It has been a tumultuous 4 months in the search for my wedding dress. The truth is, I fell in love with a dress the first week of “looking” and paid a deposit on it. Turns out, it wasnt supposed to be and now I have to either forfeit the deposit or sell it to another bride for a steal. Yeah buyers remorse is a b**ch. p.s. if you know any brides looking to cop a gorgeous gorgeous dress for an even more ‘gorgeous’ price holla!
Now back to the fun stuff…From as far back as I can remember (*yawn*) I’ve LOVED Vera Wang. Not admiration, Not affection, but pure unadulterated LOVE. Things took an even scarier turn when she designed the marvelous piece of art that was Ivanka Trump’s wedding dress in 2008. So as soon as I got engaged, I called the salon to book an appointment. To my horror, they had no available weekend appointments for 2 months! *sigh* so I booked my appointment and decided to check out other dresses just in case.
D.R.O.O.L
It was during this 2 month period i fell in love with a dress. Specifically the Enzoani Darwin.
FYI: I ordered the dress sans the beading at the waist.
The best thing about this dress was that it was as beautiful as it was affordable. I felt like a woman in it .., like a princess. sigh any takers? After 2 visits, i made the deposit and celebrated my success. All was well with the world.
Two months later… a Friday to be precise, I got a call from the Vera Wang bridal salon confirming my appointment for the next day. I can’t explain the feeling that came over me. A few minutes of hyperventilation later, I confirmed my attendance and prayed for the worst (that every dress would pale in comparison to mine).
The next morning, I arrived at the mecca of luxe bridal wear bright and early ( those who know me , know time is sorta advisory to me .. I am NEVER on time) like my appointment was going to self destruct.
My attendant showed me around the salon, “introduced” me to the latest collection and prepared me for budget heart attacks… fun . The lady had no idea that my lawyer self had come MORE than prepared for every step. I pulled out my ipad, requested the styles I was interested in, and demanded a glass of water to ease my suddenly parched throat.
When the first dress emerged, I was disheartened to say the least. The thing about dress shopping online is that you forget that the models have been nipped, picked, tacked and taped to the dresses to present them in the best light possible. What looked like a sea of happiness and butterflies online .. looked like a prisoner of war on the day before recovery… worn. Also, this dress clearly had been tried-on over 100 times so it was borderline raggedy. Upon trial, I knew for sure this was not the dress for me. phew.
The second dress I tried on was 17,000 dollars .. I am not even going to say much about it because even my mouth cant afford to talk about it. Funny enough, it is the dress Chris Paul’s wife wore for her big day. Check out my post on it here: Link
The next dress was slightly out of my budget but similar to the first Vera dress so I figured I’d try it on. It was stunning online and even in person albeit raggedy. I know it’s a recession, but I would suggest that these bridal houses update their samples once they begin to display blatant signs of wear. There’s no way sales aren’t being affected by awful presentation. Anyway, to cut my long ass story short, you know the feeling they say you get when you find THE dress?..the comfort, the happiness.. the EMOTION! .. yeah ALL of that was felt when i put this dress on. It was like fireworks went off, a mariachi band was playing and cotton candy was being handed out.
dress nirvana at vera!
So I said a resounding Y.E.S to a dream dress by my dream designer. GulpeI can’t wait to meet by belle in 7 months- Yes it apparently takes that long for the dress to be made ( i suspect they actually do not start working on the dresses until the end of the 6th month). EXCITEMENT!
my purchase gift from my attendant. This is obviously after I had OD’d on the champagne … SMH .. I’ll light it sha lol
Now to answer the question my friend Temz asked a couple of weeks back on whether I would consider having a second dress for the reception….
lol
I am so for the trend and umm have already purchased my second dress. *insert shock here*
Okay sorry about the uber long post today.
I leave you with my favorite line from the movie ‘Bride Wars’
“You do not alter a Vera to fit you, you alter yourself to fit Vera.”
