Blue Fairytale Wedding
Our #MZBride of the week is the absolutely gorgeous Mary Tuggle Martin who got married in our Bruna gown. Surrounded by their loved ones, the couple held their wedding in Mary's hometwon; Memphis, TN. In the following interview, Mary shares with us how she started planning her wedding journey and will give you her exclusive tips!
How did you start planning your wedding? What were the first steps?
My (now) husband 🤗 and I got engaged on July 25th, 2020 in our NYC apartment. Our first thought was “when can we have a wedding? one where all our friends can attend and feel safe?” Having seen many of our friends have to push dates, we decided to opt for an almost two year engagement and wait for May of 2022 for the big day. Our first real step was picking a date and venue. We knew how much it would mean to my parents to get married in my hometown of Memphis, TN. As soon as we had a date and venue, my next thought was “what will my dress look like?”
How did you know your dress was 'the one’?
As someone who loves weddings and knew exactly what I wanted for the aesthetic of the event, I had not a clue what I wanted in a dress. I knew how I wanted to feel in a dress - beautiful, sophisticated, confident, timeless yet contemporary - but I didn’t know what that feeling looked like on the rack. Being in NYC, I was fortunate to have a large selection. My mom came up for two full days of appointments, and after our third appointment where I didn’t find that “feel” I was looking for, we headed to Mark Ingram, where Mira Zwillinger was having a trunk show. I immediately found six dresses that fit what I was looking for. I didn’t have that “aha” moment with my dress because I fell in love with 3 gowns, all Mira. I even returned to Mark multiple times to try to help make a decision. Unable to settle on a single gown, I looked back at photos on my phone and found one that made my decision. It had me beaming with maybe the largest smile a human could create and my mom in the back with tears in her eyes - I knew that photo captured the happiness and joy I wanted to feel on my wedding day, so that is the gown I ultimately picked!
How did you find working with the bridal store team?
Extremely professional, committed, talented, detail oriented, prompt, and dependable. The team was always willing to customize or tweak the dress to fit how I wanted it to look on my day. The team did such a great job with the dress I also only needed one fitting before my final two weeks ahead of the wedding! I was nervous wearing a strapless gown at the wedding given I wanted to dance the night away and didn’t want to be doing the classic tug and pull all night. It was clear after a single fitting that this dress wasn’t going anywhere - I could have run a half marathon after the wedding and that dress would have stayed in place! It was the team and their talent that also got me to spring for the matching veil! Anything else I saw paled in comparison to the detail and quality of Mira’s work (and her team).
What advice would you give to all our future brides?
Throughout the wedding night, find time with your partner to pause, look around, and take it all in. It is a really special time to have all the people you love in one place, celebrating your love. Take a few moments throughout the night to take some mental pictures of what that looks like and appreciate how special that is. AND go with Mira - you’ll feel like an absolute queen on your wedding day🤗
