Weddingbee Blog

Quickie recap: I fell in love with a costly dress in December ’08, and I purchased a different (albeit similarly vintagey) designer sample in Spring ’09 and the money went to charity {Huzaaah!!}. But my heart wasn’t in it.

By the time this past February came around, I was coming up on major crunchy-decision time. I’d had little luck finding a used Bee and with a nearly year long search I had pretty much desensitized myself to the gown’s beauty as I had with Fern. It was time to turn my attention elsewhere and embrace the undeniably gorgeous gown hanging in my parents’ office, waiting for the go-ahead for a good dry cleaning and alterations.

With some time to kill on an unseasonably warm Sunday in Pennsylvania, and a hankering for some wedding fun {I’d been laying low since the holidays}, my mom and I decided to take a gander at David’s Bridal’s bridesmaids gowns. And I—genius that I am—thought it would be a fine opportunity to take some pictures of me in my gown before we left for reference when choosing dresses—and possibly maybe for reassurance that I stilled loved it but I would never admit to that.

For the rest of this post I declare:

Disclaimer: I was standing on a stool because of the extreme length of this dress. My mom also slipped while holding the train and following me down the hardwood stairs while wearing slippery socks.* The dress was, as we know, not yet altered. These things put me in a wack mood and led me to believe that this dress is NOT flattering. OK, now you can look.

{personal photos}

In case the pictures aren’t storyboard enough, I discovered that the re-embroidered lace pattern opens up into a flourished upside-down V-shape accentuating my larger lower half: specifically a poochy belly I denied I ever had. Game over.

The thing about Bee was that it encouraged the eye to focus on the pretty bow at the waist and the cascading ruffled tiers of the skirt. Not all Fit-’n'-Flares are created equal, it would seem.

This is nothing that a good pair of Spanx can’t fix. Unfortunately, I was pushed off the perch of my fence onto the anti-thisdress dark side, and the climb back to the good side looked impossibly difficult.

After this disappointing impromptu photo shoot, I still wanted to go to David’s Bridal to look at the bridesmaids dresses to try to cheer myself up. Of course I had no expectations of finding anything there that I’d like—I was just giving the franchise a chance as a favor to my bridesmaids’ wallets and for the sake of convenience.

You probably see where this is going…

And so I made rookie mistake 3: Trying on my dress without being in my absolute best glowy self-confident mood. Any takers on this one? Fellow second guessers?