One of the most important decision (other than picking the right guy to marry) that every bride-to-be has to make is choosing the wedding dress. The bride will be the centre of attention of the big day, and some even compare this experience to walking on the red carpet at Oscar's night. Every eyes are on you and for most people, you only have one opportunity.
Now that we picked the reception date and place, I thought I should really start thinking about my dress seriously. I have looked at the pretty pictures in the bridal magazines, googled the designers (the almighty Vera Wang, Monique Lhuillier and the local god, Alex Perry) and imagine which dress I would hopefully look good in. Now it is time to actually go get some dress.
After much pondering and 'Does this look good?' to Mr Fairyfloss, I thought I had the mermaid style dress as my ultimate option. I gathered my beautiful girlfriends to go dress picking. I know the girls are going to tell me the truth about how I would look in each dress that I try.
I had three dresses to try on. First dress: beautiful simple ivory colour dress with small overflowing bottom, tube top and dark ivory silk contrast. It had a beautiful brooch on one side of the hip, fitted me perfectly, and 50% OFF!!! Hurray!!! I thought I found the dress!! MY dress! Easy! Who says picking dress is so difficult?? Gorgeous Matron of Honour (MOH) grabbed me and said, Now, now... don't go ahead and pick this one without trying the other one... this IS the first dress that you tried...Go on, take it off, try the other ones.
I listened and tried the second dress. Verdict: nice, beautiful, very similar to the first dress except that the second dress is simpler. Same cut, but no silk contrast and no brooch. One size too big, and also on sale. Told the sales lady: still like the first one better. The girls agreed.
Third dress: mermaid style skirt, strapless, light gold, beautiful lace and beading on one side from top to hip, long train, which I love. It had a beautiful split on the front skirt showing the antique lace underlays. BEAUTIFUL. Oh My GOD!!! I love this dress!!!! It is mermaid style, the style that I always kept coming back to after looking at all the other styles. Even though it is not the colour I wanted and about 3 sizes too big... I love it!!! I could order the correct size and colour anyway. There were oohs and aahs from the girls and also from everyone in the shop. (This is why sometimes I feel that the people in the whole shop help you pick!). Sam, the helpful sales assistant hold the dress tight on the back so that we all could see how it would look if we had the right size. It was beautiful.
Now the not fun part. First dress vs third dress. Gathered the girls. They had these verdict. Dress one: beautiful, simple, elegant. Dress 2: out. Dress 3: very me, beautiful beading, will look good in photos, and will suit the overseas reception, as they loves bling bling. Dress 1 doesnt have other bling bling except the brooch on the hip.
Me: panic.. which one.. which one... should I get both??? I was going to get two initially anyway... and dress 1 is on sale!! What a bargain!!! Thankfully my accountant brain finally defeated my shopaholic alter ego and said: pick one. I stared at the mirror looking at my reflection in dress 3. Beautiful (the dress I mean, not me). Sam apologetically said I had to take it off as someone else wanted to try it on. I thought, oh, I must really look good in it if the other want to try this dress on as well. Choice is made (remember that I felt like the whole shop was helping me picking my dress).
I thought that's it, I've got my dress - easy. One of the girls whispered in my ear, dont you want to see other shop first? I obeyed. I told Sam that it was the first shop I visited and would like to go check out other shops, in case I found other dresses that I like. Sam was very understanding and said, yes, sure, not a problem at all... wrote me the style of the dress that I tried on and told me to give her a call if I decided to go with dress 3. Dress 3 has a name. Jovi.
So we went to the second shop in the building. One of the girls bought her dress from this shop 2 years ago and I was there with her. To our shock, her dress was still there, full priced too! The other dresses in the shop also were there when we help her picked her dress two years ago. She must be having the phase in the designer life where she blanked out and had no inspiration. Poor her, but we had to leave.
Looked around, no other interesting shop. We braved ourselves and said, lets go to Strand Arcade. For you who are not in Sydney, Strand Arcade is a beautiful charming old building, where local designers have their shop. Alex Perry, Colette Dinnigan, here I come. Too scared to walk into Alex Perry's shop, we looked from the outside, we cant see any wedding dress! There are beautiful shoes and gorgeous clutches, but no sight of white dresses! We didnt go in and asked. I was too worried if I would see a $12,ooo dress, fell in love and spent the rest of my life thinking how would I look in that dress.
Still drooling over the shoes and clutches at Alex Perry's shop, we went down one level to Colette Dinnigan shop. There were beautiful dresses, but too plain for me. I am after a dress that I could only wear on my wedding day and not every other day in my life without people thinking I'm nuts.
Hopped on the cab with the girls and off we went to Double Bay. A colleague had suggested me to visit Karen Willis Holmes as she has beautiful dresses. Again, too plain for me. The girls agreed.
Jovi it is!!
Photo courtesy of Alex Perry(top left), Vera Wang
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