I thought I had it all until now. I’m utterly, completely and totally in love…with my Wedding Gown! Right is of course the love of my life, but this is the dress of my life. I think a bride must be equally enchanted with her wedding gown as with her man (especially when plunking down that kind of money). After all, I am the centerpiece of the wedding. Question is, in this internet-crazed age where wedding gown choices seem endless, how do you know when you’ve found THE ONE? Funny that after getting engaged I thought I had finally tackled the hardest question…
There are as many ways to find the right dress as there are to find the right man. But all it really takes are a few simple ingredients:
Patience – take your time, do your research and check out your options, just like when buying a diamond.
Perseverance – keep at it until you’re absolutely, positively sure you’ve found the gown that suits your personal style.
Know what you want – don’t settle for anything less than what makes you happy. And remember, it’s your decision not anyone else’s (like that pushy saleswoman at Saks).
Just like with your guy, when you meet your destined dress, you’ll know it. Whether you find it right away or scour every bridal salon along the eastern seaboard, your gut instincts will kick in and you’ll feel that instant chemical reaction. You’ll just know, need I say more.
Take my friend Mimi for example. Not only did she meet her fiancé Eric at Rhône, the hip, stylishly crowded, downtown bar (yes, people do sometimes meet at those places), but also managed to find her dress in a similar setting. On a whim, Mimi decided to attend the Running of the Brides event when it was recently held for the first time in Manhattan. Little did she know what she was getting herself in to. It’s a once-a-year event held by Filene’s Basement – kind of a free-for-all of designer wedding gowns at deep discounts in one giant room with hundreds of racks and no dressing rooms (kind of like the Barney’s biannual sample sale). And yes, it actually does resemble the running of the bulls in Madrid. By the way, the next one is on Friday, March 3rd 2006. Anyway, she describes it as an ugly scene. Women (and the teams they brought with them to help yank the most dresses off the racks) running wildly, cutting in front of each other, grabbing as many of the large white garment bags as they could hold, hoping to find a treasure inside. Hundreds of brides-to-be stripped down to their underwear only, trying on dresses in the aisles without even looking in a mirror.
Always a woman of class and composure, Mimi had her own strategy that worked like a charm. First, she went in with absolutely no expectations of finding a dress – so she was able to relax and didn’t get trampled in the hysteria. Second, she noticed that the crowd followed a certain path so she went in the opposite direction to look around. By sheer luck, inside one of the garment bags that Mimi grabbed was THE ONE for her! (It helps that she’s a perfect size 6, which is also the size many designers use as their sample size.)
Then there’s Andrea who married Simon, her high school sweetheart. They went to different colleges and didn’t want to do the long distance thing (who can blame them), so Andrea broke up with Simon and courted several different hotties during her college years, but never got very serious with any one of them. After graduation, by chance she and Simon both ended up living in New York’s hip East Village. They ran into each other at Teany and easily fell back in love at first sight over a pot of lapsang souchong tea. So when it came time to shop for her gown, the first dress Andrea tried on she obviously fell in love with (some of us just don’t seem to have that luck) -- a fabulous knockout Vera Wang. Ever cautious, she thought, “It can’t be the first dress I try!” So, she tried on at least 30 more dresses over the next two months in at least three states, only to march herself back to buy THE ONE, that first stunner! What can I say – when it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be.
For me, it was love at first sight. My dress and I, we met online. I was surfing The Knot, after innocently checking out diamond earring studs at Jared (for my anniversary of course), when I clicked on the most stunning gown I’d ever laid eyes on! It’s a halter sheath made from the most sumptuous four-ply silk crepe in a subtle shade of champagne ivory. Hello Lover! After an alluring trip to Saks’ Bridal Salon with Mommy and Daddy (and their credit cards in tow), my baby was mine! Oh yeah, it’s definitely THE ONE!
Think about it…if you can commit to one guy for the rest of your life, you should be able to commit to one dress!
