Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Tasha's Wedding Dress Adventure

Posted by Tasha

Well, it sure has been an adventure, this dress hunt! Actually, I have been dreading shopping for a wedding dress. Sounds nuts, I know, but I don't like shopping in general and I've looked at hundreds of white wedding dress photos and nothing popped out to me. Nothing even mildly excited me! So there was only one thing left to do: I grabbed my two most hyper and excited friends and hoped their excitement was contagious. Oh, was it ever! I had the best time! My two giddy girls and I had a blast! Everything looks so much better on than in photos and it feels so good on! I was told to pick out a few (10+) dresses and the lady in the store lead us to a huge fitting room and helped me put on each dress and then used clamps to make it very tight (so any size you try on fits almost like a glove with those clamps!) Having a dress on feels like a wonderful giant hug! And in order to put the dress on, the store lady holds it out and says "dive in!" - My hands above my head, my body at a 45 degree again and swoosh, I dive into layers of fabric. Each time I emerge, I'm surprised by how it looks! After day one of the dress hunt, I realized this wasn't so bad. I made a few more appointments and engaged another one of my closest friends. My friends made my wedding dress search so much more fun than I ever imagined! They each possessed a combination of some great characteristics, creating the perfect mix of giddiness, excitement, hyperactivity, honesty, bluntness, and a touch of the type of delusion that comes after working a 12 hour night shift on cold medicine (that still does not suppress a cough - go get a chest xray C!). Anyway, it was incredible!

After about 8 or 9 dress shops over a span of one month search, I returned to the first shop with my parents and tried on 2 dresses (each one 3 times). My biggest dilemma in all the stores I visited, was figuring out if I preferred a lace dress or a (for a lack of a better descriptor) non-lace dress. My top choices were always one lace and one non-lace. Deciding between apples and oranges is much harder than apples and apples... hence the need to try on the final two dresses 3 times each. Can't give too many details ... hoping to preserve some element of surprise for Tigritza, but the lace dress was actually a mermaid cut (which I was adamantly against until I tried it on) and the not-lace was a mix between ball-gown and A-line... whatever that means. And it was impossible to decide, until of course, I decided... on not-lace.

Both were phenomenal but ultimately, I had to actually picture it on the big day - so I had to picture what would feel best next to Tigritza and in photos, and eventually (with the help of my parents and the constant reminding of the first two giddy girls which was their favorite...) I picked one! So, another task to cross off the list: I have a wedding dress!

Now... on to the shoes, and jewelry, and thinking about the hair...