The Fashion

So we had the bridesmaids dresses picked out – now it was time to dress the rest of us.

Image from Special Effects Photography

Image from Special Effects Photography.

Dan wanted the classic black tuxedo – bow-tie and all – for himself and the groomsmen. Loved it! Couldn’t agree more. So that was easy. I was the only one left – and finding a dress proved to be harder than I thought.

Image from Reem Acra.

A few years earlier I had pulled this ad from a roommates wedding magazine. This was – and still is – the most gorgeous dress I’ve ever seen. I immediately decided that I would find this dress, even if the ad was four years old. I called the Kansas City bridal shop that carried Reem Acra and then sent them an email with this image. I begged them to find this dress. A day or two later she called – they’d found it! If I wanted to come in and get measured they could order it for me. Done! I backed the train up a little bit and asked the price. It was seven times my dress budget. Seven.

Sooo back to the drawing board. I visited about six bridal shops and tried on a variety of dresses. I had a few qualifications, mostly I wanted some lace and I did not want strapless. If I had one decision in the wedding process that I could do over, it would be my dress. I found one I liked – not loved – but liked. The bridal shop told me I was getting down to the wire as far as ordering. It was September. My wedding was in May. So I panicked and ordered my likable dress. It came in seven weeks later. Bridal shops, I’ve discovered, are a little bit full of it. They don’t want you to keep looking – you need to buy now or your dress will never come in on time. Unless you’d like to pay some rush charges, in which case we can have it here tomorrow.

A few of the possibilities.

My dress came in and I still liked it. And was even falling a wee bit in love with the lace at the bottom. I had ordered it a little too big so it needed to be taken in slightly. Slightly. The bridal shop seamstress took it in more than slightly, which she even admitted too. But it was already taken in and couldn’t be let out. I didn’t need to breathe did I?

On the wedding day I was happy with my dress, even though it was a little painful to wear.

Oh the shoes. Ah shoes. I couldn’t find any ivory shoes that were really tickling my fancy. I loved the idea of wearing colored shoes with my dress, except that we didn’t really have any wedding colors. I happened to come across a knot bio of a bride that wore black shoes. Sold. I found a few pairs on Zappos and ended up choosing these wear-again-able pair by Kenneth Cole. I tied it together with black ribbon on my bouquet and the small satin ribbon on my necklace.

Image from Special Effects Photography.