Indecision 2008

Last night I finally made it to the bridal salon with my FSIL (future sister in law). The place we were supposed to go on Wednesday but couldn't because the transit system in Philadelphia went offline for about 3 hours. No joke. No trains going into or out of Center City. So I waited with about 45,000 other people at Amtrak Station until my FMIL (future mother in law...are you seeing the pattern now?) came and got us.

Needless to say we were very excited to finally make it to the Wedding Shoppe. I can only assume it was formally named "Ye Old Wedding Shoppe" and is where Martha Washington bought her bridesmaid dresses. Everyone knows Betsy Ross sewed her wedding gown, but there was no way in hell she was making 8 bridesmaids dresses too.

Um, where was I?

Oh yeah, dress shopping. First of all The Wedding Shoppe is really a nice place and I am absolutely going back there 3 or 4 more times before I make up my mind. Of course, that means I have to actually freakin' make up my mind.

Yet AGAIN I have found 2 amazing dresses. But what is unique this time is how vastly different one of these gowns is. Don't worry, Adam doesn't read this blog so there is no risk of spoiling here...the one is your standard strapless, A-line numbers with gorgeous embroidery. It looked really good on me and is very "bridal". I like it best of all I've tried on so far, with the exception of the options I have with the custom dress maker I met with a while back.

The other dress is the polar opposite. We kept calling it the Hollywood Glamour dress. Very red carpet, all silk, Greek goddess kind of feel to it. It has a train that would require bustling and shows cleavage without shouting "hello here are my boobs!" The issue I have with it is that it is not what I had in mind when I thought "wedding dress". It's gorgous, I felt like a milion bucks in it, but I really had something more traditional on my agenda. I seriously have to go back and try it on a few more times to decide how I feel about it. I loved it, but I keep thinking "is it bridal enough"?

On the other hand, I could create a very cool Hollywood Glam kind of look with pins and hair pieces if I went this way:



I was toying with the idea of the traditional veil for the mass, but then switching into something like the hair pieces show for the reception. (Their called bird cage veils and fascinators for those of you who are interested.) Very 1920s, Art Deco, Hollywood Glam kind of feel. A dress like this would be much easier to party in than some big ballgown like I'd been trying on before.

I feel crazy for having this problem....ooh poor Gayle, has to choose between amazing dress #1 and amazing dress #2 (or #22 in my case). But this is really the hardest thing I've had to decide about...the church, the reception spot, our photog, all easy decisions. Oh yeah, and that groom thing was a no brainer too :)

So I am just not going to beat myself up over it. I need to decide what kind of look I want to have for the day, how I want to feel, what I want to see in pictures, and base my decision on that. Not on what my initial expectations where or what I think people will expect.

Because when have I been the kind of person to do the things that people expect?