Stomach virus anyone?

If you were to pick one thing that a future bride puts the most emphasis on for her wedding day, it will more than likely be The Dress. Most girls don't get to dress up like a real life princess very often so the opportunity to fulfill this vision is not met with light intentions. I came across a picture of my dress and actually laughed at it the first time I saw it. It was so big and cupcakey; totally unlike anything I thought I'd want in a wedding dress. But something in it kept pulling me back and soon it became the Be-All-and-End-All. I was so convinced that it was the dress that I never even tried on a sample before placing the order. Call it insanity or crazy, I just had a feeling this was The Dress.

When it came time to really start planning the wedding, I soon realized that while I loved my dress choice, it became clear that dancing in this organza concoction was going to be a challenge. That's when it hit me: must get a separate dress just for the reception that will allow for boogieing down. So I began the search. I quickly came across a dress that was not only dancing friendly, it was also snazzy and sexy. Bingo. Not so bingo was the price tag as it was almost the same price as the wedding dress itself. A bride in search of the statement dress is not exactly in her right mind and even a $4,000 Jim Hjelm stunner seems reasonable. Reality (and Dan) told me this was not the best idea and so I continued on my search.

I decided I'd give ole Ebay a try and see if they had anything. I didn't really have a particular style in mind, other than it being less voluminous than the wedding dress so off I went to thumb through the 30,000+ wedding dresses currently for sale on Ebay. A little intimidating to say the least and who wants to spend hours looking through them all! A tiny thumbnail pic of aforementioned Jim Hjelm dress (and jaw droppingly low price) piqued my interest and I clicked on it. Upon scrolling through, I realized that the dress is a designer knockoff of the oh-so-lovely Jim Hjelm dress but is much cheaper...and made in China. Cue furrowed brow and lip wrinkling. I was taking a serious gamble here: they had no pictures of what the dress would actually look like and there appeared to be a bit of a language barrier between the seller and previous buyers. But, this was going to be custom made to my measurements, the seller had all good feedback, and it was only $150. I decided to take a shot and see what happened.

What happened is the dress arrived in 4 weeks (as promised) and completely shocked me in regards to its excellent craftsmanship. It was not identical to the designer dress but it looked awesome. I was sold. My idea of having a less fluffy dress to dance in had come true. However, there was one small detail I failed to think about until 3 months after I had the dress in hand: sitting down. It seems like such an insignificant detail and didn't need any thought. And in truth, I hadn't thought about it. I stumbled upon this by accident.

While trying on the dress and all of the accessories I had purchased just for this dress, I knelt down to grab my camera from the couch. Or should I say, attempted to grab my camera. An uneasy feeling came over me as I realized that it was impossible to bend at the knees in the dress. I pulled the dress up a little and this only made things tighter than before. Suddenly a thought popped into my head and I had my mom haul a chair out for me to sit in. Now, you probably don't put any thought into sitting down in a chair. You just do it. I tried to sit down like any normal person does and was met with a seriously tight feeling in the derriere. Visions of stitches popping everywhere came to mind and I continued my plight of sitting in the chair...like a woman who is 9 months pregnant. You got it...no bending at the waist, hand behind me on the chair back, falling into the chair and definitely not sitting upright. While I was now sitting in the chair, I was also extremely aware of every thread and stitch holding on for dear life. And my legs were straight out in front of me. I looked like a mannequin that had been leaned up against the chair. It was not good. Major freaking out ensued: high pitched yelling, lots of gesturing, some explicit words. Yes, freaking out. My mom was doing her best to calm me down out of my state and we decided I'd just change my diet and lose a few pounds to make it work. Now it's not like I eat poorly. In fact, it's the exact opposite...I eat very healthy. Yes, I do have a weakness for the Boulder Canyon Hickory Barbecue kettle chips but I'm good other than that! Mom the Nutritionist whipped up a list of what I should and shouldn't be eating and off I started on my "make this dress wearable" diet.

A couple weeks went by and I'd lost 4 pounds. Nothing huge but enough to make things work, I thought. I logged onto The Knot and was met with a picture of a bee-you-tee-ful Reem Acra dress: all loose and flowing with tiny pleats...tres' cute. It was then I realized how dumb I'd been. My current dress is a mermaid style in that it is body hugging down to about the knees and then flairs out. It's a beautiful style and is figure flattering, hugging all your curves. It is the kind of dress made for girls who just sway and bob their heads to the music. It is not the style of dress for a girl who wants to break it down and boogie at her reception (and sit too)! Losing a few pounds was not going to make the kind of difference I was looking for. I'd have to contract Dengue Fever and lose about 25 pounds to get this dress loose enough to my liking. I don't have 25 pounds to lose. Trust me. Look at my high school pictures when I was right at 100 pounds and it looks like you've got a poster child for an anorexic recovery group. Seeing the Reem Acra dress made me realize that this style was what I needed. While I wanted to have the sexy, curve-hugging dress, I needed to be realistic that I needed something I could move in! Again began my search to "see what was out there" and 10 minutes into my search on trusty Ebay, I found this stunner. This is exactly what I needed. And I was in luck as it was yet another custom made dress from China, and cheaper than my first dress. Fingers crossed, it will arrive in about 3 weeks and I'll be set.

That white blur you see at the reception? That will be me, seriously working the dance floor in my dress!

Posted by Mandy at 1:26 PM