,

Saying No To My Dream Dress

I have always loved to dress up, so I was totally psyched to start shopping around for a wedding gown. I didn’t have any specific ideas about what I wanted; my only stipulations were that it had to be flattering, not too blingy and easy to move around in. Shiny satin and heavy taffeta were not preferred, but not out of the question.

The first day my mom and I went dress shopping we made appointments at Bridals by Lori, Impressions and Kelly’s Closet and dropped in on our local Bella Bridesmaid store — might as well make a day of it, right? My sister and one or two of my bridesmaids were on hand for parts of the day as well. A diaphanous swiss-dotted gown by Romona Keveza featured in a magazine ad had caught my eye in my searching and become my dream dress (or so I thought), but none of the stores had it in yet. Here are the images from the ad campaign:

romona-keveza-ad
{image found here note: feathery strap is removable!}

Even without the chance to try on Dream Dress, the outing was a success. I came away with at least one option from every salon we visited, and I also found some possible bridesmaid dresses. The weekend after mom left town (and before her medical adventures had begun), my sister and I went to Priscilla of Boston and found still another possibility. I liked all of these gowns, but loved none of them; I was still holding out for Dream Dress.

As luck would have it, Bridals by Lori hosted a Romona Keveza trunk show in June. I called and confirmed that Dream Dress would be making the trip to Atlanta and set up an appointment. My mom was in the hospital at this point, so I took my sister and best friend along and sweet-talked the bridal consultant into letting us take pictures of me in the dress (normally not allowed unless you buy!) so I could show it to mama.

I was excited and nervous going into the appointment, and underwhelmed and disappointed when I left. Dream Dress was indeed dreamy on the hanger, but not on me; the cut just didn’t flatter my figure, particularly in the bust area, and the skirt was heavier and crunchier than I thought it would be. I felt like I looked matronly, which was the last thing I wanted to look on my wedding day! When I took my laptop to the hospital and showed mom, she agreed: this was not the dress.

I started to get desperate. If the prettiest dress I had seen was not pretty on me and I didn’t love the ones that were pretty on me, how on earth was I going to find a wedding dress? I took to the Internet in a fit of panic and spent hours googling and combing the runway galleries on brides.com for swiss-dotted dresses. At some point in the wee hours, in the Christos Spring 2010 slideshow, I found it:

Christos-Desiree
{source}

I immediately wrote my girlfriends an email assaulting them with links to pictures and a runway video of the gown. One of my college roommates accurately noted that Dream Dress no. 2 was a cross between Dream Dress no. 1 and the dress my mom had liked best so far. Definitely a winning combination!

With a new holy grail to pursue, I wrote emails and made calls to any store in the region that sold Christos gowns to see when this dress and I could have a rendezvous. I was starting to make plans to drive to Charlotte, N.C., “on the way” to the beach to try it on when my consultant from Bridals by Lori called me to say that they could bring the dress in for one day just for me to try on. Glory!

This part of the story has a happy ending, as you may have guessed. My mom had been out of the hospital for nearly a month when Dream Dress no. 2 arrived and was able to join me for the (extremely long) lunchbreak appointment to try  it on. My future mother-in-law and some of my friends logged onto the store’s webcam to watch. The dress was more expensive than we had hoped for, but with a discount for buying it that day and cutting costs in other areas, we made it happen. I finally had a wedding dress!

IMG_7196

How did you find your Dream Dress?