Weddingbee Blog

Here is a pretty big confession. I kinda didn’t want a wedding dress. I mean, sure, I wanted a pretty dress to get married in, but the big ball gown dresses just aren’t my style. Before getting engaged, I had never even pictured myself in a wedding dress! So early on in my planning, I decided that I didn’t want to spend a lot of money it if it just wasn’t my “thing”.

I set my dress budget at $500. Most women scoffed at that when I told them, but honestly, our #1 priority is food and wine, not clothes. Don’t get me wrong, I want to look GOOD, but I also just want to focus on having a good time. So how does one look good on the cheap and have a rockin’ good time? I figured that since tea- and knee-length dresses have less fabric, they’d be less $$!

Of course, that wasn’t always the case, but I did find some great deals via the internets.

Here is a dress that is $73.99. $73.99!! I might just buy this because it’d be a cute dress to wear to our welcoming dinner for our out of town guests.

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Isn’t it pretty? It’s so… PARTY to me. Like… yes, I am a bride, but I’m also fun and easy going!

Other dresses I looked at in the early planning stages:

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Doesn’t this chick look like she’s about to rock? I love the lace details here. It’s simple, it’s no-nonsense, and it’s $790 from The Wedding Shoppe, Inc.

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I love this dress! It’s a Ramona Keveza, and I’m not sure how much it retails for.

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This one is only $189 since it’s a bridesmaids’ dress. While it’s sweet, it just didn’t have enough of a “personality” to it for me.

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Sigh. Dolly Couture. Now HERE’S some personality! And aren’t they adorable! I get especially excited when I see the little peek of red coming out of the polka dotted dress! The fact that I couldn’t try these dresses on is what really prevented me from buying one.

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Now, Kleinfeld Manhattan says that this dress is “$”. Does anyone know what this means? I have to believe that Kleinfield’s “$” is a lot more than regular “$” at other bridal shops, but I just don’t know!

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These two are from Nordstrom. The first is BCBG for a reasonable $398, the second is Maggie London for $138.

You’d think that since I had an idea of the dresses I was leaning toward that I’d run straight to the nearest bridal shop, right? Well, I didn’t. I was a chicken and didn’t want to go shopping––mostly because I was just intimidated. I thought that people wouldn’t consider me a “real” bride if I didn’t have a “real” bride dress! I now realize that I was being a bit silly, but it was super scary at the time.

I did place one phone call about a dress though when I came across it. This breathtaking beauty, the dream of all dreams:

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Sigh. $3000 for the dress and $1000 for the bolero. Stephanie Allin is the designer, and the style is called “The Nina Short”.  I would KILL for this dress. Really. Not joking here. Okay, I am… I don’t want you to think I’m off my rocker (yet).

It isn’t available in the States, although one shop in Virginia could have ordered it for me.

But alas, it was so far out of the question that I simply could not tempt myself by looking too often. It took me a while to come to terms that this dress wouldn’t be possible. So I turned my focus to the safety and reliability of wedding super-center David’s Bridal! I could try on the dresses, they were cheap, and it seemed like a win-win situation!

Are you a short-dress bride? Was the dress your “thing” or were you just not that into it?