Weddingbee

[ Part 1 ]
[ Part 2 ]

Drumroll, please… Finally, we get to the part of the story where I actually buy a dress!

( NOTE: All photos of the actual dress are behind links at the request of Mr. Cherry Pie… he doesn’t want to stumble upon them accidentally. )

In early January, I was having a little crisis of faith about my wedding dress. I had visited four dress shops over the course of six months, some multiple times. I had looked through hundreds of dresses and tried on nearly sixty designs. I still hadn’t found “the one.”

I was prepared for the eventuality that I might have to “settle” for my dress. I wanted a dress that would make me have romantic fantasies, but I knew I might be expecting too much. And while I was OK with the idea of “settling” if I had to, I definitely didn’t want to spend as much money doing it.

I started considering just buying something simple and inexpensive. First, I looked at JCrew. I love their silk tricotine dresses - I wore one as a bridesmaid in my best friend’s wedding (the Sophia long silk dress in black) and my bridesmaids will also wear J Crew. They have two very pretty full-length gowns in their “occasions” catalog that spoke to me: the Sabine a silk taffeta gown (a bit pricey at $700) ,and the Sophia a long silk dress (which I already own in black).

I also found two dresses on the Nordstrom’s website that I liked (in concept), a pleat satin dress by Calvin Klein and a silk halter gown by Nicole Miller:

Before I went to Nordstrom’s or ordered any of the J Crew dresses to try, I decide to give La Belle Elaine’s one more shot. It had been several months since my last visit, so I made an appointment to see what was new. And for this appointment, I did something very unorthodox- I brought Mr. Cherry Pie.

I can hear some of you gasping already, but don’t worry… I was only bringing him for his stellar fashion sense. He no more wanted to see me in a wedding dress than I wanted to show him. But I was feeling so disenfranchised by the bridal gown industry that I needed a hand to hold and his was the only hand that would do. I was going to take my last stand wading through the racks with my man at my side. I wanted any words of advice he could offer, and most of all I wanted his sympathy. It was comforting to know that he would be equally overwhelmed but that he might also offer a new perspective.

To be honest, I felt so guilty bringing my fiance into a bridal boutique that I introduced him as “a friend” to my fitting room attendant. But soon both of us were gleefully picking out gowns and chuckling about breaking the taboo. We had decided that he would only see the dresses we selected before I took them into the fitting room, not during or after the fitting. That way, if I ended up choosing a dress, he would have no idea which one it was. I knew that if I can’t remember what a gown looks like without a photo, he certainly wouldn’t remember its profile off the rack.

So he sat in the lobby with a magazine and I went about trying on our choices.

And there it was.

THE dress.

The very first one I tried on that day was the one I came back to at the end.

The dress was both everything I was looking for and a lot of things I wasn’t expecting. It was simple, elegant, and classic. Even better, it was a lightweight, natural, raw silk with beautiful ruching. But unlike the other dresses I tried, this dress had straps! And a button-back over a zipper, not corset lacing like other gowns I’d been ogling.

But it was perfect, and I loved it. Here it is, Diamante by Pronovias Barcelona (click “Diamante” for the catalog pictures).

And here I am in my dress… don’t mind the bad hair and makeup!

• The front of the dress
• The back of the dress with train
• The back of the dress, marked for lowering
• The dress bustled
• Another front shot with veil

And for giggles, here is a very brief video of me walking the “runway”:

Because this is a “designer” dress, I was expecting complete sticker shock, but the price wasn’t completely outrageous… in fact, it was the same cost as the Mikaella dress I looked at in Part 2!

Nevertheless, there is a part of me that feels a bit dirty having paid $1500 for a dress I will wear once. This part of me thinks I should have tried on the Calvin Klein dress (above) that is also so pretty. I like to tell this part of me to shut up, and then I fantasize about the lovely raw silk shantung of my dress and how maybe, just maybe, it will someday be an heirloom.

Did I make a good choice?