About the Dress(es)

Dresses, dresses. Clearly the most important decision a bride can make (besides her groom!) is her dress. This is a pretty important decision, since you (hopefully) only get one shot to get it right.

The most beautiful bride of them all, Grace Kelly.

I know many women dream of their wedding dress for years and years--I am not one of those women. But as soon as I got engaged I knew I had to get it into gear and figure out what I want. For months I have been tearing out pages from myriad bridal magazines and saving picture after picture from wedding sites. It became pretty clear that I like the following:

• fit and flare (aka trumpet aka mermaid) silhouettes:

"Cincinnati" by Blue by Enzoani

• structured, asymmetric gowns:

"Berta" by Carolina Herrera

• vintage inspired gowns:

"Morgan" by Priscilla of Boston, Vineyard Collection (maybe the most perfect gown ever?)

Now, as nice as it would be to spend $4000 on a Priscilla of Boston gown, I just don't have that kind of scratch. I instead focused my search on the designers in the $1000-$1500 range, such as Allure, Justin Alexander, and Blue by Enzoani. There is a single store that I could find in Chicago that carries all of these designers, so it was a no brainer where I would head once the time came. As we just passed the 200 day mark, the time was this weekend. 

On Saturday, my two loyal Chicago bridesmaids accompanied me an hour outside the city to Tinley Park, IL, where the three of us embarked upon this adventure together. Since none of us had ever been on a wedding gown shopping trip before, we weren't entirely sure what to expect. What did we find? Lots and lots and lots of white, poofy dresses (and bored family members). 

Where to start?

With a consultant assigned to help me and the mantra "nothing in fashion, nothing out of style," I began pulling and nixing gowns to try on. The consultant was actually really good a pulling dresses that fit my sensibility, and I really did like almost all of the gowns I tried on. 

But one gown stood out. 

In fact, it was one of the very first gowns that caught my eye in the very first bridal gowns that I bought. I showed it to my 'maids on the way to the store and said I was hoping to try it on. When we walked into the store, guess what was hanging up behind the front desk? Yep, that dress. 

Click to see the dress!

I tried it on, I loved it, my 'maids loved it, the consultant loved it, even the bored woman waiting for her niece loved it.  ("It's the best one," she said, slightly surly.) And the price? It fit my budget to the penny. So, I bought it. I did. I still can't believe it, and have kind of been freaking out since then. As soon as I bought it, doubt started creeping in. Can I really pull off a tea-length gown? I mean, I like how they look, but I always pictured myself in a dress with a train. I also worry that it's not "bridey" enough, and that I will miss my one-in-a-lifetime chance to wear a completely insanely stunning wedding dress.

The biggest sliver of doubt has been caused by a rogue contender:

This used gown I found online. 

The gown is originally $4000 but is being resold for a fraction of the price. It needs a cleaning and will most likely need a teeny bit of alteration, which placed it solidly outside of my budget. But THEN, when I told my mom about my predicament, she and my dad offered to help out so I could get the 2nd dress! Now what am I supposed to do?!

Honestly, every time I think about either gown I feel a little sick to my stomach. Who knows whether I will ever feel that I made the right decision, or if it's even possible to really feel that way. Talking to a recently married friend about the situation did help me feel a little better. Here's her advice:

I'm going to tell you two things: DON'T doubt your dress! If that means you return this for the other, OK. But the other thing I'm going to tell you is, at the end of the day, it's just a dress. I loved my dress, but part of me felt like I rushed into it just because I hated the whole dress buying process and was so super stressed about it. In reality I don't think I needed to spend as much as I did--but every time we see a bridal store, I think about how much I want another, different dress! You're not going to stop wanting a wedding dress just because you get married. You're always going to see pretty dresses and think, why didn't I find that? (Better to do that with dresses than grooms.) And you will look like a bride, because you'll BE the bride!

Sage advice, indeed. And now, dear readers, I ask for your advice. What the heck do you think I should do?