My wedding dress...

So I found and bought my dress already.

After Mike's* mom made me try on this giant beige and tan Elizabethan dress she'd found at a secondhand store, I was in a state of panic for about three days (I'm not kidding). Seeing myself in that dress was a really, really terrifying experience and it made me doubt my ability to be a bride at all. It just didn't feel like me, you know? So fricken scary.

Anyway, I blogged about that experience here, if you want to read it. It was pretty bad.

After that, I decided to buckle down and find a dress I could see myself in. I thought about a long, flowy empire waist dress. Or a corset dress. Or some pretty plain white dresses which were A-line, but nowhere near as full-skirted as that big beige beast.

In the end, I decided if I was going to avoid panicking, my best option would be a tea length dress. No full skirts for me.

So this is the dress I fell in love with, as it appeared on the internet:

For my particular body type and complexion, the shape of the dress and the pink color as shown were perfect. (I just don't look healthy in white... ever.)

I'd originally found it in an ebay store and I have to say, the lady from the ebay store was pretty awesome to work with. I had asked her if she could make it in a tea length and she said she could (so yey). I measured myself and sent her my measurements and in the end, in order to avoid any potential for regret, I got two dresses. I got the tea length one and the full length one. I paid less than two hundred dollars for each, so I figured it was worth the extra expense to make sure I had the length I wanted when the time came to actually put the thing on (in case I got brave over the next eleven months).

I guess I knew but didn't really want to admit that I was buying a knock-off. I knew others in that store were knock-offs, but they were far more intricate than this one (and I'd seen a few of them on other designers' sites). It was only when I started to panic about the dress I'd ordered not turning out right that a friend of mine helped me google properly so I could I find the real dress, which is here and which, to my surprise, wasn't all that expensive either (as far as wedding dresses go). 

Needless to say, the dress didn't come out exactly as in the picture, but I actually like the dress I got better because the textured parts are a satin-type ribbony material rather than the tulle that is in the picture. The color also ended up a richer pink, which was good because if there was any sort of yellowy tint to it as there is in the original picture, it would make me look ill.

It took about five or six weeks to make (to my dimensions) and she made it without the giant bow (at my insistence). To ship it, she'd turned them both inside out and managed to fold them in such a way that they ended up this amazingly rigid, football-sized package.

When I opened up the package, I wasn't sure if the dresses were awesome or horrible. They were just exactly on that fine line. One thing was sure though, the tulle flowers that she added on for some reason I don't understand had to come off. They were unnecessary, especially since the material underneath was so intricate and perfect.

It took me two days and some massive headaches (literally, not in the figurative "so much trouble" way), but I managed to use my iron to get all thirty-two hot-glued tulle flowers off my two dresses. 

This is the post-victory photo:

The material changes color depending on the light, which is cool because one time, while I was prancing about the house in it around dusk, the blue light from the window made my dress look nearly silver. It was pretty magical.

In natural light, this is what it looks like (the tea length is on the left and the full skirt is on the right):

And when I took the full skirt dress out of its football ball and put that sucker on, it was magical. I didn't panic at all. It was comfortable and crinkly and different and unlike anything any other bride I know has ever worn. 

I do have to get it altered a bit, which I have already arranged for a couple of months before the wedding (my chosen seamstress didn't want to do it right away in case I get preggers or something), because somehow, I got my waist wrong and so it's a bit loose on the part around the ribs that is supposed to be cinched. But still, as is, it's totally wearable, but I'd just prefer for the weight of it to be more distributed and not to sit on my hips the whole time. But the length is perfect**, the cut is perfect and the color is perfect too. 

So yeah, the dress is bought and the alterations are booked.

*I figured since his name isn't all that unique, I may as well use it, no? Finally? No?

**I made her make the dress hit the floor with me barefoot because I'm far too panicky in heels to wear them on my wedding day. I think I'll actually wear these since they almost match anyway. Hehe. And if Mike wears these with his suit, I'd be ok with that too-but only in black. :D