Wedding Dress Shopping!!!

Friday was the big day for Leiya and my first wedding dress shopping!  This was the point of the my whole visit to Detroit...  to ENJOY the process of buying Leiya a wedding dress.  For awhile she was saying it was too much trouble, it was too much money to spend, she wasn't even sure if she wanted a wedding but once I suggested I spend a weekend with her shopping she began to get into the mood of things.  By the time I arrived in Detroit, Leiya had made appointments with a few bridal salons and had planned a visit to a wedding venue.

 Here we were in front of Leiya's apartment, heading out to our first appointment.

And here was the first bridal salon which I was very impressed with!  Of course I had no idea what to expect but the people were so nice and we had a happy couple hours of trying on dresses.  Such great fun!!! 

The dresses in this shop were all donated dresses and the proceeds went to a cancer center which was such a great idea!  I sort of hoped we'd just settle on a dress then and there and that would be the end of dress shopping!  But, as it turned out, though we found a wonderful dress at this shop, in the end Leiya found THE wedding dress at another shop.

This was the dress Leiya liked at this first shop.  By the time we left this shop with a possible dress in mind I was already calling my visit to Detroit a success!

"Well, I guess I can go back home now.  I've experienced the thrill of watching my daughter choose a wedding dress! I think you can settle on the pretty one we just saw and I am totally satisfied with the whole mother-daughter experience!"

The next stop however was for an appointment with the wedding venue at a small bread and breakfast place near a lake.  That too was just a wonderful place for a wedding and I would have put my stamp of approval on it also but as it turns out there are other things to consider than just a pretty location....

Oh, another important reason for my trip to Detroit was to meet Tony's family and Leiya had asked Tony's mother to join us for wedding dress shopping.  I was so happy to see Leiya's future mother-in-law beaming as Leiya tried on dress after dress, and together at this wedding venue the three of us discussed the pros and cons of having an outdoor wedding here.

The grounds are beautiful!  But it was a bit difficult to imagine what a spring wedding was going to be like.  I absolutely loved the rustic decor, the building and the scenery but there was a guest limit that felt like it was going to be hard to stick to...  There are a lot of people in Tony's family! 

And there were also the logistics of getting to and from the B and B and then maybe to someplace else for a reception and then maybe to somewhere else again for overnight accommodations for my side of the family coming in from California...  I THINK Leiya has shelved this location as a place for her wedding...

We had one more late afternoon appointment at another bridal salon and Leiya found a couple more dresses that she liked there...

How about that one?

We met up for a pizza dinner with Tony that evening and I got to visit more in depth with his mother without all the interruptions of oohing and ahhing at wedding dresses.

So far a very fun time!!! 

I tell you... between jet lag and the excitement of meeting Tony's mother and the considerations of wedding dresses and wedding venues, I couldn't get to sleep at all this night!  I felt like my brain had fireworks going on inside it and for most of the week that I was in Detroit I was on a hyper-high and would wake up at all hours of the night with more ideas running through my head!

And this was only my first full day in Michigan!