Wedding Blog

Earlier I left off having left Mon Amie and stopping for a much needed lunch break.

The next store we went to was The White Dress in Corona Del Mar. I’d say between Mon Amie and The White Dress, every designer you could possibly think of is covered. Maybe not… but very close, if you are looking to cover your bases in two trips.

The White Dress is a beautiful store. The sales people were very friendly and I was quickly greeted by Ariana. We browsed dresses, and picked many different ones to try on. Many of the dresses were at the higher end and beyond my budget (Vera Wang), but I still appreciated oohing and ahhing over the dresses.

At this point I’d narrowed down several specific elements that I really loved. I love rouching, a dropped waist, sweetheart necklines, a little bit of lace/beading, and buttons for the back of the dress. Again, I was not allowed to take pictures! (Boo!) But to give you an idea, I tried on Melissa Sweet, Jenny Lee, Anne Barge, and several others that don’t come to mind right now.

I tried on the Melissa Sweet Cosimma that I had been admiring in all the magazines too! The front of the dress looked great, however, the draping wrap around the back end of the dress was just not flattering on me. It just covered, versus flattered, if that makes sense. Oh well… I still think it’s a beautiful dress.

Then I happened to come across one dress that stood out and looked wonderful. As my team (Mama Duck, 2 MOHs & FMIL) were admiring the dress, Ariana said, “The dress you have on is from our trunk show and the designer is here!” What?!? Sure enough, the dress was by Modern Trousseau and Callie, the owner/designer, walked up and said hello.

After talking with designer I went back to try on more dresses and asked her if there were any others that she recommended. She carried back a few more suggestions, and off I went to do some more “duck and dive” moves getting into the dresses. I was rotating designers between Modern Trousseau and a few others, but each Modern Trousseau dress stood out above the others. I’m not sure why, but for some reason her dresses just seemed to fit my body really well. We played with hair, veils, straps, no straps, and the all-important bustle.

I didn’t necessarily think that my dress designer would be a part of our wedding team, but Callie became a part of the team. She was wonderful! I felt like she was one of the group as we all laughed, critiqued, suggested, gushed, and had some good girl time. Modern Trousseau is based in Connecticut and is an operation of about 12 people total, including Callie and her husband. The dresses are made in the US and overseen by Callie herself. Callie is originally from Australia and had the most beautiful accent. It was a coincidence that her dresses just so happened to fit me really well and then it was made more special by just getting to know her.

Finally I narrowed it down to three dresses that all happened to be Modern Trousseau. After going for a 2nd and 3rd round of trying each dress on, I settled on the one that seemed the most comfortable, the most me, and what made me feel like a bride. It was the first Modern Trousseau dress I tried on! I had found the ONE!

Since I couldn’t take pictures along the way, I tried looking for the dresses online. Sadly, the website does not do the designer or her dresses justice. So, I’ll post a few just to give you something to look at, but know that the dresses are much more than their pictures suggest.

We all celebrated and the store popped a bottle of champagne for us to celebrate. One MOH even cried. Then I signed the cork, made a wish, and put it in a special vase in the store that they keep forever. What a fun tradition! And no, I can’t tell you what my wish was…

Now here is what is more exciting! You never want to ask what the price of the dress is that you just love. However, the cost of the dress was less than half of what I thought it was going to cost when you compared it to the other dresses I was trying on! Callie told me that she wants her brides to be able to have the couture look without the super expensive pricing. I love that being affordable did not take away from the luxurious fabric and quality of the dress. There was this veil with lace detailing that I loved from the shop but it was $1000 dollars!! That is half of what the dress costs! Even Callie was shocked that it was that much and she said I could work with her and she’d make me a veil with matching lace to my dress that was more affordable. Don’t you love her?

With Callie’s help we made some tweaks to the original dress including making it strapless, lowering the back, and adding a sweetheart neckline. Normally those alternations would have cost a lot, but Callie threw it in since I was a part of the trunk show, and I got an additional 10% off! Yeah for a deal!!

Something blue… as a gift, Callie will embroider the inside of the dress with “Especially Made For Miss Duckling” in blue. How sweet is that? Check that one off the list too!

Now, technically you are not supposed to take pictures in the store no matter what. I snuck a few with the designer but I’m not going to show you (or am at least waiting to show you). Mr. Ducky cannot handle surprises and is currently dying to know what my dress looks like. Because I know he is scheming and will likely check this post, I can’t show you pictures. However, I will try if I feel that the “risk” lowers!

Can anyone else relate to a fiance who just wants to see and spoil the surprise? So I am sorry to keep you all in suspense, but I’ll try sneaking pics in soon. If you want some hints, it has a bit of everything I love: lace, rouching, drop waist, sweetheart, and buttons!

The day was so special and I loved being surrounded by people that mean so much to me. Being able to find my dress was the icing on the cake and meeting the designer of my dress was the cherry on top! Thanks for staying with me through the whole storytelling process, and I’ll try sneaking a picture in soon!

Did you modify your wedding dress to make it your own? What did you have done?