Wedding Wednesdays: The Dress

As an avid watcher of Say Yes to the Dress (judge me, I don't care), I can honestly say I haven't watched it once since I brought home my wedding dress. The show is so right (like, you won't end up liking what you thought you wanted) and so wrong (why would you EVER spend THAT much money for a dress?!) for many reasons and lucky for me, my dress experience was an absolute breeze. My Mom flew in for a long weekend. I took a Friday off of work and made three appointments. This may come as a surprise, but I didn't invite anyone else. With my family living in Ohio, wedding plan was all done via email, text message or Facetime calls. I knew I would get so many moments to spend planning and preparing with Mike's family and my closest friends, so this one special day and important life event was just for me and my Mom. Plus, the thought of walking out to a crowd of people ready to "Ooo and Ahh" or "Boo and Hiss" made me sick to my stomach!

I did have some dress options in mind when I started looking. I liked more of the column look, lace, vintage, no silk, fluffy, sparkles, yes to the possibility of sleeves or blush color and it had to be ready in five months. Easy enough, let's go. Silk was our first stop. It's a consignment shop, where all the dresses were runway samples, once wedded or were purchased before but not wedded. The woman helping us was amazing, and we had the whole store to ourselves. I loved that she didn't put me in anything that was so many sizes bigger (because you won't get the right idea of how it'll fit after alterations), nor did she let us get out of our price range.

The first dress I tried on, The Big Bird Dress, as my stepdad called it, actually took my breath away. I liked it! The bird-like ruffles were a little jarring at first. But reality sank in. I was a bride and holy shit, I just tried on my real first wedding dress. Ever. Sounds so silly and little-girl-princess type of stuff, but it was like I saw myself as this woman I didn't recognized. I grew up. I have my own life, my own car, an awesome house, a professional career and soon a great guy to call my husband. My Mom, who was snapping photos of me in these big white gowns was going to be the Mother of the Bride and I was that Bride. Of all the emotions I was preparing to experience that day, dignified and uplifted weren't at the top. I digress...

I tried on two more dresses at Silk, left for lunch where I ate a giant Philly Cheesecake for lunch (yes, the greasiest, fattiest lunch a shopping-for-her-wedding-dress bride shouldn't eat), then went to Ava Clara to try on, what seemed like, 20 more dresses. The store was nice and had lots of beautiful dresses to choose from, but none were like the fit and flare, lacy, strapless style from Silk. So, needless-to-say, we went back to Silk, tried on the third dress again, my mom cried and that was that! We bought the strapless, sweetheart neck, lace Tara Keely dress on the spot and believe it or not, not one single alteration had to be made to it!

It definitely was not what I originally had in mind, but I fell in love with it more and more each time I looked at it. The dress was perfect for the venue, the evening and me. Most importantly Mike loved it - and me in it!

It was also fabulous for twirling!