First thing's first

What's the most important part of the wedding day? No, not the venue or the cake. It's the dress! Or, should I say The Dress. This is perhaps the only article of clothing I'll ever wear that seems to have a life of its own. Naturally, as is my habit, I put off dress shopping until the last minute. Well, last minute according to all of those bridal magazines that say you should be dress shopping 9-12 months ahead of time. I went with the 8-month window, since my mother absolutely wanted to go dress shopping with me and that required that she travel from Arizona to New York for a whirlwind weekend of silk, organza, and bad lighting.

We ended up going to three different shops: an off-the-rack dress shop in the mall, a middle-of-the-road boutique, and a high-end shop. I don't know why I bothered with the high-end shop because I knew most of the dresses would be outside my budget. Actually, all of the dresses there were outside my budget (I was hoping to keep the dress below $1000), though there were two that I liked, both by Demetrios:

I liked the ruched bodice on this dress because it made me look a lot more well-endowed than I actually am. Also, this is the shop where I sort of fell in love with lace. This all-over lace dress was really pretty, but they didn't have a dress that was big enough to give me a decent idea of how the dress would look on my hips. Even though it's an a-line, it's a fit-and-flare, so I didn't want to risk over-emphasizing my "child bearing hips".

This dress was absolutely gorgeous. Well, they're all gorgeous, but I really loved how the bottom of the skirt was pleated. It really added some interest to the train. Also, you can't tell so much from the picture, but the beading on the skirt extended up onto the ruched bodice and sort of trailed off. It was very organic looking, which I liked.

Ultimately, both of these dresses were too expensive for me, hovering right around the $2000 mark. Although, when I got home that evening there was a message from the bridal salon informing me of a "special" taking 10% off of the dresses if I purchased in the next two weeks.

The "middle-of-the-road" boutique was great, as my saleslady asked me what my budget was and only pulled dresses that were within or just slightly above my budget. She was also fantastic at figuring out my taste from our quick walk around the showroom. My favorite dress at this location was a $1600 Paloma Blanca.

This dress is so completely not what I would pick out for myself that I had trouble figuring out which dress I had tried on when I went to the designer's website that evening. Also, I have to say the picture doesn't do it justice. The ruching is much more flattering on someone who has a more hourglass figure. The entire dress is a lovely natural silk with just the bodice in lace. No crystals or fancy embroidery to be found. The thing that really surprised me was the pick-up skirt. I'm generally very anti-pick-up, but I truly did not notice the pick-ups when I tried the dress on. I noticed the draping in the skirt, but not the pick-ups.

This dress was clearly too expensive again (although with all of that silk I can understand why), but I could have probably found it cheaper online if I really was in love with it. The trouble was, although I couldn't get it out of my head for a few days, every time I looked at the picture I was less and less in love with it.

The dress I ultimately purchased is actually from the more budget-friendly "off-the-rack" shop, Camille La Vie. We got off on the wrong foot with this shop, since it appeared that no one bothered to write down my appointment time and we couldn't get a salesperson to help us for a good 20 minutes after our arrival. But, they did have some lovely dresses at very reasonable prices. And, the best part is that they had most of the dresses I wanted to try on in my size or a "close enough" size that I could get a good idea of how each would really look on me.

Here is the dress I decided to make "mine":

Try to ignore the silly pose. I don't know why they make models do that, as it actually detracts from the dress. This was, in fact, the second dress I tried on in the whole dress-shopping ordeal. I love the gathered ruching, and the diagonal layering as it sort of makes my waist look slimmer. Also, the layering and beading is all on an organza overlay that catches the light "just so" and makes the entire dress a little less formal.

Camille La Vie was also where the idea of a veil entered my head. I had been vehemently anti-veil, as I'm not getting married in a church and the whole thing seemed a little overblown for my simpler tastes. But, the saleslady plopped a fingertip-length single layer veil on my head and, I have to admit, it looked lovely. It was very simple and not poufy, and now I think I may just need a veil, but that's a subject for another blog entry.