Full disclaimer: I am not showing
my dress before the wedding, so if you don’t want to continue reading this post,
that’s your prerogative. I’m sorry to disappoint any readers out there, but
there is no way I’m risking the Mister seeing a picture of the dress this close
to the wedding, after months of torturing myself trying to keep it a secret!
Before getting engaged, there was
one and only one dress designer I knew by name: Vera Wang. Don’t ask me how I
knew this, because quite frankly I can’t remember for the life of me. All I
knew is that somewhere in America, a little Asian lady was designing some
kick-ass wedding dresses. I used to joke to my parents that I would wear Vera
on my big day years before even thinking about an engagement, but I never actually thought I would.
As my engagement and subsequent
wedding became more plausible, I became more aware of dress prices and realized
that Wang ain’t cheap yo! I remember looking at Kate Hudson’s Vera Wang in
Bride Wars as the epitome of everything that I wanted in a dress, and probably
would never be able to afford…
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| image via instyle.com |
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| image via thecia.com |
It was the summer before I got
engaged when David’s Bridal announced their exclusive, more affordable, Whiteby Vera Wang line and I couldn’t believe that my dream of Vera might not be
dead after all. But, as it turns out, there are no David’s Bridal stores in the
province of Quebec, so I had no choice but to shop at other stores once I had a ring on my finger.
The very first gown I tried on
was Mrs. Beanstalk’s dress by Allure, and my mom was so excited that she wanted
to purchase it right there and then! I convinced her that we had to try many
more, so after a few misses, and many consultants ignoring what I wanted, I
tried on the Benicarlo by Pronovias (Mrs. Mongoose's dress, which I totally guessed btw) and I totally
cried in the dress. It was amazing and made my… shall we say… assets (boobies,
I mean boobies, OK?) look amazing too. I knew it was good because another bride
who was trying on dresses on the platform next to me came over to tell me that
this dress looked like it was made for me. MOH Long Legs referred to it as the
Swan Lake dress because of the feather detailing, which was totally fitting for
me because I love that Ballet AND the movie Black Swan! I regret not having any
pictures to show you guys, but all the photos I had were on my iphone, which
got stolen when I was mugged, but here are some stock photos instead:
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| Add caption |
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| Pronovias Benicarlo/ images via pronovias.ca |
Anyway…I must have gone back to
try on the Swan Lake dress at least five times and I was convinced it was The
One until Mami Waterfall reminded me of my forgotten obsession and suggested we
make a trip to my nearest DB in Vermont to try on the Vera line before making a
final decision. To be honest, I was sure that I would go and none of the
dresses would compare and I would return to Montreal and purchase Benicarlo,
but I’m all about due diligence, so off we went.
I must admit that DB was very
no-frills compared to some of the fancier salons I had been to, but I only cared
about the dresses. Fate must have been shining on me because that weekend, there happened
to be a Vera Wang sale going on! I made a beeline to the White section and selected
about three Veras to try. My Dress was the second one I tried on. The sample
was pink, and about three sizes too small, but when I walked out and my
consultant fanned out my beautiful train, I looked over and saw my 6 ft 4
father in actual tears. Out of all the people I could have imagined crying over
my dress, my dad was definitely not one of them! My mom
started crying too which made me start crying and even my consultant got a little
misty. In that moment, I just knew I
had found my dress. And, because of the sale, my dress wound up being about a
thousand dollars cheaper than Swan Lake!
I totally adore my dress, it has everything I wanted (a gorgeous fitted bodice, lots and lots of tulle and a gorgeous train for my walk down the aisle) and I can't wait to show it to you guys. I'm still concerned about Mr. Waterfall's reaction, but he did give me his blessing to get a tulle gown, and I'm hoping he loves it as much as I do.
How did you know once you found the gown?
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