Weddingbee Blog

*WARNING to Mr E and all sensitive relatives of mine (or his): Please refrain from reading the following post. You know you will regret it if you do.

So… I bought this pretty strapless ivory torsolette to wear under my dress a few months ago. I just figured because the dress is strapless and the torsolette is strapless that they would work together. Wrong. When I finally got to try them both on at the same time (the hazard of living all over is that things aren’t always in the same place when you want them to be), I discovered that my dress is a bit lower in the back than I expected, allowing the not-so-attractive strap (is that what you call it when it is on a torsolette?) to show. It was not exactly what I was going for. Newbie mistake.

I went back to the drawing board to find a strapless bra to go under my dress. The requirements:

1. Comfortable and doesn’t constantly slip down (for obvious reasons)
2. Low enough in the back so I don’t scandalise all of our guests by flashing the strap
3. Kind enough to give a bit of a boost to these A/B cups of mine (I say I’m a size B but that is on a good day)
4. If it is pretty too, then that would be nice

Who would have thought something meeting the above criteria would be so hard to find? Oh, and did I also mention that at this point our budget is steadily dwindling? So a bra under the $100 NZD mark would be very, very nice. Also, before you ask, no, going braless isn’t an option for me. Unfortunately.

First, I tried the Nu bra.

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Meh. Not for me I think. It was nice, and definitely solved the low back problem. BUT I need a little more… security. Plus I would need to wear it for 9 hours or more, and I don’t trust the adhesive that much.

I went to a couple lingerie shops in my town, but was having no luck. I did buy a thing called a “low bra extender” at one to try with a strapless bra I already own.

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Once I finally figured out how it worked, it proved to be a fail as well. It was much to big for me and resulted in the cups of my bra constantly falling down.

Moving on.

I decided to browse the internets. Following some suggestions by other brides I looked at:

The Carnival Bridal Splendor Low Plunge Longline Bra

(say that 3 times fast)

The Ultimate Corset

and

Low U Back Torsolette from an NZ Bridal Salon

The latter two turned out to be too expensive, and while the first one was affordable, the reason I didn’t end up going for any of these babies is because I’m chicken about buying bras or bra-like items over the internet. Yes, I know I can return it if it doesn’t fit. But I don’t care. I just won’t do it.

I was about to resign myself to the scary Nu bra (or ask a dressmaker to sew something into the dress… oh look, more dollars), when I decided to try the Bendon Lingerie store in my town one last time. Eureka! There I found (hidden in the back) a pretty lacy strapless bra that comes with a strap (similar to the low back extender pictured above but better) to go across my tummy and hook to the back of the bra to pull it down. It’s comfy, it’s pretty, and I paid $59.99 NZD.

The Elle Macpherson Intimates Coranto Strapless Bra

Phew. Now fingers crossed that this one works perfect. Otherwise I’m just going to go find a dressmaker and tell her my tale of woe until she fixes everything. Or maybe just use miles and miles of flashtape to hold the dress up. Ha.

Did anyone else have trouble finding the right lingerie to go under your wedding dress?