January 28, 2017 was just one of those days I don’t think you can EVER forget.
On an UNEXPECTED Saturday, 15 months before I would say “I do” to Shawn, my mom, brother (Man of Honor), and I said “YES” to the wedding dress of my dreams.

In our lifetime, we have shopped in more stores than we could ever count, for many different things, and had some of the best times of our lives doing so, but January 28th was one of my favorite shopping days ever and now that the wedding is over, I wanted to share with you all some behind the scene pictures of the day as well as my experience with Winnie Couture in Charlotte, NC.

February 7-13, we had plans to fly to New York City to visit a few bridal boutiques there, as it was always my dream to get engaged in NYC AND say “Yes” to the dress there.  At the time, I was being casted to be on the show and was in back and forth talks with them arranging our schedules etc.  On one of our last conversations, their director said to “be sure to come with what in mind we were looking for, we only had an hour.”  I started panicking, I was like HOW IN THE WORLD CAN I FIT MY DREAM APPOINTMENT INTO ONE HOUR?! I never even thought I would ever wear a  gown much less narrow it down so quickly.

Mom had suggested going to a couple of stores before hand to just try some dresses on. So that is exactly what I did.  I made an appointment to visit Winnie Couture in Charlotte because we were going to be at the lake house that weekend and it would be easy for us to go and just try dresses on.

My appointment was at 11 AM and Shawn and I were at our lake home on Lake Norman, which is about a 45 minute drive to Winnie Couture.  The morning I was supposed to be there, WE HAD NO RUNNING WATER AT THE LAKE and I literally had to BRUSH MY TEETH IN THE TARGET BATHROOM, NO JOKE y’all! My hair was a freaking wreck, my outfit was UGH, I started my period that morning, I couldn’t wash my face, and I was running late.  Brennan and mom were coming from Concord, NC so of course they beat me and I rolled in on two wheels, lol!

Walking in, we were greeted by Gina and she is literally a living, breathing doll.  Right away, we hit it off and I completely trusted her.  I was also very upfront with her that we were just looking and I had NO plans to say “yes” today, as we already had booked our trip to NYC and were heading up there in just a few weeks.  She totally understood, and still let me choose any gown that I wanted to try on.

As we walked on into their showroom, I was mesmerized by the beauty of not only the gowns, but the architecture of the store.  Talk about major store SWOON!

I tried on probably 4-5 gowns that I thought I would like on my body and just really wasn’t feeling any of them.  I tried on the 6th gown, which was very similar to the one I chose, and I fell in love with it.  The way it flower was just gorgeous and I loved the shape that it gave me.  I really can’t go on to any more details about it honestly because as soon as I tried on the 7th gown, I had forgotten about any other dress I tried on.  It was beautiful, it was elegant, it was GRAND, it was my dress, even tho I DID NOT want to say “YES,” hehe.  My mom and my brother looked at me I swear as if I was the most beautiful girl in the entire world and just kept telling me how WOW it was.  I had kept going back and forth between it and the 6th dress, secretly I loved the 6th one, but EVERYONE in Winnie Couture including my mom and brother LOVED the last dress I tried on.  Once we started adding things I wanted, like the sleeves, belt, veil, earrings, etc.  I began to fall even more in love.

AH, I was so indecisive and truthfully I still had my heart set on NYC.  Everyone kept saying “Which dress would Shawn like more?” And all I could say was, “He wouldn’t care if I walked down the aisle in a brown paper sack….” hehe, and that is true.

After trying the dress on ONE more time, Gina said “Whitney, is this your dress?” I immediately looked at my mom, and then looked at my brother and we all started balling crying (I’m sitting here crying just reliving this moment).  I knew then, that was my dress.  That was the dress I would walk down the aisle in to marry the love of my life in.  It was also an even more special moment for us as my Grandmother, my moms mom, her name was Winnie. It was like she too was there with us.

I had to wait about 5-6 months to go back and see the dress.  In the meantime, I would always think, oh my gosh did I choose the right dress.  I wasn’t 100% confident in my dress and would often go back looking at the videos and photos of the dress I loved, and the dress I chose. Later that day we would go on to sign our contract to get married at Trump National on April 28, 2018.  Exactly 15 months later.

And the March rolled around, and we found out I was pregnant.  Talk about MAJOR GULP.  HOW IN THE WORLD AM I GOING TO GET IN THE DRESS WE ARE HAVING CUSTOM MADE TO FIT MY BODY WHEN I WAS IN THE BEST SHAPE OF MY LIFE?! Oh my gosh, I was FREAKING OUT.

June rolled around and I got a phone call from Gina saying that my dress was in.  GULP, “okay, awesome! I will be there to pick it up this weekend?!”  On June 13th, nervously I walked into Winnie Couture only to see the dress I loved on a mannequin.  She walked me back to my changing room to try on MY dress and GUESS WHAT, IT FIT, hehe, and IT WAS THE MOST GORGEOUS GOWN I HAD EVER SEEN IN MY LIFE.  I cannot believe I ever doubted myself, my mom, or my brother, lol. 

I can never express my sincere gratitude to Winnie Couture, Gina, and their WONDERFUL staff for all of their help.  Since we were getting married in North Carolina, I would often call them for recommendations or advice, and their customer service was TOP NOTCH! In fact, they recommend Bella Bridesmaids, where we got our bridesmaid dresses and Paper Twist, where our invitations came from.

If you live near a Winnie Couture, shoot even if you have to travel (it is TOTALLY worth it), I would say YES a million times to go and see them! In my opinion, they are the BEST in the business and they work with you 100% on making YOUR dream dress come to reality! ps. Tell them Whitney sent you!!!

*This post is and was not sponsored in any way.  All thoughts and recommendations are mine.

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