Way back in September, I found my wedding dress. Yay! It was happiness all around. We ordered it and it arrived at my parents house about a month later. Awesome!
It was a short wedding dress. Lace all over with a sweetheart neckline, chiffon waistband and very slightly off the shoulder. I put it on and it looked awful. If it had looked like that in the store, I would never have wanted it.
The arm holes were too tight, and they hurt. The neckline was too high, and the darts seemed to stick out in a really odd way. And the extra poof that I'd ordered...it was all up at the hips instead of down at the hem. When I put on that dress, I did not feel like a bride, I felt like a chubby, frumpy ballerina with fat arms.
We immediately called the designer to see if there was anything we could do, and set up an appointment so that they could see exactly what I was talking about.
They had a sample on hand that we could compare it to. It was so obvious to them that I had received a defective dress. The arm holes were close to 2 inches in circumference smaller than the armholes on the sample dress in the same size. This meant the whole dress would sit higher up, and totally in the wrong place - hence the oddly placed darts.
So we swapped. They gave me the sample and ordered me a new layer of extra fullness to wear separately underneath, and took my defective dress with them.
And for a while I didn't think about it. December rolled around - that was when the extra fullness was supposed to be delivered - and when it didn't come, I didn't worry.
Then a few weeks ago, something happened. While browsing online the pictures of other brides wearing dresses by this designer, I noticed that a lot of the brides looked frumpy in their pictures. Not wanting to look frumpy on my wedding day, I convinced myself that this was not the fault of the dresses, but the brides themselves and that as long as I kept my diet and exercise on tract, I would not look frumpy.
After a few days, the seed of doubt had been planted. One day after work about two weeks ago, I stopped by my parents house to try on the dress. And when I put it on, something about it just didn't feel right. I couldn't put my finger on it. I didn't feel like a bride. I didn't feel beautiful. I just felt like I was wearing a nice dress that kinda smooshed my boobs down in an unflattering way.
So, I let it simmer for a couple days and thought it over. I talked to my mom about whether taking it back would be a possibility, and because the dress was a sample and was not custom, we would be able to return it. And then I decided to do some looking around - start from scratch and see if there was anything around that I loved.
The weekend before last, I had some free time, so I decided to drop by a couple of bridal shops with my mom and see what they had. We found, not one, but two beautiful dresses:
Neither of which I ended up getting...
I liked the second one and my mom liked the first one, and the when we went back with my grandma and big sister for help, they really liked the first one and I really didn't, and I was super happy in the second one and they really didn't like it.
So, we decided to keep looking.
Last Saturday, I set up appointments at three bridal salons. The first one was too expensive and the dresses were beautiful, but not perfect. However, they completely blew the other two dresses out of the water. I felt great in them, and I was very very pleasantly surprised.
The second place was having a Ramona Kaveza trunk show. I tried on a ton of dresses at this place - especially from the trunk show...and after about a half hour of trying on dresses and feeling like a princess. I found my dress. Hooray!
It's nothing like the other two above.
I'm gonna have to work by butt off to stay in shape for this dress, because any chubbyness will show, but I am soooo happy. I love my dress.
Eep! So exciting!
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