Thoughts on a wedding dress at fitting #2

I have a bit of a strange relationship with my wedding dress. I go back and forth from loving it to thinking I should have gotten something less formal/with ruching/with less lace/that wasn't white/that cost less. If I had it back to do again, I would probably look more seriously into having it custom-made, or go for something like this Jenny Yoo silk shantung bridesmaid's dress (in pale pink instead of purple):

The Jenny Yoo Sloane dress. Image from JennyYoo.com

Picking out the dress was probably one of the most emotionally fraught parts of wedding planning for me. I'm somewhat insecure about my appearance, and there's so much pressure on brides to find the PERFECT DRESS, the one that makes you feel like a princess and a sex goddess and a fashion model and most importantly a bride. Yikes. No dress can do all of that. But when I bought the dress, I was new-ish to wedding planning and still convinced, in my heart of hearts, that everything had to be PERFECT or it wasn't worth doing. (Ah, the joys of being a lifelong perfectionist.) And part of me felt like a little bit of a failure for going with a dress that I just really liked, instead of one that I loved and couldn't live without or whatever.

But last week, at my second fitting, I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror, and you know what? I looked really good. Is my dress the "perfect dress"? Probably not. (Is there such a thing? Almost certainly not.) But I like it, it's flattering, and I bet Econo Boy will think I look beautiful. So I'm happy. And the fact that I needed only minimal alterations doesn't hurt!

Talk about bad timing!

Yesterday was the 3-year anniversary of my first date with Econo Boy. We had a romantic evening in all planned: we splurged on nice cheese to make fondue, bought some champagne, put up Christmas lights around our apartment, and were ready to indulge ourselves with melty Gruyere and a bottle of Blanc des Blancs.

At 4:30 yesterday, I got a call from a woman we'll call "Janey," who works at my bridal salon.

Janey: "Good news -- your dress arrived today!"
Me: "Yay!"
Janey: "You have 2 weeks to come try it on and verify that it's what you ordered..."
Me: "Oh NO! I'm leaving tomorrow for Colorado and I won't be back until January!"
Janey: "... oh. [Clearly not thrilled, but coping.] Well, if you're going to be out of town, that's OK, when can you come in?"

So an appointment was made for January 8. And now I'm all tied up in knots, anxious to see my dress and regretting not driving to the bridal salon right away to see it, and double regretting not trying to squeeze in an appointment before I went to the airport today. Neither of these were very practical (I didn't want to be late for our last "dativersary" or cope with East Coast rush-hour traffic, and making a trip today would have been a tight fit time-wise), but I still feel like I should have tried harder.

This isn't just a case of "OMG THE DRESS is here!!" Ever since I ordered the dress, I've been a bit nervous about what it will look like in my size. The gown has a subtle trumpet shape to it, and I wasn't able to get a great idea of what the back would look like when the dress wasn't three sizes too big. I'm also nervous about whether it will fit. Yes, a professional took my measurements twice to verify that I should order the 6, but after all I'd heard about tiny bridal sizes I'd expected to order an 8 or a 10. And now I'm worried that if something is wrong with the gown in January it will be too late for me to return it.

Well, nothing to be done about it, I guess (except for stopping with the stupid obsessing -- I promise I'm trying!). I shall take the following steps to make myself feel better.

1. Call Gateaux and arrange for a cake tasting.
2. Post a picture of my dress, which I'm sure will be beautiful and will fit perfectly (once the chest is taken in to accommodate my total lack of cleavage).

La Sposa's Melodia -- I didn't order the jacket
and I'm undecided on whether I'll wear the little bow,
but otherwise it should look pretty much like this!
Image from http://nicolettecouture.com.

Happy Holidays, safe travels to everyone, and oh yeah ... Sweet T, have an amazing wedding!

I did it ... I bought a dress!

Phew! After a whole bunch of searching and back-and-forth, I did it: I picked a dress!

It came down to two gowns. One was the one I showed in my last post -- delicate, feminine, light as a feather. The other was one I found in New Jersey -- also lace, also sparkly, also a strapless A-line.


Are we seeing a pattern here? :-)

I had a hard time choosing between the two, mostly because they were so darn similar. But I ended up choosing the one in this post, for the following reasons:
1. It has more of a shape to it -- the fabric is a bit thicker and more luxurious, and it sucked me in and smoothed me down without making me feel like I was wearing a corset. The other gown was lightweight and I loved how the skirt swung around me, but it wasn't quite as flattering.
2. It has pearls in the embroidery. I ::heart:: pearls.
3. It has a shorter train -- I could have gotten the other gown with a sweep train, but the change would have cost me extra and likely put that gown out of my price range.

After all my back-and-forth on which dress I wanted, I thought I'd second-guess myself once I finally made a decision. But I haven't. I love this dress and I'm so thrilled to have chosen one at last!

Next post: my top choices for bridesmaids' dresses.