Weddingbee Blog

The other day, I told you about my trip to Hitched in Georgetown and how I added Jorge Manuel to the list of designers I liked after seeing his name on the salon’s website. I started gobbling up everything I could find online about Jorge because his dresses were unlike any I had seen before. While many of the silhouettes were traditional, the details were so different! I thought his dresses looked like pieces of art.

I had been searching for dresses with quirky or whimsical details and while many of the dresses I tried on were beautiful, none seemed to have a very special or original look. The Jorge Manuel gowns had me excited. The fashion lover in me liked them a lot and I also felt excited about them. Perhaps I was feeling the emotions that many brides feel when they find their dress?

Look at the detail on that train! / The Indus by Jorge Manuel

I tried on The Emerald gown at Hitched and it was a wee bit too slinky for me since I’m a little self-conscious about my hips. I kept searching and reading whatever I could about Jorge and his dresses.

The Emerald by Jorge Manual

A post on the Completely Unveiled wedding blog got me really excited. Jorge was giving away one of his gorgeous, one-of-a-kind dresses! I couldn’t imagine being lucky enough to win the Star gown, but I started to daydream about it a little bit. Finally, I decided that I would regret not trying to win and wrote a little essay to submit as my entry. I heard that there were over 250 entries, so I wasn’t too hopeful.

Image from Jorge Manuel’s blog

A few weeks later, I woke up to find out that I was one of the five semi-finalists in the Upon a Star Contest! Just getting picked for one of those five spots was a thrill. I put the contest out of my head for a couple weeks.

On the morning that the winner of the gown was announced, I groggily checked my email and didn’t have any messages about the contest. Oh well. It was nice to have been a finalist and I realized that the contest made me decide that I wanted to be a Jorge bride since I hadn’t been as excited about any other designer’s gowns during my search.

I figured I’d check out which of finalists was the winner. One of the pictures on the front page of Jorge’s website had changed. I was one click away from finding out who won one of his beautiful wedding gowns.

Image from Jorge Manuel’s website

I clicked and screamed.

He can do wonders just wrapping fabric around a form! / Image from Jorge Manuel’s website

Junior Mink seemed to think I was injured. I ran over to Mr. Mink and threw myself into his arms, probably making unintelligible sounds. He thought I saw a spider. He knew I had entered a contest to win a dress, but I wouldn’t let him see it or tell him too many details. He couldn’t possibly be as excited as I was.

So, my dress search came to a very unexpected and abrupt end with a one-of-a-kind, dream dress. Later that morning, Jorge Manuel himself called me at the office and said that he was flying me down to Charleston to pick up my gown at Maddison Row, the bridal salon that helped sponsor the contest. He promised me that the dress was better in person. I had only looked at a few pictures of the gown on a dress form, but I thought he was selling it a little short. It looked beautiful to me! I hope you’ll agree! Tomorrow, I’ll share pictures from my trip to Charleston, including ones of me trying on my gown for the first time!

Have you ever won anything from a blog contest? What was it?