It's THE Dress!

See that dress?  That one, right there, above the typing, in the same post as this?  It's my WEDDING DRESS!!!

I only realized way after the fact that I forgot to post last Friday (oops!) because I was too busy gawking at my wedding dress.  When I went in for alterations, I made the follow up appointment to pick it up last Friday and the time just crept up on me.  In combination with the end of my fiancé's semester and his brother and sister-in-law visiting so regularly and now their move, it's been so crazy.  It's been so crazy that we've been kind of putting everything wedding related on hold, but on Friday, it was just a reality check.  Four weeks from then is our wedding!

I know, for shame, how could we lose track and forget something so important.  Literally, just this weekend, we applied to get our marriage license.  But back to the point - my dress.  Isn't it gorgeous? I have to admit, David's Bridal, I thought your presence would be a nuisance in Hawaii, but boy, oh boy, was I ever so wrong.  Don't knock it till you try it, Lady Fox.  Mental note.

Here's the full disclosure: this was actually my second dress.  Shh, don't tell.  In actuality, I took home this dress first and then brought it back for the one you see above.

In all honesty, I freaking loved my first dress, too, but it was unrealistic for my expectations and, in reality, I did in fact settle for that dress you see above.  In that dress I could barely walk, I couldn't sit down, and the thought of hiking up my dress to pee was a recurring nightmare, but I looked smashing in it.  Here's why I settled - I came in looking for a specific dress that they didn't have, this one:

Granted, the biggest reason I was drawn to the Burnout Galina you see above was the $99 price tag.  Once I actually tried on dresses (over 10, easily), I realized that I really actually did want that Burnout dress.  The Galina Fit & Flare had the closest resemblance as far as pattern went, but I really did not want a fit and flare.  What I wanted was a comfortable dress that would be easy for me to move around, sit down, do everything kind of gown like the Burnout Galina.  Galina Fit & Flare, though not the cut I desired, was the nicest dress I had found and I really did love the way it looked on and the design of the lace.  So I bought it knowing that throughout my entire dress appointment I made it very clear that I wanted the Galina Burnout or anything similar and that the Galina Fit & Flare was the closest they told me that I could come to that dress.

Fast forward a month (or two) and imagine my disappointment when I saw this dress online.  That was the dress that I had been begging them to find me.  Why hadn't they shown me this one?  I made it clear that I loved the lace on my Fit & Flare, but desired a dress with more movement, so why did they neglect to show me this amazing, wonderful, perfectly imagined dress that is shown on their website?!  Immediately, I sent the link to my mom in an email and started whining about how I like this dress better than my Fit & Flare, whine whine, blah blah, I want to exchange my dress.  Rather than storm in crying and screaming (like I wanted to), I reasoned that I should first see if I can try on that amazing perfect dress to see if I even like it on.  Crap, I did.  I loved it.

Come to find out, they didn't actually have that dress in the store when I bought my previous gown.  Alright, Davids Bridal, you're off the hook.  So I asked to swap dresses.  Much to my luck, since I didn't actually get to try on the dress since they didn't have it in the store when I bought my Fit & Flare (and since my newer dress was more expensive by $50), they let me do the swap.  HALLELUJAH! But I was also going to have to pay to get it altered because the sizes ran differently and I had to order a size too big.  Boo.

I would still do it again.  I had to pay an extra $130 more than my first dress because of the $50 price difference and the $80 alterations cost, but I LOVE my dress.  And so does my mom.  She disclosed her indifference to my previous dress after I made the swamp.  That little rat.  So now my dress is made to fit me perfectly.  We ordered it in the women's size (16) and sized it down.  In reality, I think I totally could have ordered the 14 in regular sizes and it would have fit me fine, but now my dress is tailored specifically to me and I sure am not going to complain.  I don't have to lose weight, gain weight none of it because it fits me just the way I am.

Now, for my own excitement, I'm going to tell you why this dress is perfect.  Obviously, knowing that I can sit, stand, run, jump, PEE, do whatever in the dress is the number one to me and I tried it all (well, not all) so I can rest easy (yay, no more recurring nightmares!).  You'd never be able to tell when you look at the pictures, but it's almost corset-like in the bodice, meaning it does a little of the sucking in for you!  Plus it flares just perfectly right square at the hip and gives you a super nice hourglass shape while still hiding the little (mom) pooch belly.  It's super long, so I get to wear heels down the aisle.  I considered hemming my dress, but decided against it since I didn't want to pay for that extra cost and figured out a way to rig my dress after my ceremony to give it a temporary hem, so whoo!  My sash goes with this dress ever so perfectly and it doesn't squeeze me too tight to give me underarm fat.  I could go on and on, (because, after all, it is the dress) but I think I made my point.  Dress love.