The Wedding Dress post. Just one, I promise.

Okay. I am going to write this now and then not mention it again. I myself am OVER hearing myself talk about it, let alone think and stress about it, so this blog is the place to vent and tell all, then leave it be.

On the Friday I arrived in Perth, Ani and I went straight to Legends Bridal in Joondalup for me to try on wedding dresses. I was stressing about this due to having a limited time frame in which to buy a dress and also because I didn't want to have to come back the next day to keep going.

Ani and I were so excited, especially considering Ani already had her bridal gown and was only helping me! We got chatting to the lady who offered us help, Lisa, who was magnificent and she said to start choosing what we were interested in and she'd put them in a changeroom.

I'll admit I was a little disappointed that there were other people in the shop with noisy kids running around that didn't give this special occasion for me any of the respect it deserves; however, I shall move on. Without saying anything about fat wog girls trying on dresses that were way too small. Ahem.

I had to wear a thin piece of cotton over my face when putting the dresses on so I didn't get any makeup on them, which was funny. The first dress was a champagne coloured strapless number that laced up in back. Ani and Lisa immediately liked it but I was very unsure. I didn't particularly want a strapless dress but decided to try it for the fit and colour. I pretty much was saying no while they were saying yes as I felt I was all bust and that I was going to fall out of the top of it. So on with the next few and some I didn't even bother coming out to show Ani as they just weren't what I wanted or didn't fit properly. I started getting a bit nervous internally as I was running out of dresses already in my size, even though Lisa had gone off to grab some others in the meantime.

Then, suddenly, I tried on the princess dress and knew as soon as Lisa started doing it up that it was perfect. I'd grabbed it to try on even though it was $1440 as it was just the style I liked. (My budget was for $500 although Shane had set it at $1000.) Lisa did it up and said it was a size too big and I needed the next one down but I came out to show Ani and we all immediately agreed it was a great dress, and likely to be 'The One'. I was very pleasantly surprised that white looked so nice on me as I thought I was too pale. (Now here I mention that getting some Hedland sun has NOT worked for me as yesterday I got a mole cut off and it fucking hurts, so a spray tan will be the go, if at all.)

What do you think? Nice huh? Now for the killer. I know I set a budget and that it shouldn't matter if you just LOVE a dress but the problem with this little number is that it was about 4 inches too long. And I knew I would not be wearing massively high heels at my own wedding because I wanted to enjoy the day and not be in pain. And because the lace overlay (the doily part) was so intricate and hemmed about the bottom, it would have needed a professional dressmaker to alter it and would have cost over $500. Debbie was the dressmaker/tailor at the shop and she would have done this for me, increasing the cost of the dress to $1950. Added to that is the fact that I would have had to return to Perth to get the dress fitted again before the wedding once the alterations had been done. Now on the day I thought that this might have been impossible, although Shane has since assured me it would have been okay, and workable. It had cost me $360 to fly down this time and I was lucky to get that so cheap; I would have been unlikely to pay less than $500 to fly down again in the future, let alone the trouble of getting Mum to have a day off to watch the girls during the week and Shane managing them over the weekend, which involved a lot of prepping beforehand by me!

So I started to sweat, thinking that my beautiful dress was going to cost me in the realm of about $2500. And beautiful as it was, I knew deep down inside that although I would look great and love it on the day, come the next day I would be stuck with an extremely expensive dress that I might be lucky to get $200 bucks for. The common-sense part of my brain started to take over the dress-loving part of my brain... And the winner? Try on more dresses.

I continued with a couple and then referred to an electric blue bridesmaids gown we'd picked out. I'd seen this on the website and loved it, especially as it only cost $330 and in my still-in-hedland, not-yet-seen-any-white-dresses frame of mind, it was perfectly what I wanted. So I put this gown on and Wow! We had another freakout; it looked so nice on me. I needed to have some of the cleavage stitched over as I showed a bit too much, but you could see this would be easily done and the colour looked amazing on me. But not bridal enough. The next decision was, white? Or gold? I tried on both and Lisa and Ani decided gold was the one. I wasn't convinced either way but apparently the gold looked better with my colouring.

As you can see in the background of the photo, there is a cupboard of tiaras, feathers, combs, hats and whatnots to choose from and next to that a big array of veils. We immediately found an elbow-length veil that was gold with a silver wave along the bottom (matching my beach theme) and Lisa attached it with a little tiara. I hated this immediately as I was looking for something different, like a flower or little hat. Ani and I sussed it out and found in a box a bamboo and ribbon fascinator coloured gold and black. We put this to one side of where the veil was attached at my crown and VOILA! The look was complete.

The dress had to be ordered in my size and colour so I won't get that til Xmas and I brought the veil, $190 and fascinator, $60, home with me on the plane. And the next day I was lucky enough to find the most gorgeous black long-sleeved Alannah Hill cardigan with embroidered flowers on it that would be perfect to give me the warmth I would need over the dress during the after-ceremony, before-reception travels and whatnot. Let alone the fact that this cardigan is so gorgeous I would live in it otherwise, $200 bucks or not.

Now all I need it a black pair of shoes (and I have heaps of them) and my outfit is done. So far I am at $799 for my 4 purchases and am really happy with them. Well I was until I got home and suffered an agonising few days of indecision and whether I'd done the right thing. I was torn up inside, had a good cry and decided to forget about it til tomorrow. The next day, I rang Legends and was told, changing my mind or not, the gold dress was mine and I could order the other but my deposit could not be changed over. And that made my mind up for me. There. Enough.

My sister is excited about my decision as this means her bridesmaids dress can be black. Then all we need is a black waistcoat for the best man and a gold one for Shane and the wedding party is done. Black and gold doesn't really go with my beach theme but my colours are gold (sand) and blue (sea) so at least the golds will match. Plus I think the room would POP a bit more with blue accents throughout the white tablecloths and gold sashes and whatnot, rather than black which could look a bit dank. Hmm, not sure. It's hard as I can't organise centrepieces and things from afar, this is something I'll need to do in Geraldton at a later date.

Anyway, this is my dress journey. I am glad to share it. I have been told by a few people that I will only get married once and I need to get the dress I love, but I know myself too well and I think I would regret spending so much money on one thing, when that much would go towards so many other items that would make our wedding day so special. TTFN.