playing dress up

When I imagined what my wedding dress would look like, I didn't envision the traditional long white gown that most women do. I thought it might be fun to go to an expensive department store and get a beautiful designer gown that I would never have purchased in my everyday life, one that was super fancy and any color I wanted and just fun. I started looking at dresses online and in the mall, and everyone was asking me if I was going to go look at traditional gowns. I realized that I probably should go just to have that experience - I mean, when else in your life do you get to try on wedding dresses? I needed to take advantage of this opportunity!

So I made my way to David's Bridal with my mom and my two friends Jeanette and Colette. I had already printed out the 8 dresses I wanted to try on, and when we got to the store, as my beyond awkward sales associate tried to ask me questions to try to figure out my style, I handed her the paper and said something along the lines of "I want to try on these 8 dresses." This was apparently impossible for her to understand, as she put me in one that wasn't on the list and only brought in two that were. Fortunately they were my top two choices. I think she was still hung up on the fact that I told her I only had one bridesmaid and that she was allowed to wear whatever she wanted - it was like when you see a sci-fi movie and they tell a robot a paradox in an attempt to disable it, and it's all "this does not compute," and then its head smokes up and explodes. That was my sales associate.

The two dresses I tried on that were on my list sealed the deal - I was going to get one. After going back and forth for quite some time, I decided on this dress by Vera Wang, originally $1028 but on sale then for $699 (and now for $449, apparently). They had only two in stock, and one was exactly my size. It literally needed no alterations except to be hemmed. So I bought it right then and there and took it home with me. The alterations were done about a month before the wedding and they came to $120 (good thing I only needed it hemmed!). Oh and here's a way stupid thing you should know - David's makes you buy the garment bag to take the dress home in for ten bucks. I mean, I guess they don't make you, in theory you could bring your own? But when you're not expecting to take a dress physically home with you the day you buy it, you're kind of in a bind.

I give David's high marks because I LOVED my dress, and the prices really can't be beat. However, expect them to call you basically every day from the day you buy your dress until your wedding, asking you what else they can sell to you help you with. I don't know how many times I told them my groom already bought a suit, or my bridesmaid would not be shopping at David's, or I wasn't going to need a veil (oh that's another thing - people are totally going to get weird with you about veils - for some reason, people feel very strongly about them and think it's extremely strange if you don't want to wear one, some seem almost personally offended).

I knew I wanted another short party dress, since we would be spending the night partying in Atlantic City after the ceremony, and then I would be wearing my long dress again at the reception at my house, and I didn't want it covered in red wine or vomit or anything. I wanted the party dress to also be white and bridal looking, so that people in the casinos and clubs would pay attention to me and ask me if I just got married, because I am a Leo and love attention. I searched on Amazon and found this amazing BCBG dress that completely fit the bill. It was on sale, and I saw that they had it at Bloomingdale's so I went there to try it on and was sold. But I was still kind of hoping to find it for less online, so I went home and looked for deals. I was so happy to see that Amazon was actually having a deal that week on all clothing, and I ordered the dress for $140 instead of the original $338 price tag. WIN!

So while I did end up spending a good amount on my dress(es), about a grand, I still got two dresses that I loved and one that I actually can wear again. David bought his suit at Express and got an amazing deal on the whole thing (pants, shirt, vest, jacket, and tie) - Express is always having great sales, and he caught one that was 40% off EVERYTHING. So he made out like a bandit, and his suit didn't need any tailoring, because he has the body of an Express model (oh, another win for me!).

I'm now looking for places to donate my long gown, and I think I'm going to go with St. Anthony's Bridal - a non-profit that lets underprivileged brides borrow dresses or buy them for a super low price. It's such a weird item of clothing - you spend so much money on it, it is perfectly tailored to fit your body, and you wear it for just a few hours but on the most important day of your life... and then what? I realized I needed to get rid of it sooner rather than later, before I started developing a hoarders type attachment to it. So this weekend it will go to the cleaners, and then in a box, and then off to the next lucky lady who gets to wear this beautiful dress on her special day.