Monday, October 8, 2012

THE DRESS.

Why the all caps, you say? Because it seems like, in the course of planning a wedding, everyone treats the acquisition of THE DRESS as if it were an extremely momentous process. And honestly, to me it felt like a pretty big adventure. Those of you who have only known me for a few years might have known me to wear skirts and be more feminine, but on the whole I am not very girly. Case in point: my favorite skirts to wear are long, flowy, floor-length skirts...because I can wear hiking boots with them. Needless to say, I was not the type of person who planned their wedding since they were in kindergarten, and I was definitely not the type of person who thought at all about what kind of dress they were going to wear. In my sophomore year of college, my roommate (who had more of an interest in things like wedding dresses) sat me down and had me look through the David's Bridal website for dresses I liked, but looking at wedding gowns was never a preferred activity for me.

When Noah and I got engaged, one thing we decided right from the top was that if I was going to spring for a formal wedding dress, I was only going to do it for one of the weddings--the big wedding in a couple years. There was no sense in buying a beautiful, formal gown if I was pretty much going to have to run over from work to get to the courthouse before it closed and not be able to do anything that would make me actually look good in a really nice dress. So we tabled the fancy wedding dress for later, when I can try on lots of poofy gowns and probably still end up with some sensible knee-length number because otherwise I'll trip on the dance floor. Since the civil ceremony is going to be very casual, we decided that Noah will wear a nice woven shirt he recently purchased at Renn Faire, and I would wear kind of a casual party dress or an everyday dress--something I could wear over and over again. And then, the painstaking search was on.

It just so happened that at the beginning of my search, I came upon what I thought was THE DRESS. It was cream-colored and long-sleeved and lacy and vintage-style and looked a little somethin' like this:

http://shop.nordstrom.com/S/kensie-lace-dress/3339125?origin=category&contextualcategoryid=0&fashionColor=BIRCH&resultback=552

But when I tried to order it, I was saddened to find that it was out of stock in every size but a large. Alas, it was not to be. So I ordered a dress from Modcloth that I also liked that looked a little somethin' like this:

http://www.modcloth.com/shop/dresses/fashionably-slate-dress

And it came, and I looked pretty good in it.




















I know, it's an awkward photo. They're all going to be awkward, so bear with me.

That day, Noah convinced me to go out looking at dresses just to see what was out there. We browsed some department stores at the mall and found a dress that looked vaguely similar to THE DRESS I'd found originally, and was also extremely on sale. Unfortunately, they didn't have it in my size. Neither did any other store in the state, pretty much. Here's what that one looked like:

http://www.overstock.com/Clothing-Shoes/Rabbit-Rabbit-Rabbit-Designs-Womens-White-Stretch-Lace-Dress/5795503/product.html

So we started looking at dresses online again, and-cue up Etta James' "At Last"-we found THE DRESS:

http://www1.macys.com/shop/product/kensie-dress-three-quarter-scoop-neck-lace-a-line?ID=689096&CategoryID=5449&LinkType=&swatchColor=Birch#fn=COLOR%3DWhite%26PRICE%3D50.0%7C99.99000000000001%26sp%3D1%26spc%3D12%26ruleId%3D65%26slotId%3D5

If you just did a double take and said "wait, that's the exact same dress that you had originally that was out of stock at Nordstrom!", you'd be right. I spent several weeks agonizingly poring over dresses and trying to decide whether I'd look good in them, only to happen upon the dress I'd loved all along. Like relationships, sometimes you just know when it's meant to be.

Last time I announced that I'd found THE DRESS people demanded pictures, so have some awkward pictures of me wearing a wedding dress with awkwardly-drying hair and that tired, "I've been at work since 7am today" look in my eyes, against the sweepingly romantic backdrop of my bathroom that hasn't been cleaned in awhile.




Noah, by the way, will wear this:


3 comments:

  1. Being a girly-ish girl, I totally want you to wear blue flats with that dress. Because that would be the cutest outfit ever.

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    Replies
    1. That does sound nice! Like these?

      http://www.zappos.com/product/7308768/color/187937

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  2. I like the grey dress- more than I thought I would when I saw the picture of it before you ordered it- but I REALLY like The Dress. My vote is cast! :)

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