and they INSIST that you give them a wedding date! Oker-dokers, I'll go dream elsewhere... Oh, this is cool - NetBride.com has this list of sites I can go to and view their wedding gowns! Yay! That's a bit easier than Googling for the perfect wedding gown ;p

Bonnie.com - Wow. At first I thought these were all Plus sized models. Then I realized... They are all women who have A-typical body shapes in general, i.e., they are just normal women who aren't Barbie-dolls. Um, well, the "Unforgetable" section of this site does seem to be Hitlers Paradise - the majority of the models are blonde, heh.

-- Unforgetable Collection
Style 1511
Style 1614
Style 1501 (Love the sleeves.)

-- Bonnie Collection
Style 507
Style 514
Style 533 (Um, I think I may just shop here after I've gotten engaged...)

You know, Bonnie style 533 really is "me" more than all the other ones on this page, though I obviousely do like others as well. But this one... Ah, BEAUTIFUL!!!!!! In fact, I think I've found my dress ;)

Hmm... Now, as for the other stuff, I don't know. I'm a bit hesitant to get into the whole cake, party favors, etc. thing. I think I'd like my grooms input on that. Yes, God's opinion matters to me too. The thing is that my human husband doesn't get a choice in what I wear on my wedding day (sorry hon, when you wind up reading this ;p). Thats ME in there, and my dress is going to be an expression of who I am and what he's going to be living with for the rest of his days. He can't touch that - heh, well, not before the honeymoon anyhow :p So anyway, as far as the cake and stuff goes, that'll have to wait until I've gotten engaged and my future husband has a chance to say what he wants for those things. Yes, I do believe in the groom actually giving some input for his OWN wedding day! LOL - weddings might "be about the bride" in most cases, but in this case, I want that day to be about us BOTH ;)

As for what I want my husband to be like... I think I'll keep that part of the blog saved as a draft, and then after he's proposed, I'll "unveil the list" so we can all poke fun at how he did/didn't "match up" *snickers and sqeals in delight*!

Note to all those who still think FireFox is a bad idea:

Awwe, come on - it's EASY! You're going to love it! And believe me, FF will more than forgive you for losing your browsing-virginity to IE... It'll even ask you to copy over your Favorite Places to it's (much better) Bookmarks feature. That's right, there's a new love in your life, and BELIEVE ME, you'll NEVER want to go back, except for an occasional sip of Java (which you can download from Sun if you have a high-speed connection - that will save you from EVER going back to IE again).

With FF, you've won the lottery - it even has all these really cool features you can add-on for free, such as photo-zooming, ad-blocking, web-developer tools (a MUST HAVE in today's day and age), and more. It'll even have fewer bugs when showing you web sites that use a technology called .CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). That's really super important if you ever decide to make your own web site. With IE (BOOO!!!) you have to stick in all these extra bug-fixes, or else put extra files on your server, blah blah... What a pain. FireFox doesn't need all those bug-fixes! It just gets it right the first time.

Still not convinced? Try this on for size - security issues. That's right - don't think your IE browser is a safe place to store passwords, especially to banking institutions or web sites that hold a lot of personally identifying information for you and your kids. IE has a bad rep for leaking that private info to third parties who hack it all the time. It's just NOT as safe. Why is FireFox safe? Simple - everyone else on the planet but apparently you LOVES FireFox, and the first person to sucessfully attack FireFox (not going to happen) will be given the Klingon discommendation routine by the world at large!

Please at least try it for a week, and if you are fool enough after that not to like it, then go back to your silly IE! FF will always be there for you when you come to your senses and come crawling back to it on your hands and knees, begging for a second chance. FireFox is just really awsome like that - it has a soft heart, a light touch, and will kiss your cares goodbye forever :D