Weddingbee Blog

Much like Miss Peacock, I am not going to be able to reveal my dress to all of you lovely readers until after the wedding. There is a lot of lurking going on, not as much from Mr. Sundae, but from a lot of friends and family and I want it to be a surprise! I’ve kind of avoided the topic until now for that reason but I just have to tell you about the place I wound up finding my dress, and I can show some of the rejects!

When I started looking through wedding magazines, I was actually a little horrified at what I found. Why do they have to make the models look like angry, starving, 13 year old boys? How about a happy bride every now and again? It was a huge turn off for me. I am not one to go for a lot of poof or sparkles, massive amounts of tulle just ain’t my thing. The first dresses that I were attracted to were from Anne Barge, I was completely convinced I wanted this dress:

Images from Brides

Oh, that lace. Oh, that champagne sash. I was in love….temporarily. Since that was the only dress that I had actually reacted to in a magazine, I went on a hunt for it or something very similar. Mr. Sundae popped the question in July and at the end of that very month the Filene’s Basement Running of the Brides was in Chicago. I was very newly engaged and all hopped up on the idea of trying on dresses, it’s powerful stuff. I somehow convinced not only my Mom, but my Aunt who lives in Florida and my cousin (MOH) who lives in Ohio to all gather for the event. We knew that we weren’t cut out for the mad rush in the beginning, so just like Miss Peacock we arrived around 10am.

In retrospect, choosing the Running of the Brides as the first place I try on dresses? Not the best decision. I was completely overwhelmed and since I was still convinced that I wanted a dress that looked exactly like that Anne Barge, there weren’t many choices that fit the bill. Here is one of the only pictures from that day - Mama Sundae is next to me and Auntie Sundae is in the jean jacket, I would be the one with the annoyed look on my face clutching the one dress that remotely resembled what I was looking for:

When I tried it on, it was sooooo unflattering that no pictures were allowed. People were threatened with their lives. We left Filene’s empty handed but had an appointment at Macy’s bridal salon later that day. After a little lunch and a lot of them convincing me that I had to be open to other options, I was more prepared for my Macy’s experience. I was not, however, prepared for what went down between me and the bridal consultant in that dressing room. A girl should be warned that there is going to be partial nudity and shoving of body parts into dresses! I am pretty sure that woman got to second base…it was quite the day for this Sundae.

Uncomfortable overexposure aside, my consultant at Macy’s couldn’t have possibly been more helpful. There was a Reem Acra trunk show being held that day, and I was in love with this beauty:

Images from Brides

The Reem Acra rep had only brought that dress along in a model size zero, which is apparently even smaller than a “real” size zero. Translation - I could fit my pinky toe into the dress and not much else. The Macy’s consultant could see that I was getting frustrated, so she started sneaking in dress from other designers. There was a big discussion about my broad shoulders, and how even though I am inclined to hide them they would look best if they were allowed to be shown off a little. She eased me into in with this Romona Keveza gown (in ivory):

Images from Brides

It looks much different on top with my, um, larger ladies shoved into it. I still do love that dress, but I couldn’t lift my arms up in it. They assured me that when it was my size it would fit better, but I was skeptical. So, the search continued…