Planning Our Wedding - The Dress - parte duo

I left off at our first visit to Something Bleu, where we were dazzled by an ivory Regency gown with a champagne sash . . . We selected a few dresses to try on, but the lady who helped us handed me the Regency gown first, probably because she knew it would be my favorite and nothing else would compare.  She helped me slide it over my head, then straightened the little train and I swept across the carpet back into the main room where Mom waited beside the mirror. 

Those sales-ladies are cunning.  Once you step in front of the mirror, they stick a veil on your head, and suddenly you are no longer a shopper, but a bride.  Tears spring to your eyes.  They shower you with sparkling adjective phrases and let you linger long over your reflection.  I knew that the tears didn't necessarily mean we had found "the dress," because they did the same thing at Lily, minus a few of the sparkling adjectives!  But this dress was, undoubtedly, the most beautiful I had seen so far, and the most like the dress I had dreamed of.  It was just way, way too expensive.

The owner of the shop offered to come down on the price as long as we bought that dress off the floor, so we put it away in our minds.  It was still too much, though.  We had another potential iron in the fire to pursue.

I had actually begun my dress-search online. I'd heard that our pastor's daughter bought her gorgeous wedding gown from a Mormon company. While I'm definitely anti-Mormon in doctrine, I was encouraged to hear that some people are still making and selling modest wedding dresses! My search led me to Eternity Gowns, where I did find a very pretty Regency-style dress layered in Alcenon lace. I love lace. The only problem was we didn't know the price and the nearest store that carried Eternity was in Boston. We started making some phone calls.

The shop in Boston told us that they did not have this gown on the floor, but they could order it if I put a $100 deposit on it.  The dress itself was at the upper end of my price range.  Tough decisions!  Meanwhile, I found a very pretty Regency-style formal gown in chiffon from the same company which looked like a great candidate for a bridesmaid's dress.  It might be worth the risk and the trip if we found all our dresses on the same day.  But after further inquiry, we learned that the bridesmaid's dress was over $200, and I felt that I couldn't ask my friends to pay more than $125 apiece. 

After a week or two of meditation on all these factors, the owner of Something Bleu called us back.  She was willing to come down yet another $200.  I was excited!  We learned that it's good to wait it out!  Perhaps this was a sign.  When Mom offered to contribute to the dress herself, it was an easy decision.  We'd stay local and purchase that beautiful Regency gown.  Interestingly, the ladies at Something Bleu were not quite as nice to us after we'd actually handed them a check.

In conclusion . . . I was happy with my beautiful wedding gown, but if I had it to do over, I might have gone the Boston-route.  "Signs" aren't always from God.  Dad's first opinion of the dress, after we'd purchased it, was that it showed a lot of skin.  I'd advise a bride with a Christian Dad to have him check a dress out before purchasing it!  I spent some of the next several months worrying that I'd bought an immodest wedding gown, and on the morning of the wedding, we threw some lace into the bodice with stick-on velcro to cover just a little bit more.  Money-wise, I could have put my Mom's contribution toward the expensive bridesmaid dresses in Boston and saved ourselves some stress in that area, too, but that's a story for another day.  :-)