The Dress

This major event happened a while ago for me, but since it was before the blog started, I’ll take a trip back in time (ala Wayne’s World with the squiggly lines) and tell you a bit about the experience.

Of course, like most brides-to-be, I started drooling over dresses online the second the ring was on my finger (who am I kidding?? BEFORE the ring was on my finger). I stumbled across a website of a woman who created a business going to trunk shows and things and buying up new, but out-of-season discounted dresses and reselling them from her home. She passed on the savings, without the bride having to attend any of those maddening events. She posted pics of all of her dresses online. Bridal Porn! She’s has closed her business since, which is a shame, so I won’t bother mentioning what it’s called.

Anyway, I found a Pronovias dress that I loved on her site. And it was ridiculously reasonably priced! I decided that despite the fact that we had just gotten engaged and our wedding was still 20 months away- I had to try it on. But I wanted to try on a whole slew of dresses before that one just to be SURE that it was “The Dress” (as brides call it).

My bridal party is pretty much all overseas, but I’m lucky enough to have a insane amount of girlfriends willing to stand in. So I took FIVE girls with me to The Bride’s Project and had them pick out their favorite dresses. They all have very different tastes so it was a great way to try on a bunch of styles that I normally wouldn’t have chosen. The day was fun, in part because The Bride’s Project was fully booked, but Helen insisted that I stay and try things on in her bathroom. So we have the most hilarious pictures of me trying on dresses while standing on a toilet!! But none of them trumped “The Dress”.

A toilet dress (note to FI- not my real dress!):



So off to Mississauga we went. Again, I tried on about a million dresses before I even let myself touch The Dress. None were right. And then there it was; in all its Pronovias glory. I tried it on and it was a slam-dunk. After watching me try on dozens and dozens of dresses, all five girls said, “yes, that’s it, no question.” I didn’t buy it that day. I went back again with my mother and my matron-of-honour who, lucky for me, had flown in from the UK. They both gave it the thumb’s up. I handed over the cash, and it was done. 20 months before the wedding, I had my dress in my hands. I have had plenty of time to ogle other wedding dresses, and there’s TONS that I love, but no other dress is The Dress for me.

72 days until I get to wear it. Tee hee.

~bb~

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23 days to go...the stages or reality.

The countdown is on. I mean REALLY on. I cant describe how real it feels.

You see, the first few weeks after we got engaged (December 25th 2006), It became 'real' on a certain level as we formulated our basic vision and tossed around ideas. But the "realness" was comparable to answering "what do you want to be when you grow up?" when you are 5. I mean, its inevitably going to happen, but its such a stretch from the reality you are living in the moment that anything you come up with feels like its all talk.

The next "level" of reality hit the 366 days to go mark (366 because it was a leap year in case anyone forgot). A year is a funny little measurement. Seriously, think about it doesn't seem that long ago, then think about everything that's changed last year. In case you've had a really uneventful year, I'll provide an example. This time a year ago, my brother and his girlfriend were renting an apartment and living as most in their early twenties. Working full time, occasionally going to the bar...fast forward to now, they are engaged, have bought their first house, and she's on mat leave as they have a 2 month old boy! See? lots can change in that little time! So there was definitely some new level of reality a year before the wedding date.

Even bigger was new years. I went from being an "I'm getting married next year" bride to "I'm getting married in 4 months" bride.

The biggest reality level so far was last week when I realized I had 30 days left. We were no longer dealing with years, or months, but DAYS!! (True, we could still use weeks, but it doesn't seem to happen. Its mostly DAYS!).

For the first time I started to understand why people were asking "Nervous yet?" I used to think it was a stupid question that I never quite knew how to answer (Keep in mind, I still had a certain level of inability to comprehend that this was reality and not just planning for a wedding in some alternate universe). I even went so far as to tell people I thought this was the bridal equivalent of the trick question when a girl asks a guy if these pants make me look fat!

Now I'm having a hard time realizing how that would be a trick question because the answer is an overwhelming YES.

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