Wedding Blog

If this post could have two titles, the second would be: Total. Impulse. Buy.After seeing one of my last posts, one reader suggested an Alfred Angelo number, because she happened across it that day and somehow thought of me. Me! Don’t I feel special. Now I get to make her feel special too, because I bought the dress! I think most of you out there in blogland will be horrified, shocked, and entirely disappointed to find out that I bought the dress without trying it on.

I found a stockist about 30-45 minutes north of Seattle in a town called Everett. Their website listed Monday to be their day off, but when I tried to call Tuesday to book an appointment, I discovered they were closed Tuesdays, too. So I left a message saying I’d pop in at 10am Wednesday morning if possible since I was working up in that direction that day. I showed up at 11am (I slept in a wee bit) only to have the lady tell me she was booked all day till 4pm. 4pm! I told her I was really only interested in one dress if she could squeeze me in, so she had me browse through the store and the Alfred Angelo catalogue while she went back to assisting her 11am appointment. She came back and I pointed out the dress in the catalogue, but explained I hadn’t found it in the store.

I hadn’t seen it in the store because her bride was trying on the dress right. that. moment. She agreed to let me see the girl in the dress - and what are the chances a) that a sample would be a size 2 b) that the bride trying it on was actually a size two as well. So she told me to come back in an hour. I looked longingly at the second empty dressing room, but walked away. $70 worth of used books later, I came back to find the girl buying that dress, and taking advantage of the 50% off sample sale. this left her with a smoking < $300 gown, and left me without a dress to try on. I’d bided my time wandering the desolate streets of downtown Everett for an hour already and I had to get to work. I asked if I could just call with a credit card number later, but the lady declined, insisting on measurements. I had a silent argument with her in my head that the size 2 would still be too big, but I kept quiet and decided to buy it on the spot. 

I decided a few days ago that I had fallen head over heels in love with silk charmeuse, and although I have held steadfast onto the “I’m never going to wear the dress again, so I’d better damn well have fun in it and trash it the next day” mentality for many months, I realized that I am entirely unable to come to terms with destroying silk charmeuse. That, and I think it would cling to me in the ocean and my video would come across like a trashy wet tee contest. So I fear I’ve become one of those brides with two dresses. Technically three since I think I’m going to have to get a Chinese cheongsam for my umpteen-course-meal rehearsal dinner but that’s beside the point….

So as the lady [who had been bordering on being politely rude to me for not having an appointment but realizing the opportunity to make six hundred bucks] was writing down the details for the tafetta Alfred Angelo, I had a brief moment of - oh my goodness what am I doing? It’s the exact same style as the silk charmeuse dress that I would buy, why am I not getting an entirely different dress?!

I was tempted to bolt for the door right then and there while she was mid-receipt. But then I thought about it and - well, if I’m going to be trapezing around downtown for a few hours, and then jumpinging into a body of water, it makes more sense to have something with sleevish things than worry about swimming right out of my dress as I swim up to the surface. On the way home I was like, but I could have had a pink dress, but I pushed that aside. Then I thought about all the mermaid dresses that made me look pretty smoking, like Jessica Rabbit, but perhaps a little too trampy and voluptuous (if a person my size can make that claim) for my wedding day. I put the kabosh on that thought because I wouldn’t be able to run around in a mermaid. My only possible way out of the “all sales final” is perhaps when she realizes that it isn’t available in ivory (though she said she had an ivory sample in last week) since the site only lists white and diamond white.

So out of all the non-charmeuse dresses I tried on, I think I liked this one the best:

And although the Alfred Angelo has a bit of a fuller a-line skirt to it which is generally a no no with my body type, it does lace up the back. My grad dress (aka “prom dress” as Americans and perhaps some other Canadian high schools call it) had a bigger skirt.

Come to think of it - I bought it in probably a size 10 or so and had it altered to include a lace up back. I love how my grad dress has more beading than I’d ever consider for a wedding dress. I still think that dress is pretty grand, I got genuine “wow you look fantastic in your dress” comments all night from even the “cool kids” in my class.

So without further ado, here she be, Alfred Angelo, style 1148:

Special thanks to miss teaberry! Side note, I found it on ebay tonight for about $200 cheaper, but hey, go local, right?