I got lucky!

I woke up Saturday morning, aka day two of dress shopping, aka THE LAST DAY of dress shopping, wondering what my future held. I was already running through all the formal dresses I currently owned, wondering if any of them would fit into our wedding should I not get lucky and find a dress. Looking back on that day now, it's kind of a blur. I don't actually remember all the shops we went to. In the morning, we went to a shop in Raleigh that had a super friendly staff and a huge selection of dresses. I remember I spent most of my time there arguing with my mom. She loved dresses with pleating on the upper half and I hated them. I did find a really pretty dress at that first shop. Unfortunately, no photography was allowed, so I don't have evidence. The dress was incredibly form-fitting; it was a mermaid style. It was strapless, with a slight sweetheart neckline. And it had a lot of bling all over it. I liked this dress a lot, but truth be told, it took the jaws of life to get me in and out of it. It was simply too tight. I would not have been able to sit, dance or hell, stand, for any length of time. I wanted it to fit, we all did, but it just wasn't happening. And while we learned that there might have been time for a seamstress to let it out, we still couldn't do that because I would not be back to retry it on. And there was no way I was taking the dress back to Vermont on the plane and then on another plane to Florida. I was buying that dress in North Carolina and leaving it there for my parents to drive to Florida in 5 days.

I do remember that morning was the most stressful of the weekend. It was hot out, for one, and I was cracking bit by bit. At one point we all almost killed each other when the GPS led us astray on the way to another bridal shop and we ended up in some subdivision in Raleigh. I was walking a fine line between delirious and just plain crazy. The thing is, I'm a just-go-with-it kind of girl. Everyone reading this should know that. I nearly immediately embraced the idea of throwing out every thought and idea of our wedding and embarking on the craziest wedding train ever. I roll with life, I really do. But I had to have the white dress. I had to. And it didn't so much matter what it looked like, I just wanted to feel like I was getting married when I wore it. So much of our wedding was unconventional, which, oddly enough was what we always wanted, but I knew that I needed the classic white dress to be the one traditional piece in this puzzle of crazy. I could not wait to walk down the aisle, to the funeral march, mind you, toward that haunted house, but I had to be doing it in a gorgeous white dress.

I loved the idea of this dress. I was desperate enough that
I might have worn it, even though it was too big in the top.

All of these thoughts were racing through my mind as I was literally circling the drain that afternoon. We pulled it together and decided to go back to David's Bridal, but a different location. It was a Saturday, so there was a wait time. We spent this time by going to a very sketch grocery store that my super frugal dad is in love with, picking up a large amount of dinner supplies. All of this seemed strange to me. At lunch, my mom was acting weird and now we were buying a lot of food...something was off. I might have paid more attention had I not been focused on finding a dress. We also spent most of the day listening to my brother demand we buy sake for him to drink that evening. We then spent a large amount of time searching for sake. Just before we entered David's Bridal, I remember my mom telling Keith he could only get sake if I found a dress at this appointment. He shot me a look like, "This has been fun, but you better get your damn game face on." Maybe it was this pressure that eventually turned my luck? Who knows?

I pulled maybe 5 dresses at this appointment. Some I had tried on the day before, and some were out of my price range. Hey, I was getting desperate. My original budget was $500. I assumed Adam and I were paying for the dress ourselves. Even if we weren't, I am not the kind of girl who could spend more on a dress I would only wear for a day. That's just not me. I pulled some dresses that ranged all the way to $1,000, figuring it was worth it. I only have a few photos for this post, so enjoy! Most of the dresses just didn't work, so I was in and out of them quickly. I could see my brother panicking as his sake dreams slipped away...

This is me thinking, "Can I make this work?"

The dress in the photo above was so pretty, I loved, loved the flowers. Full disclosure, Keith said it looked like someone vomited flowers all over the dress. Gotta love that, right? At this point, I reeked of desperation and I almost chose this dress even though it was clearly too big on the top. I thought I had no other choice though. You can see Keith's expression in the photo on the left. He's obviously not too impressed.

Then, something magical happened. My attendant ran off to the back room, was gone for several minutes, and then came back with maybe 3 dresses. These dresses were not on the floor. They were not chosen for the new magazine/catalog, so they were castoffs. The first 2 were not winners and I'll admit, I was starting to picture stuffing my bra so the flower dress would fit better. The very last dress I tried on was the one. This may sound crazy, but when I try dresses on, any formal dress, I can always tell when I put it on if it fits me really well, even before I look in the mirror. And I got this feeling with this dress. I immediately knew it fit me, which was a whole lot better than anything else I tried on, so I just hoped it looked good too.

Finally!

And it did. Since I already posted a photo from the actual wedding, then no harm in posting a photo of me in the dress beforehand, as the jig is up. I loved the sweetheart neckline, as it clearly made my boobs look fantastic. I also like how the dress was not glued to me, but still form-fitting. And even though the dress was more simple than I ever imagined wearing, it had some unique spunk that I really liked such as the band of crystals around my waist and the ruffles at the bottom of the dress. Plus, the bonus was that the crystals were all Swarovski! Bam! When I walked out, my parents commented on how well the dress fit me and a perfect stranger said the dress was made for me. Thank goodness! April finally got lucky! Keith was already googling what goes best with sake. My mom made me try on the dress with a veil, as you can see, despite the fact that I did not plan to wear one.

Look at how happy I am!

I love this dress. I truly, truly do. It was nothing like I ever imagined or saw in a magazine, yet it just worked. While my process for finding a dress was stressful and scary and unique, in the end, I thought it was kind of awesome. I didn't spend months of my engagement trying on assorted dresses and getting alterations and having dress regret. I had one shot and that was it. I was getting married in that dress. Oh, and just in case you were wondering, my wonderful parents wound up paying for the dress. And here's something else, given that the dress was not in the catalog, it's regular price of $800 was slashed down to $150! We came way under budget! My mom bought me a headband from the store as well, so after all was said and done, the entire purchase came to just over $200 I think. Bam!

Next up: The secret's out. April finds herself in the middle of a bachelorette party complete with sake, her father and brother and sex charades.