To look more feminine....

When I started this whole wedding planning journey, I thought I knew what I was getting myself into.  But a lot of things have surprised me along the way.  One of the biggest surprises is the very blunt expectation that all brides must be trying to achieve the best body possible for their wedding day.

Now don't misinterpret me here.  I think it is AWESOME to be in great shape, and your wedding day can be a great "get healthy" goal date.  I know I want to feel bad-ass in my dress, and thus have begun doing arm weights for the first time in my life.  (I want GUNS!  I know I'm not going to get Madonna arms, but I at least want some definition.) 

What I think is messed up is the expectation that you must be trying to lose weight.  I had two different bridal shop people ask me how much weight I was planning to lose.  Say what?  I wear a size 4, and while I have some trouble areas (love handles, anyone?), I don't think I need to lose weight.  And even if I did?  Its so inappropriate for this random person to assume that I want to.  I can only imagine what they say to girls who are even a little overweight.  It makes me cringe.

The kicker was when I went to my seamstress and she told me I either needed to lose weight or get some Spanx if I wanted to look "more feminine" in my dress.  Seriously?  So feminine means without curves?  Not last time I checked.  (I was planning on getting some Spanx anyway, but now I'm just annoyed.) 

Anyone else had crazy run-ins like this?  Did you tell them off?  (I wish I had.  I was just so shocked I was rendered speechless.  Next time I go to my seamstress I'm bringing back-up and having a couple drinks before hand.)

My dream dress part III

As we headed to the last bridal salon for our appointment, my MOH said she had "a feeling" this was going to be the one.  You see, out of any new dress I'd seen the dress I was about to try on was the closest thing to my dream dress.  When we arrived, the assistant showed us several lovely dresses, but we let her know that we were really there for one dress.  She did, however, talk me into trying on one of my absolutely-unattainable dream dresses. 

Monique Lhuillier's Scarlet:

While the dress was fabulous (I now understand why so many brides covet the Scarlet), it was not really me.  I guess I am not a lacy girl.  Now it was time to step into the dress we were there for.  At this point, I was so used to being half naked in front of the bridal boutique ladies, that I wasn't even phased.  (Seriously, I had no idea I would be almost naked in front of a complete stranger the whole time.)  The dress definitely did not disappoint.  Here she is, Amy Michelson's Faith:

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(Please ignore the ivy they styled her with...)

I was in love. Especially after the seamstress confirmed that the back could easily be altered to look a bit more like my dream dress. I felt like this was the first dress that felt like me, and was exactly what I wanted to wear for our wedding. The problem? The dress came in at $2700, which was about 4 times my budget

We went back to the hotel and starting googling like mad women. What we found on eBay made us both gasp out loud. My dream dress, unaltered, had sold for a mere $400 less than an hour earlier. I know.

After drowning our sorrows in cheesecake, my MOH convinced me to email the seller.  You know, just in case something went wrong with the sale.  I figured this was a long shot, but at this point, I had nothing to lose.  One week later I received an email from the seller, asking if I was still interested.  Was I still interested?  Heck yes!!!!

And that, my friends, is how I scored my dream dress (well, close enough) for a ridiculous deal.

My dream dress-Part II

My MOH and I planned a perfect dress hunting trip to Chicago, right before I moved to New Orleans.  She was able to take the train from Detroit, and I took the bus from Madison.  We scored a fabulous deal staying at the Westin Hotel right on Michigan Avenue.

I did my research on wedding dresses, and had quite a few places for us to try.  Unfortunately, the first day we didn't even find anything worth taking pictures of!  The vintage stores were a total bust, and I was disheartened.

Day 2 of shopping was what we were both looking forward to because we were going to Vera Wang!!!!  We both have dreamed of Vera Wang for years, and even though I knew I couldn't afford it, I just had to have the experience!

Me in front of Vera Wang.  Very excited.

The boutique was 1/2 Vera Wang, 1/2 other designers and it was beautiful.  While I had a ton of fun trying on the dresses (no pictures allowed, sorry), I didn't fall in love with any of Vera's.  I did however, seriously consider two gowns that were completely out of my price range:

I could write a whole post about how much I love Reem Acra!

I was so close to getting this Elizabeth Fillmore dress.

We left the boutique, high on couture and headed to our last stop of the trip.  I had an appointment to try on a dress that I had torn out of a magazine because of its' resemblance to my dream dress.

My dream dress-Part I

One day when I was happily google-ing away trying to find vintage 1930s wedding dress inspiration, I stumbled upon this:

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I. Was. Hooked.  Never in my life have I been so completely obsessed with a dress.  Of course, it was vintage, and therefore unattainable.  I did, however, proceed to email it to countless vintage shops to see if they had anything similar, with no luck.  I continued to search every vintage shop I could, with plans to go to several vintage shops on my upcoming dress hunting trip to Chicago with my MOH.

Too be continued....

Was your dream dress difficult to find?

My kind of dress

I've never been a poofy dress girl.  Even in high school, when my friends were wearing the popular princess-dresses to prom, I went for a slinky strapless number (much to my mother's chagrin).  So when the time came to start thinking about wedding dresses, I knew that I was not going to be going for the big princess dress look.

Immediately, I was drawn to the idea of a old-hollywood style dress.  I love how these dresses are slinky, yet still classic and beautiful.

Here are some of my favorite silhouettes:

A friend clipped this picture out of a magazine b/c she knew I would love it!  This is Jean Harlow on the set of "Reckless" in 1935.

Another gorgeous Jean Harlow dress *sigh*

Rita Hayworth = stunning

After a little bit of google research, I realized I was looking for a vintage 1930's style bias-cut dress.  Thus began my search of vintage or vintage-inspired dresses.  Little did I know how difficult this would be...