i cheated on my wedding dress

  the only bridal shop that would let us take pictures was David's Bridal!

Remember that I bought my dress two years before we were engaged?  A simple JCrew dress.  I embraced the idea that our wedding would NOT revolve around superfluous opulence.  I was not a bride with visions of Disney princesses or Barbie wedding fantasies.  I convinced myself that I didn’t care about what I looked like for the wedding…that I was above the frivolousness of it all.  I refused to spend time and money on a dress I’d only wear once.

And then a lacy mermaid dress...with  sequence and bead work and pearls entered my world.  Go figure.  This is how that happened....

I read enough horror stories of bridal boutiques scaring the shit out of brides to ever want the “Say Yes to the Dress” experience for myself.  When people asked me about my dress, I'd sorta shrug my shoulders and say “yea, I have a JCrew dress…nothing fancy…I got it on sale.”  I am well aware that I had a less than enthusiastic attitude about it (and why did I always have to mention the sale part?!).    My friends in blogland would applaud my simple dress choice for its practicality… and they would reassure me that it was a pretty lil dress and I would look lovely in it.  My friends in real life didn’t say a whole lot about it – especially after I would get on my soap box about the nonsense of expensive silly frilly wedding dresses.  

 I tried on dresses of every style...EVERY style!  
so unexpected that the mermaid style was my fave!?
I felt so voluptuous and womanly.  I dunno. 

*note....this is not my dress!

And then...20ish days before our wedding... one fantastic Saturday happened.  My sisters scheduled appointments around town for me to try on REAL bridal gowns….but they didn’t tell me until we got to the first boutique.   Why was I excited?  Why was I smiling like an idiot?   How come I wasn’t pissed off with my sisters?  They knew I had a dress…but they knew that a part of me must have wanted the experience (I didn’t even know I wanted that experience!)  I have no idea what came over me…but I pretty much skipped into the shop singing “Zippity Do Da!” 

It was awesome.   It was better than awesome.  This was one of my favorite days.  Ever.  I tried on dresses all day.  It was SO MUCH FUN!!!   People ooooed and awwwed....my sisters would squeal...I felt beautiful!  and sexy! and voluptuous!  and womanly! and did I mention sexy??  I even had an "oh my gosh this is THEE dress" moment...which was insane...because it really happened... to me!!!  And that's the dress I bought. 

This was the last dress I tried on, 

and this was when the dress consultant told us we could take pictures. 

doy.

  

 Instead of confirming the fact that “thee wedding dress” is an expensive hyped up tradition…I found the opposite to be true.   There were dresses in every price range – in every style.   I had been so consumed with being a rational bride, I almost missed out on something.  Like having a dress to be really excited about! My sisters knew that I was waging an inner battle with being sensible and letting loose a little bit. 

I felt radiant on my wedding day...I loved my dress.  It ended up being one of my most favorite details of the whole event.  And I have my sisters to thank for that.