The Disasterous Dress

As soon as Justin & I got engaged I knew what kind of dress I wanted.  Something simple and short.  Not like hoochie short, but maybe a tea length or knee length gown...I looked around town and nobody had a short dress made for a bride--they were all very bridemaid-ish looking and that wasn't going to work.

I got online and after a few days, I found the perfect dress!  It was an ivory raw silk Ralph Lauren gown that still had the tags on it.  The owner lived in KC and had two sizes available--I ordered the bigger one knowing that we could tailor it in because, yeah, losing weight to fit into the smaller one didn't sound like fun--or possible for a girl who likes to eat!

The dress arrived in the mail and it was gorgeous :-)  It was strapless with rows of pearls and irridescent beads along the top.  The rest of the dress was just plain raw silk with princess seams, but the dress nipped in around the waist, was fitted at the hips and then flared out at the bottom.  It didn't technically have a hi-low hem, but the back of the dress dropped down just a few extra inches.  It was perfect!

Well, except for the fact that it was HUGE.  It was a size 10 and in the past I had worn a dress size 10 for other weddings.  This must have been a street-clothing size 10.  But oh well, I'd just have it tailored!

My tailor referred me to the "seamstress of all seamstresses" back in April...I called the gal right away to make an appointment and she asked that I bring the dress in June.  That I did.  I went to her house, put the dress on and she pinned me up--after pinning up the extra fabric along the zipper, it fit like a glove.  I was so excited!!!

When I went to pick the dress up a few weeks ago, I realized I forgot my undergarments.  I quickly threw the dress on and it seemed a bit big...but I knew I hadn't lost any weight, so I decided I'd try it on with my undergarments when I got home.  And when I did, I realized the top of the dress was still HUGE!  The rest of the dress was huge as well.  It didn't fit in the waist or hips and it kept falling down.

I called my tailor and begged her to look at my dress as I didn't have time to keep going out of town to the seamstress.  She told me to come to her shop as soon as I could--I got down there and she took 1 look at my dress and immediately knew what was wrong.

Turns out, all the beading was on one string--which crossed over all the seams.  There was no way to cut into the top of the dress without the entire beading coming off.  Hmmmm, I wish the seamstress would have told me that back in June!  We're still not sure where she took in the dress--or if she even did--but I know I paid her quite a bit for doing "something."

The only option we had was to tack in bra inserts and fill out the top of my dress.  I ran to Jo-Ann's, picked up the inserts and my tailor got busy.  She called a few days later and I picked up the dress.  The top was staying up but the waist/hip area was still big--but nothing we could do!

I started to become very concerned about how the dress fit...but I'm also very picky about things so I wanted to make sure I wasn't over-reacting.  Justin and I had just finished a huge meal at So Long Saloon and I decided to try it on--maybe a little extra belly bloat would make it fit!  He got me snapped into the dress and as soon as I turned around, he asked "Why do you have lumpy circles in your dress?  Because they're glowing."  Crap.  Those were the inserts we sewed in.  I checked all the mirrors in our house and sure enough, the inserts had become lumpy around the edges and they were definately glowing behind the dress fabric.  Low lighting or bright lighting didn't make a difference.  I was going to have headlights on my chest when walking down the aisle!  When I turned to the side, the dress billowed out and even made it look like I had a pooch.  I REALLY didn't want people to think I was sporting a baby bump at our wedding!

I called it a night and decided I'd give myself a pep talk and try it again in the morning.  Justin thought the dress looked "fine" (yes, those were his exact words) so maybe it wasn't too bad.

Saturday morning came and I slipped into my dress, put my veil on and got in my shoes.  I took one look in the mirror and burst into tears.  The dress went from being the ideal gown to a big, hideous mess.

I pulled myself together and called Mom.  I told her about the inserts and said I was going dress shopping--if she wanted to come along, she could.  DRESS SHOPPING JUST 1 WEEK BEFORE THE WEDDING.  IF ONLY THE SEAMSTRESS WOULD HAVE TOLD ME BACK IN JUNE that my dress couldn't be fixed! Thankfully, Manhappiness has two bridal stores and I found a dress by the end of the day.  The clerks were all very impressed with how composed I was considering my wedding was in just 7 days...and I think Lil Debbie had fun dress shopping with her last daughter to get married off...I figured Mom was having fun and why freak out?  It only makes things worse.

In the end, the whole thing turned out for the best.  I found a dress that fit my personality and it probably made for better pictures than the Ralph Lauren gown!  Ironically enough, I found the style number for the dress and it was 911...Everything happens for a reason :-)