Alright, I know…it’s been a few weeks since my last {aPRettySocialBride} post, and I’m sorry! It’s been a crazy few weeks of wedding planning, and my blog moved a little bit to the back burner. But in spite of my busy-ness, I have a post for you to enjoy today.

As I’m really getting deep into the planning process, I’m learning things along the way. So I wanted to take this week to update you all on where we’re at now, and what we’ve learned so far. Hopefully my lessons learned will help other brides.

So without further ado, here are 4 lessons learned in a busy few weeks of wedding planning:

1. Getting married in a public place is a hassle.

Well, Michael and I have changed our ceremony venue once again. However, this time I think is the last. If you’ve been following our planning via this blog and/or Twitter, you might have noticed that a month or so ago, we changed the plan from a church ceremony to an outdoor ceremony at the World’s Fair Park Amphitheater. And while the Amphitheater seemed like a really cool place for the ceremony, we ultimately realized that having a wedding in a public place is a hassle — and it costs a lot more!

While it’s pretty cheap to rent out the venue, there are lots of other things to consider that really end up driving the bill higher. For instance: hiring security to keep out the bums, paying after-hours delivery fees on the chair rental, renting a vintage Rolls-Royce to make my grand entrance, creating 10x the decorations to cover a venue so large, etc, etc. While this type of ceremony probably works well for many people (and I’m not trying to discourage anyone else from doing it), it just didn’t work with our minimal budget.

So where is the ceremony now? On the Veranda at L&N Station. Now that we’re having the ceremony at the same venue as the reception, it’s just easier (and less expensive!)

Lesson learned: Be sure to factor in ALL the costs and hassle associated with one decision.

2. Crowdsourcing the Internet is a good way to find the best bridal shops.

The Internet is an invaluable resource in just about every aspect of wedding planning. Case in point: Knoxville has probably 20 bridal shops, and I only had one weekend with my bridesmaids in town, so I certainly didn’t have the time to visit them all. How did I narrow down the list of shops to visit? A combination of Google Local Search & Reviews, Facebook and Twitter. These are great tools to get real opinions on where you must go, and where you should probably skip.

While I scheduled 3 appointments for the day, the majority of my online research led me to one shop: A Joyous Occasion. And by far, this was the shop I was most impressed with. I even found THE dress there! While this was a shop I had never heard of prior to my crowdsourcing attempts, this ended up being the one shop I’m glad I visited.

Did I also mention I happened upon a 10% off coupon for the shop while researching online?

Lesson learned: Don’t neglect your resources. Other people’s opinions might just lead you in the right direction. It did for me!

3. Dress shopping is easier with bridesmaids & family around.

On the topic of my dress hunt, I couldn’t be more thankful for my awesome bridesmaids & family members. Picture this: You walk into a bridal shop and hundreds of dresses are on the racks in front of you. The look SO different on the rack than they do on, so how do you decide which dresses to pull?

For me, I tasked my ‘maids & the moms with pulling the ones they thought looked cool (and were within my budget range), and they did an amazing job! It was exciting to be surprised by each dress I tried on, and they offered an objective eye as to what might look good on me. The result? Someone picked out an amazing gown for me to wear on my wedding day, and I couldn’t be more thankful!

Lesson learned: Trust the ladies in your life. They’ll lead you in the right direction.

4. When you know, you just know.

Okay, okay, so I’m really pumped about my gown, thus why this list is predominately about it. But I tried on about 30+ dresses last Saturday, and while many of them were pretty, when I tried on THE one, I just knew. Of course, to torture myself, I went back to all the other stores and re-tried on my favorites there too, but I really couldn’t get this one out of my head.

Lesson learned: Much like true love, when you know, you just know. Keep that in mind and go with your gut on this one.

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So while it’s been a busy few weeks, it’s also been a good month for learning. Fellow brides: what have you learned through the course of your wedding planning? Do you have tips to share with me and other brides?