reclaiming wife

Posts Tagged ‘My Great Dress Search’

So I stopped by a wedding dress salon on my lunch break the other day, just to see if they had anything that fit the bill. You know: not strapless, not sparkly, not poofy. Since I'm not four, or going to prom, you'd think I'd be in luck. But nooo, of course not. Finally, I found one dress that was a lovely, simple lace sheath. Then I checked the price tag. $5,500.

Can we just take a minute to think that over? Lets assume that this dress was made out of really nice lace, and there was 6 yards of lace in the dress. That means I would be paying $916 a yard, all in, for that dress. $916 a YARD! Did Rumpelstiltskin spin it out of pure gold, do you think? Or am I just being ripped off? It's not even about "can't afford." I'm a determined independent woman with a credit card. I'm sure I could figure out how to pay for it. It's really about "won't pay." I don't like feeling robbed. Plus, I don't like wastefulness.
Continue reading The Dress Horrors: Highway Robbery Edition

This is one of my all time favorite dresses. The thing I love the most about this wedding is the dress, it's stylish, lovely and unique (and it has a deep V in the back, in the center picture, I love that the most). To top it all off it was made by a friend of the bride, which makes it personal too.

In the end, if I end up having a short wedding dress, it may be this series of pictures that helped me make the final decision. If there is one thing I want to do at my wedding it's DANCE (and I want everyone else to be dancing too). At a party I like any kind of music I can dance to: klezmer, R&B;, swing, soul, country, rock. I've started to realize that most wedding dresses are not made with serious dancing in mind. Maybe a teary eyed slow dance, but not the hora, the jitterbug, the twist, and the electric slide.
Continue reading Twisting The Night Away

Short & Lace
I always say I want a long lace dress or a short 50's style dress, and David always asks me "Why not short and lace?" I thought it would look weird. I was wrong. It looks awesome.
Continue reading Short & Lace

It's funny, because I don't tend to think of myself as one of those VINTAGE girls. I have always had my own particular taste, and I just sort of traipse along, knowing what I love and what I don't like so much... and some of what I love is old fashioned, and that is fine. But when it comes to wedding dresses, I'm suddenly finding that I have very old fashioned tastes. Maybe it's just that I don't like what's currently in vogue. Maybe it's that I hate this age of weddings as conspicuous consumption. Tiaras? Not sober. Princess dresses? Uh-uh. Strapless? Ahhh! Aggressive sparkles? Ohpleasejustleavemealoneinthiscornerplease?

But let us look at dresses I do like:

Continue reading Perhaps Vintage, At Heart

There haven't been many updates of late about the Practical Wedding itself, but that's just because when you are 16 months away from your wedding most news days are slow news days. And too much of us is tres boring, no? But, this weekend, I went wedding dress shopping with two of my girlfriends, and it was so much fun that I had to fill you in on the details.

We started with brunch at Brenda's French Soul Food, which was indescribably tasty. Always fatten yourself up before dress shopping, I say. Next, we decided the easiest way to get where we were going was by cable car, so on we hopped. The cable car trundled it's way up the hill, right past Grace Cathedral, where my parents got married 33 years ago. I got a little teary then, for the only time that day.

Our appointment was at a high end dress shop with a huge selection. It was filled with dresses I couldn't/wouldn't afford, but I was getting desperate. I hadn't seen a single dress that I was even vaguely willing to consider, and without some real ideas, it seemed impossible to even think about getting a dress made, or visualizing it into existence, or whatever the game plan is.

I ended up with the worlds nicest helper. When I told her I didn't care about prices since I was just getting ideas, not buying, she actually clapped and hopped up and down. Off she tore to the vault o' bride, from whence she emerged with at least 10 dresses. I've heard a lot of brides say they went into the shopping experience with firm ideas, and came out with a different dress. But stubborn me? Nope. Everyone thought my idea of long and lace was a little dubious and possibly old fashioned, until I put one on. And then, happiness and joy! Long and lace was lovely! Of course it was $5K, so did not buy it, but at least I know what I like (though retro dress shopping approaches apace!)

Funniest moment of the day? Me standing in front of a mirror in a ginormous wedding dress with a long train, a cathedral length veil, and some fake flowers.

Girlfriend: (teary)
Me: Huh.
Girlfriend: Oh, if only David could see you now!
Me: I think he'd say that this was a little bit much.
Girlfriend: God, remind me not to marry someone that cynical. I need some romance.

Now a sneak peek of the dress that cost too much, with the train that I am to clumsy to have:
Continue reading Dress Shopping, The Lovely Edition

So, I finally swallowed my pride, along with some past bad experiences, and waltzed in the door to David's Bridal. I'm a bride trying to keep on a budget, after all, so pride is overrated. I was expecting everything in the store to be a sparkling, princess, A-line poof - and I was wrong. David's Bridal is in the business of creating designer knockoffs, and business is booming. I told them I was looking for long and lace, and off they trotted. They came back with a few dresses priced from $250 on up. One of them (from their "couture" collection) was $1000 and perfectly lovely. In case I wasn't picking up on the fact that this dress was COUTURE, it was called Monique Lou(huillier of course, was implied). I put on the dress, and I can absolutely tell you, it was a nice dress. Full stop. There was not a thing in the world wrong with it. I looked lovely in it, the lace was nice, I looked like a bride.
Continue reading Dress Shopping, The Generic Edition