Weddingbee Blog

On my wedding dress. And remember my wedding dress is Penelope, as named by Cinny, who is altering her. It’s been nearly two months since I had my fitting and I probably won’t have my dress back in my hands for at least another month or so. Le sigh. I’m going to preface the rest of this post with this statement: I l-o-v-e my dress, I truly do. And also this:

I had my dress for four months before I went for my fitting. I pulled her out to show her to a select few people, but I hadn’t tried her on again. I was nervous walking into my fitting. I hadn’t been able to find the right bra and I may have gained a pound or two. I stepped into the dress, and it was all good.

My lack of bra was solved by Cinny sewing in cups (yay, no bra!) and regardless of my extra pounds (gah! Southern food is not good for you!), she fit. I went over the basics of what I needed altered.

I stood there looking in the mirror, and there was just something missing…and it wasn’t the dress’s fault. It was how I saw myself in the dress. My hips looked big, my chest looked odd, my dress with shoes looked off, and I was freakin’ hot (seriously, how do you summer brides do it?!). I pushed the feelings aside and let Cinny do her thang, pinning and tucking so that it would fit me better. I didn’t even tell my mom how I was feeling because I felt guilty and wrong. I should have been stoked to see myself in my dress. 

1. Dissatisfaction 2. Is that really me? 3. Getting things where they need to be 4. Looking better 5. It fits ME

Once she had the dress all pinned and tucked, I was finally feeling like the dress looked good on me. It’s amazing what a properly fitted dress can do! 

Cinny first pinned the skirt where it needed to be and then after I had ok’ed all of the pinning, she needed to take a look at just how she was going to raise the skirt. This was the first time she had worked with this dress (is that good or bad?). Then Cinny made my heart stop, she said “Ohhh I’m not sure we can raise this skirt.” *Heart pounding. Awkward silence* I bought the dress because I was assured that the skirt could be raised; and where it sat on me as-is was not okay. It made me super-dooper hippy and made my body non-proportional—not how a bride wants to look on her wedding day.

What Cinny did next was take a razor to my beloved dress.

Yes, a razor:

See how far the skirt is from my hips?!

After razoring on my dress she declared she could in fact take the skirt up. Hugest.sigh.of.relief.ever. We agreed on the whats and the whens, then I paid a deposit and left my dress in good hands with loads of faith that the next time I get to see her will be better than this time.

Now, here I am, two months later: devoted reader of Weddingbee and addicted to Pinterest. Between dress posts on Weddingbee and new pins daily on Pinterest, I’ve developed a crush on a couple new dresses. Shhh don’t tell!

Image via Pinterest/Photo from Watters



Image thanks to Miss Dalmatian/Photo from Brides.com

Taffeta, full skirt, flower belt. And pockets. A dress style I never considered and also never tried on. I began to wonder if this shape would be better on my body, if it’s more bridal, if I should have actually done more shopping before purchasing. I feel guilty—like my poor dress is off in some shop being made to perfectly fit me and I’m kind-of second guessing her. I say kind-of because I don’t regret buying my dress; I know I will love it once it’s all said and done. I look back at pictures of the first time I put MY dress on and I remember that immediate feeling of “yes, this is it.”

I think the combination of not having the most ideal first fitting, not having my dress in my home, and the absurd amount of beautiful wedding dress images has caused my bridal eyes to wander. Please come back to me, Penelope!

This is normal right, hive?! Did you have a less-than-stellar first fitting? Have you “cheated” on your wedding dress?