Weddingbee Blog

In case you missed The Arrival…

Well, my first month of boot camp came and went, and I even waited an extra week of camp for good measure before I tried on my brand spanking new ivory size-12 dress. It didn’t quite fit yet, but it was definitely in the realm of fitting soon. But something became very apparent to me—this dress was no longer as magical as it had once been. Oh, before we continue…

Through the stress of color and size changes, as well as the stress of needing to lose a certain amount of weight to make this dress fit, it had lost some of its magic. On top of this sad realization, I had another nagging thought: I had lost 30 pounds (yay!), and the dresses I originally wanted to try on but couldn’t because they didn’t come in plus sizes were now a possibility for me. I started to become bitter about this fact (silly, I know). I started gazing at those original dresses online (HORRIBLE IDEA) and wondered how I would look in them. One in particular really caught my eye; it was the first dress I had seen that I liked all those months ago, but it was a.) out of budget and b.) too small at the time. However, NOW it was on sale and back in budget, and I could actually fit into the dress. I comforted myself with the knowledge that the model always looks better in the dress than real people, and I looked up real people in the dress to assure myself I was right. There were a few exquisite brides the dress looked amazing on, but just as I had thought the model always makes the dress look better (darn that airbrush).

Then one day the troublesome little voice inside my head won. I decided to make an appointment to go to David’s Bridal alone (I wanted to get an idea of what I thought of the dress on my own rather than what others liked on me), and off I went. I went in armed with the item numbers of the dresses I had so long coveted and a confused head. A big part of me wanted to try on the dresses and NOT like them. I wanted to try them on just to get it out of my system and go home and love my dress with renewed fervor.

Then the saleslady brought out that first dress, the one I had been staring at on my computer monitor for so long. I slipped into it easily, walked out to look in the mirror, and horrified as I was…I LOVED IT! This was not what I wanted at all. (OK, secretly it was totally what I wanted.) I had wanted to NOT love any of these dresses and go home happy with the one already in my closet. The girl left me for a few minutes to walk around and get a feel for the dress and then came to let me try on the next one. (Sorry for no pictures, but I went alone and without a camera.)

She asked how I liked it (I super disliked it—it had virtually no back and I felt totally naked), and I told her I liked the first one much better. So she had me try on another one, and I still liked the first one much better. So she had me try on another one and…well, I think you’re getting the picture. I was smitten. It had everything I had loved about my first dress and MORE. It was ivory, there was lace with just a hint of beadage to add some sparkle, it was floor length with a tiny train, it was light, comfortable, and easy to walk around in, and this dress had a SHAPE.

Now what? Now I was in love with a new dress, but I still had my dress at home. I didn’t have another $600 to spend on a new dress. Really had not thought this one through at all. The sales manager happened to be walking by, and my sales associate decided to share my problem with her. She told her I had an unused dress at home, that I was so stressed about it fitting, and that I had fallen in love with this new dress. Well, sales manager lady was like the coolest woman on the face of the planet, because she told me she would let me exchange the dress and pay the difference. That’s right—they were letting me exchange the dress for a third (and FINAL, as they informed me) time. But I didn’t want to buy it without any other opinions, as this was a big decision. So I called Mama Ticket and she agreed to meet me at David’s Bridal after work.

I was so beyond excited at this point that I actually went to Victoria’s Secret prior to the appointment to pick up a special low-back bra to wear with the dress. I was pumped. I was ready to show the dress to Mama Ticket and have her fall as much in love with it as I was. When 4:30 PM rolled around and it was time to try on the dress, Mama Ticket came armed with my wedding heels and all the accessories I had already purchased (yet without a camera—can you believe it?!) so I would get a really good idea of exactly how the dress would look. I tried on the dress again, this time with my beautiful heels, and walked out onto the little platform. Mama Ticket looked me up and down and smiled. I needed verbal confirmation on this one. So I asked as straightforwardly as possible, “Do you like this one more or less than the original dress?” She replied, “I like this one better.” HOORAY!

So with that we decided to exchange the dress (for the FINAL time). They even let me return my WAY-too-big-for-me corset (my original saleslady had given me one too large at the time and it was now atrociously large on me) since I couldn’t wear their corset with the dress anyway due to its low-backed nature. They also exchanged my slip for a new one in the right size. In the end the new dress ended up costing me only $50 more than my original dress had cost, and it was everything I wanted. A floor-length, ivory-lace beauty. I couldn’t be more excited with it. And the best part of all: it FIT. And I have gotten a much better gauge of my weight loss after a few more months of working on it, and I’m quite confident that I will not lose enough weight to make the dress unalterable. So we are in the clear!

Want to see what dress I picked? =)

Images via David’s Bridal

When your wedding-dress journey ended did you breathe a HUGE sigh of relief, too? Am I the only woman alive that had this much dress drama?