Wedding Wednesday. Getting Ready :: Part III - The Dress

Jack had no idea what to expect and I am so happy that I chose to keep my dress a secret. Although I wasn't raised in a house that preached tradition, I think it is little traditions like these that add to the specialness of the day.

It definitely helped that, rather than making my life easy and choosing a sure thing, I decided to have my dress - inspired by Vera wang's "Gabriella" - made by a local seamstress. This way even if Jack saw a photo of the inspiration [which he swears he didn't] he would still never truly know what the real thing looked like. The process itself was a tough one however, with the help of my sisters, my mom and myself the dress was finished in the nick of time and it was perfection. I honestly could not imagine a more beautiful gown (including the original dress!). It was the perfect balance of pouffy and poise, tradition and modern, fun and elegance.  

It was a relatively easy dress to get into, besides the unavoidable nakedness and need for others to help you into it - thank goodness for great friends and sisters. Since putting on the dress took under 15 minutes we spent most of our time between the stop-in at the house and the ceremony snacking and touching.

It's an odd thing not having bridesmaids. Technically it means nobody is required to do anything. Spending the morning before my wedding with my sisters and Jackie meant the world to me. The moments I got to share with them leading up to the ceremony are among my favorites of the day. 

*all photos by Chelle Wootten photography

Wedding Wednesday :: THE dress . an update

Read: Vera Unveiled: behind the dress

I finally decided that I'm going all in. I know I may be risking life and limb but I'm going to get my dress made... and by my dress I do mean that heart-stoppingly beautiful Vera Wang ditty. I know, I know - it's not just a dress - it's haute couture - making this a potentially, very dangerous endeavour BUT love makes you do crazy things and I am absolutely smitten.

The way I see it - whether or not the exact dress was attainable, I couldn't just walk away knowing that no other dress I tried on made me feel the same way. That no other dress made my heart skip a beat while at the same time leaving me completely calm, at ease and oh-so-happy. SO. I got in touch with a VERY talented woman and she's taken on my cause. I've had my first appointment, we talked, I got measured and we placed an order for the fabric.

I'm incredibly excited [and a little nervous] to see how this all turns out! I think the important thing I need to keep in mind is that I will not be getting the exact dress in the photo. I will however be getting a beautiful, incredibly well made dress inspired by the dress in the photo - and that, that will be wonderful.

Wedding Wednesday :: Dress Shopping . Part 1

Ohh, the dress. 

No matter how hard you try, or how little you may care leading up to it, 

that damn dress will get to you. 

As I'm sure you've gathered by now, 

I am not the type of gal who had her wedding dreamed up, planned and bindered.

So naturally, I had not given any thought to wedding dresses.

Holy moly, there are a ton of wedding dress styles! 

And colours? Who knew there were so many shades of white!? 

I mean, obviously, I’m not a hermit, 

I know you can paint your house a million shades of white; 

I just never knew this rang true with wedding dresses.

It’s nuts. I’m beginning to wish I was one of those girls 

with the binder and the sticky notes!

But I digress; I’m beginning to get ahead of myself. 

The point is – I didn’t realize, I wasn’t prepared.

I tried on each of these dresses, or at least a similar style

Back in July when Jack I first became engaged, 

I decided to wait to go wedding dress shopping until the Christmas Holidays, 

when my sister would be home. 

I loved the idea of going dress shopping with 

my mom, my soon-to-be sister and my two sisters. 

So I waited; didn’t think twice about it, really. 

I barely even pinned anything.

…except one dress. One vera wang dress. 

Big mistake. 

Her style? It’s my style.

Her price point? It ate my price point for breakfast... 

then it was still hungry, so it ate a chocolate croissant. 

Yeah, I know - full time fancy, right?

In any case, I put that thought aside and embraced dress shopping.

It was amazing! I loved every minute. 

It was fun to have my mom and three sisters there, 

helping me navigate a six versus a seven, or an eight versus a ten. 

Trying on beautiful gowns, one after the other was awesome.

It was also exhausting. 

There were so many dresses.

I even tried on a whole slew of dresses just because 

the sales woman hadn’t seen them on anyone yet.

Not that I minded - who am I to turn down an old fashioned game of dress up?

Seriously though, after 4 hours of climbing in and out of dresses I was tuckered.

I had not been able to find anything similar to the vera but had found a couple of strong contenders. 

Strong contenders, that made me giddy (and slightly embarrassing) when I wore them. 

I was starting to make short list of my favourites when the sales woman’s’ daughter 

said something that stopped me in my tracks.

She said “all that matters, is that in 40 years, when you’re looking at your wedding photos,

you will love your dress as much as you did the day you bought it”.

Now, aside from the obvious questions: 
“Why would I be staring at these photos? How long have I been staring at them? 
Am I nostalgic for my youth, or am I trying to remember my own name?" 
this statement snapped me into focus.
All I could picture was that first dress that ever made an impression on me- the elusive vera.

So, now I'm in a state of  flux.
I know that it's ridiculous to dream an unattainable dream,
but I've got another month before I've got to nail this down so I'm going to
wait it out and test my fate.
See what I can do - what magic I can manage.
I'll keep you all posted.

Now for ONE photo of me actually in a dress... it's a charmer.
Please excuse the iphone photoness of it all.

$10 to whoever can guess what this pose is! Okay, probably not, but I'll think you're super cool.