Chris and I have been cleaning out our house - getting rid of clutter. And one item I decided to let go of (8 years later!) was my wedding planning book. I did scan in my favorite parts - the budget, receipts from vendors, etc. And then I scanned in the section of wedding dresses I loved.
My dream dress was this Reem Acra (on the right with the squared dropped waist). I decided to buy it but I wanted my parents to see it first. They drove down to Orlando and met me at The Collection so I could show them. I don't think my mom got the memo that this was THE dress and she hated it. She said it made me look fat. I was crushed and I didn't know where I was going to start at finding another dress.
Have you seen the show Say Yes to the Dress? Where a bride finds THE dress and her family hates it? I can totally relate. I feel so awful for those brides. And if they end up buying something else they are going to always wish they would have bought THE dress. Just like I did.
I was recently in New York City and they had a display of Vera Wang dresses through the years (I blogged about it here) and my favorite was the dress from 2002. So if Chris and I renew our vows some day I want to wear THE dress that I didn't buy. Maybe I could call Reem Acra and find out where to find this dress.
So the search for a new dress began.
As I mentioned yesterday, I had a wedding dress that I liked that was similar to that Badgley Mischka dress I posted with the jacket. I saw this Ian Stuart dress and it was perfect - simple and you could remove the jacket and train for a nice dress for the reception and dinner. So my dad and I drove down to Elva's Bridal in South Florida to try the dress on - and it just wasn't looking right on me. I was heartbroken.
And a side note - this dress shop was odd. They showed me a dress that looked like this Ian Stuart one but they wouldn't tell me if it was the actual dress - and they pulled out all of the labels so you didn't know what dress it was. I got a very odd vibe from this place and we quickly left.
Our next stop was Boca Raton Bridal - now this was a great dress shop. They had gorgeous gowns and the only problem was this Paula Varsalona dress I wanted was about 4 times my budget. It was gorgeous with lace all over.
Our 2nd to last stop was at the Saks Bridal Salon in Bal Harbor where I loved this Tomasina gown:
And on our final stop where I still wasn't sure what I was going to do (I loved the Paula Varsalona one but I knew it wasn't going to happen being $8000 and all) my dad picked the dress - it was a 2 piece Maggie Sottero with a lace up back. I didn't want a lace up back - they were just coming into style and I thought it was too old looking. But I didn't realize how flattering they are - it looked great on me! I tried on two that were very similar and my dad picked one over the other and that was it. I had a wedding dress! The sad part is I couldn't find photos of it anywhere - not on the Maggie Sottero website, not in magazines, nowhere. I actually forgot what the dress looked like after I ordered it and I was a little nervous before it came in from the shop! By the way, I bought my dress from Bellissima Bride in Deerfield Beach. They were awesome to work with and the alterations were included!
I don't have very many photos on my computer from the wedding but I do have this one that shows the front of my dress:
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