Down to 2

This photo (courtesy of PennyJaneWilson.com) essentially sums up my wedding dress marathon. Getting into dresses that don't come close to fitting me, trying to imagine what I will look like as a "bride". I do love the look on the little girl's face though - knows she looks sort of silly, but absolutely elated to be where she is. Kind of like me.

I went to one last salon today. Last because, frankly, I can't look at any more dresses anymore. I have found 2 absolutely wonderful dresses, and whatever I decide, whether it's the one with lace or the one with not as much lace, it will be the right decision. I will look gorgous and beautiful, and at the end of the day, I will be married.

Although I still really like the dress I tried on a couple weeks ago, and have found a very good store to buy it from, the dress I found today may be unbeatable. I went to Sabrina Ann, a consignment store near my apartment. Frankly, I should have saved myself a lot of frustration and started here. They have a really good selection of once worn and never worn gowns from bridal shops and brides. And you can't beat the prices - they gown I liked the best is $550 bucks. A big difference from the $4,500 ones I was trying on a few weeks ago.

And that is where it kills me to even think about paying full price...if I can get a beautiful gown in excellent condition that has never been worn by anyone...why oh why would I pay full price? It saves me a A LOT of money, no one other than my blog readers need to know where I got the dress, and it completely plays into my environmental/practical wedding focus I'm working on.

The way it works with Sabrina Ann is you decide you want the dress, you buy it and basically take it home that day. They refer you to a few seamstresses who work in the area and handle the alterations through them, not the store. So instead of spending $4,500 on a gown PLUS another $500 or so in alterations, I'm looking at spending $550 plus about $100 or so. Ummmmm, how is even a decision to be made? Basically what I would do is keep the dress - hidden of course - in one of our spare closets until next spring when I will have it altered. No sense in having it altered right now since hopefully my body will change a little in the next year.

SO that's my adventure. Either way, I'm going to have a kick ass dress for my little girl (or little boy, what the hell) to play dress up in one day.