dress excitement

I’m really excited right now, and David is not having an appropriate girly-jumpy moment with me, so I have to turn to blogging.

Basically, it is this--although I’ve been looking at lots of wedding dresses, I’ve been having trouble finding one that seems like me. I don’t want something totally period (ie: medieval), but I also don’t see myself in many modern dresses. It just so happened that I found a dress that looks perfect (to me) online. The catch is that the store selling it is in Toronto, and it is a “no name brand” in the realm of wedding dresses. Until David’s Cambridge news came this didn’t matter, because if I had to I could buy the dress here and then take it home with me for the wedding. But now it seems doubtful that I am going to buy a dress in Toronto, since we won’t be here.

But today my googling brought me into contact with a discount bridal store in Victoria that just happens to carry the same line as this Toronto one, and the dress I love is one of the ones they carry! I’m so happy! The price also happens to be UNDER the low end of my budget by about $100.

So, I’m pretty excited. The only potential downside at the moment is that the store is not open on Fridays, which is the day we are going shopping. But they have evening appointments on Thursdays, so I’m just trying to convince my mother to drive down early to Victoria. AND if I’m unable to get an appointment, it doesn’t really matter (aside from my initial disappointment) because I’ll be able to try the gown on in Toronto and see if I like it and then place my order at another date--like when/if we’re back in September before flying to Cambridge.

Obviously, I don’t know if I’m getting the dress. A lot is going to depend on the quality of construction and material. For example, if the dress is smotheringly heavy it’s probably not going to be ideal for August. And I’m still planning to go to two other bridal stores on the Friday “just in case” and I may end up finding something better on me there. BUT, it still makes me really happy because when I saw this dress the first time I melted and thought “THAT is what I want”. It has all the elements of the medieval-style “arran” gown that I loved when I was younger, but toned down a little. It’s satin with a chiffon overlay, so it has a nice ripply/moving effect (I want something that flows), and it has just a little train at the back.

So, we’ll see. I’m definitely moving towards chiffon as a dress material, because to me the shade-depth of the fabric seems richer than satin, and the chiffon dresses I’ve seen just seem to have more flow to the fabric. But, I’m not posting any pictures until I actually try on dresses because there is no sense in planting one idea only to have it change.

And I would like to state that, even if you see my walking down the aisle in a dress that looks like it’s from the pages of “cliché medieval book”--THIS IS NOT A MEDIEVAL THEMED WEDDING. I just happen to like bell sleeves!