Dress Babble
On Tuesday afternoon, after a long few days at work (yep, few—I had to work on Sunday), I gave my mom a call shortly before IP was due to come home. We started talking about various things, but hit upon their trip to visit me and go gown shopping. “I hope the ticket prices go down soon,” Mom sighed, worry in her voice —she didn’t want to spend an arm and a leg for airline tickets, but she didn’t want anyone else to see me try on wedding dresses before she got her chance (she’s been waiting nearly seven years for this!).
“I know, they were in the $200s last I checked,” I said, surfing over to NWA.com to check once again. “It’d be so nice if they dropped—oooh!” I squealed.
“¿Qué?” Mom asked.
“They’re $143 total right now for the first two weekends in December!”
“Call you sister NOW and make sure we’re good to go on the dates. Then call me back and I’ll give you my credit card number to book the tickets,” my mother said with militaristic efficiency. She clicked off the line and I dialed my sister.
No answer. I sent her a text message: “Tickets in Dec. are $143. Mom wants to buy soon. Sound good?”
Sis writes back almost immediately: “Yeah, sounds good to me!”
I call Dorkus just to make sure all’s well, then call Mom back. “Okay, we’re good,” I said, starting the booking process.
Mom rattles off her credit card number with cool detachment, no doubt thinking about how she’s going to burst into tears when she sees me in the first dress I try on in December.
So my mom and sister will be visiting me in December to go gown shopping. Appointments at three bridal salons have been made and they’re in my calendar. Excuse me while I go all special snowflake on this particular aspect of wedding planning. IP was puzzled by my very girly and un-WordNerd-like reactions when discussing the idea of dress shopping with my mother and sister. “It’s a dress. That you get to wear for six hours. Once. What’s the big deal?” he wondered aloud.
“Yes, it’s just a dress,” I agreed. “But it’s a pretty dress!”
Anyone who’s ever visited this blog when I’m shopping for a wedding guest dress will know that I love to find designer duds at good prices. As a guest, my selection has always been flawless—rave reviews all around, I tell ya (dontcha know, doggone it, mavericks!). I’ve even had a day-of coordinator ask me where I got my dress (eBay, dears, for all your Tocca needs). I have the utmost confidence that I will find a stunning dress, sashay my ass down that aisle, and IP will be beside himself with delight. (Though he claims it’s the bridal undergarments he’s really looking forward to later that evening.) I will look good, damnit. I know that every bride does, but I have this special flair for the event dress that I can’t quite quantify or explain—it’s like I’m able to get into perfect tune with the event even if I had no idea of theme, colors, or dress code. I then rock the dress of my choice like it has never been rocked before (or ever will be again). I shall rock my wedding dress and IP will then understand why I’m so excited to finally go shopping.
(Okay, maybe he won’t. But I’ll look good and he knows it.)
So in choosing the bridal salons to visit, my first instinct was to find someone who carried the Pronovias line. While I’m not even 50% sure that I’m going to go with a Pronovias gown, it’s what I want to see first. My first appointment is with a salon that carries Pronovias and a few other designers that I really like; the other two salons carry some designers I’m familiar with but it was the designers I didn’t know that I ended up wanting to see.
Given that we’ve chosen a venue and we’re having an outdoor wedding, narrowing down dresses has been easier. I’ve been focusing mostly on empire and A-line dresses; strapless would be fine, as would wide straps (not so in love with skinny straps). I don’t want a plain A-line—some detailing in the skirt would be nice—and I’m trying to avoid anything that’s too ballroom-y for my tastes. I want to keep the train to a minimum (especially as I don’t want grass stains on it) and would rather my sister or friend not have to bustle it. The J.Crew Daphne would be absolutely perfect and totally me . . . if they still sold it, that is, and I didn’t want to go shopping so badly. (If shopping disappointed me and I could find it on eBay, I would go with this dress; hell, if shopping disappoints me, maybe I’ll get someone to make it for me.)
So yes, I am excited. However, I still have a while to go before my mom and sister show up in DC (and a few work events to get through first). But I will survive, triumph, and make my mother cry with that first dress (unless she hates it—Mom’s not shy about stuff like that).
