Wedding Dress Shopping!

Good morning!

I was going to possibly do a post about early 1960's carpets today (don't freak out, there's always next week for retro carpet discussion) but my heart wasn't in it. I'm too much in throes of weddin' plannin'! With 149 days to go, we've pretty much only marked off "save the dates" (I used the same basic color picture we talked about earlier this year, they looked great!) and venue, and honestly, I feel like I should be about 1,000,000 times more on top of this than I am right now. I wake up feeling like a panel from a Cathy comic strip, and folks, THIS IS NO WAY TO LIVE A LIFE.

They make it look so easy in the magazines!!

I had a dream last night that I was sending out wedding invitations, and then realized at the last minute everyone was already assembled at the hotel where we were having the wedding. I walked down a long corridor of tables set with food platters on the way to the room where the ceremony was being held, just agog at all the food. "My parents sprang for so much food!" I thought to my dream self. There was kiwi sushi, which I have no intention of serving to guests at my upcoming nuptials, but that's how vivid the dream was. I usually save that level of detail for the ones where reliving some seventies' slasher movie, but here I was, tromping past guests in my street clothes, trying to find my mother, to tell her the really bad, really REALLY terribly awfully bad news-- I had no dress! NO DRESS. I'd thought I had another couple of weeks to get everything together, and here I was on my big day in NO DRESS. "You look fine!" my mom said when I finally located her. "You could just walk down the aisle in what you're wearing!" I woke up in a state of extreme agitation, needless to say.

My mom and I have been to Bridal Warehouse and David's Bridal, but have little to report in the way of "the one". I didn't get a chance to try on all the dresses I saw online that I liked, so we're hitting the Cool Springs branch and possibly the Murfreesboro branch tomorrow. I thought I would show you some of the gowns that may very well prevent the tragedy hinted at in my dream!

1) The Simplest Solution:

I tried on the first three of these, and this was the first of those three. While it's figure flattering, and has the flared skirt/tea length/tiny waist requirements to suit the vague idea of the dress I want, my mom and I were both underwhelmed by its plainness. Maybe with a colored petticoat, or a great veil, though, this could be something a little more eye-catching? You'd be surprised at how few bridal gowns nowadays, compared to the hundreds of full -length-with-train, are tea length! I knew I should have been shopping off the rack in 1958 rather than 2013, imagine how much better my odds would be!

2) The One That Was Not As it Seemed!

This was by far the most flattering dress, as that shirred top makes anyone look slightly leaner and yet somehow ever so slightly more pneumatic than regular. Length, perfect. Fit, perfect. But! The organza overlay, which looks white as teeth on the model, is actually two or three shades of ivory darker than the white-white of the underskirt! I would say that the flower and the pattern on the organza are almost a cafe au lait type color. What the what! Which makes this dress plummet in the mom-and-me ratings race from major contender to I-don't-want-to-look-like-I'm-not-the-bride-at-my-own-wedding. UGH. 

 3) The Prettiest Contender

 

This Oleg Cassini (OLD HOLLYWOOD! The man who started the line married Gene Tierney and almost married Grace Kelly. You had me at the name!) number was my favorite of the ones I tried on in terms of design and "wow" factor, but the Rivergate store only had it in a 10 (I'm an 8) and when something is a size too big in the bust and the waist, in a dress that is fitted to the bust and the waist, it's altogether impossible for me to tell what it would look like in my actual size. The sales associate kept pulling the excess material back so I could "see what it would look like in an 8", but this bid at closing the deal was unsuccessful. Next closest dress? Bowling Green or Knoxville. BOOOOOO. Still, if I don't have any luck on Friday, it's a distinct possibility I'm driving to Kentucky on Saturday.

4) Miss Congeniality

They didn't have this at the Rivergate store, period, and what a shame! That lace overlay at the bateau neckline! The cap sleeves! SO. FIFTIES'. This is the one I liked the best online. Hopefully, I'll get a crack at it on Friday. I think this would fit pretty much every in-my-head ideal, but you never know until you try it on.

 5) The Wild Card

I know I sound like I've been kind of dead set on the tea length thing, but I love how Spanish-lace-and-late-sixties'-early-seventies' this dress looks. I love that this modeling photo is the most ridiculous (biking with hydrangeas in one of the most expensive dresses, if not THE most expensive dress, I will ever wear!), I love the cut of this dress.

So! What do you think? Those are the ones I'm gunning for on my next trip, and a couple more. There's also a hidden possibility of a vintage dress I now have, but I'll tell you about it another time. Try to see past the weird styling in these photos and imagine this super tall, beehived, immaculately made-up gal in the self same dresses-- which do you think would be the most flattering? Any tips on finding brick-and-mortar locations to try on wedding dresses? I couldn't believe Dillards or Macys are both without bridal departments-- what is the world coming to! Do you have any terrible or wonderful stories about finding clothes for your own or someone's else's wedding? Let's talk! Make me feel better, for goodness's sake! :)

That's all for today, back to regularly schedule vintage ramblings tomorrow. Til then!