My Dress

Yep, there it is. The plainest title of them all for this overthinking, label-loving, wandering-eyed bride's dress. I've put off talking about my dress or my dress search in any specific terms, and you're about to find out why. So hold on to your hair fasteners- we're starting at the beginning!

{Source clockwise from top left: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6}

After eight years of dating and 22 months of engagement, the timeline has gotten fuzzy around the edges in my memory. But if I'm not mistaken, I stumbled upon Fern by Melissa Sweet and knew she was it before Marc even put a ring on [my finger].

One look at a picture of this beautiful vintagey A-line dream and I was sold. I didn't even need to go dress shopping. If I could have fit into the size two I found for sale on Encore Bridal, I probably would have purchased it and never looked back. (Or more likely purchased it and looked back later and wondered what if, and ended up in the very same spot... but I'm getting ahead of myself).

I emailed a picture to my mother, who showed it to my father, who agreed that this was my dress. It had Becky written all over it. So, logically, my mother and I took a gamble and ventured out to Pricilla of Boston in Wynnewood, PA (at the time- they have since moved) prematurely in December 2008. 22 months before my wedding date. With ample room to make a big emotional, over-analyzing mistake.

Thanks to my addiction to Say Yes to the Dress, I was too brainwashed to even consider bringing a camera to PoB that day. Despite the fact that our consultant left us in the room with the dresses with plenty of time for pictures and without a word about the faux pas of photographing the dresses. I'm still kicking myself over this so I'll do my best to illustrate for you how Fern ended up looking on me:

  {Fern on a dress form from Encore Bridal circa 2008}      {Fern on a normal-waisted model)

{side-by-side comparison with Long Torso Shadow Person found here}

In case those arrows are a little baffling, I have a long torso. I am long-waisted. And, unlike the shadow figure above, I am pear-shaped to boot so I've got a low-riding wide load to put it delicately. A-lined gowns generally cover wide hips up, but not when the skirt is an inch thick with accordion pleats. And the sweetheart neckline fell a little low on me, so they would have to alter it by adding height to the boob region. That sounded like it would look awkward. Couple the body image issues with the fact that I'd desensitized myself to beautiful Fern for four months via online stalking before trying her on, and I didn't have that "zing this is the one" feeling! It was more of a "Yeah, that's what Fern looks like." 

Bummer. But not all was lost because we had a whole shoppe of gowns to try!  

Enter Bee:

{source}

Bee has the same vintage feel as Fern, a fit-and-flare shape the suits my long torso, a bow to accentuate the waist, and bonus: beading throughout the lace for added sparkle I never knew I wanted! This gown was incredible. It was "it." I had a moment- but I did not have tears. It wasn't really real yet because the wedding was still so far away.

I also didn't let myself get too terribly attached because Bee is $6000.00 give or take thanks to the beading and the allover french lace action that made me love her so. My mom was ready to apply for the PoB credit card for the 10-15% discount and order the dress on the spot, but I had to be the voice of reason. My budget was capped at "whatever Fern costs," and I couldn't let my mom spend 2 grand more than that for Bee. 

We took our consultant's card (who sold me on our venue, singing its praises from a wedding she attended there), bid adieu to the manager (who went to my high school), and pined for those warm and fuzzy feelings for nearly a year until I got "over" Bee. 

(Or did I?!?)

Did anyone else make rookie mistake no. 1 and shop too early?