Wedding Countdown 3: The Dress

On my appointment day I gathered some of the girly friends and my mum and toddled off. The first weird part is that you end up in your underwear and a torsalette in front of a complete stranger. So tip one for wedding dress tryers – BOY SHORTS. It was hard work; I reckon trying on wedding dresses is probably just as good a work out as going to the gym. You are in and out of them trussed up, pulled yanked and I never thought shopping could be such hard work. I was so tired and had a sore back by the time I got home.
 

 

The fatal mistake I made was not having a budget in mind when I went to try on dresses. My girly friends were grabbing dresses off racks and getting me to try them on.  A Jane Yeh  ivory silk gown called Wendy was brought to the changing room which from now on will be known as THE ONE. I tried it on and instantly fell in love. It was $3600 and I am sure heaps of girls can afford to pay that much, but for me it was way out of my league. When your dress for one day ends up costing more than your car you, know you have a problem. So I left feeling completely gutted and spent the next few weeks trying my hardest to figure out how I was going to wrangle up all that money. Dave said I could buy the dress, but at that price it would have to be his next outfit to the Wellington Sevens! I finally decided that it was way too much. Heart broken, I tried to move on. 

 

I received an email saying Brides on Thorndon was having a sale and thought I would check it out. We had a look around the shop and THE ONE was there, and on sale and within my budget. I could not believe it fitted perfectly and it looked better on me than last time. It had been the shop stock gown so will probably need cleaning, but it was THE ONE!

 

So major tip two – have a price in mind when you are shopping for a gown.  It worked out for me in the end, but those few weeks in between trying to decide if I could afford THE ONE were painful.

 

Tip three – I reckon every girl should buy a torsalette as for the first time in my life I had a waist!

Lauren
Anyone who has been reading theBIGstep e-newsletters and my blog will know that I have been struggling with finding the nerve to try on wedding dresses. I can pin this resistance on three things: I want to lose some weight, it’s the end of winter and I’m as pale as pale can be and I really need a haircut. These three things make me feel less than “hot”…and I want to look and feel hot when I have on the most important dress of my life!

Well, despite my best efforts to delay the inevitable, and after weeks of whinging from my business partner, Erin, I finally booked myself in for a Saturday afternoon with the girls at Brides on Thorndon. And of course it was lovely! Jill, the owner of Brides on Thorndon, looked after me and made it so easy. They have a great range of dresses! I learned two very important things from the day: one is that I don’t care what label my dress is, as long as it’s made well, and two, dresses look very different on your body than they do on the hanger. Trust your shop assistant, and if they ask you to try something that you never would consider, give it a go…they know what they’re doing!

 

I had a bit of an idea of what I thought I wanted and what style I thought would suit me. I was right when it came to the shape, but when you get there, and see all those wedding dresses hanging up, it’s very hard to know what they’ll look like on! So I gave Jill a wee “brief” of what I wanted…and suddenly, this tiny, petite, little woman was running around the shop collecting gowns she knew would look good on me!

 

Now, when you try on wedding dresses, you have to take people with you who are going to be honest…or people who wear their emotions on their sleeves. Within seconds of walking out of the dressing room, I could tell which ones my friends liked, loved and hated - and in every case, I felt the same way they did.

 

People might not feel comfortable telling you that something looks bad, especially if the shop assistant is there. Although it sounds a bit cheesy, here’s the key: if you look in their eyes, you’ll know what they’re thinking.

We had one magic moment while trying on dresses at Brides on Thorndon, where everyone knew that the dress I had on was by far the best of the day. It was a beautiful dress, but if I were to buy it, the altering I would need to have done to make it what I want would no doubt make it anything but inexpensive.

On one hand, the thought of buying off the rack appeals. I had a good friend once who had her gown made by a reputable dressmaker in Taranaki. She tried it on the Thursday before her wedding only to discover that it was so poorly made, it was not even wearable! Fortunately, she found a beautiful dress in a bridal shop the day before her wedding that fit her perfectly…the only BIG downside was that she had to fork out another $2,500 for it!

On the other hand, I know lots of girls who have had stunning dresses made. I also like the idea of being able to lose weight up until the last few dress fittings. You’re limited to how much weight you can loose when you order a dress months in advance, as a wedding dress can only be altered so much – and you don’t want to risk buying a smaller size and not fitting into it. Plus, some dresses have to be ordered up to six months in advance. Looks like I’ve already missed that boat!

 

Basically, what I’m saying is that I’m still undecided…and six months out from my wedding, I’m still no closer to having my dress sorted! I’ll keep you posted. In the meantime, for some great dress designers and retailers, check out our site the theBIGstep.co.nz here.