jennainterna's Pink wedding

So that my trial and errors may help some of you brides out there.

I had an idea of a dress I wanted. It all started with Summer on the OC. She tried on her friend Holly's dress, and I fell in love. I wasn't even engaged, but I knew it was the dress I HAD to wear on my wedding day. I searched for MONTHS trying to find something online that would lead me to this dress. Lo and behold, nothing. Months later, I found something. One thing. A screenshot of her in the dress, and the caption that it was a Monique Lhuillier. Swoooon. I then hunted down every Monique Lhuillier gown I could find online, and none of them were it. I have concluded that it must have been custom designed for the show, which breaks my little heart.

I found a dress by Melissa Sweet designed in a similar tone. I was unsure of how it would flatter my curvy frame, but it became my next victim. I could not find the dress anywhere in Canada, and even if I had found it, it was way out of my price range. I started thinking that maybe I should get my dress custom made. Bernardi's in white rock is a great place and they quoted me around $1200 which would have been great value for their workmanship and for a custom designed dress. At this point I was being stupid, and decided to try my luck online. I found a website out of China that custom made wedding gowns for $239, including free shipping! I figured, what the heck, it if works, AWESOME, if it doesn't work, then I'll try and sell it for what I paid and at the end of the day what will I have lost?

Well, I sent them pictures of about 5 different dresses and expected them to mush them all together to create something fabulous. SIlly me. For some reason I thought they'd be able to read my mind and know exactly what I had pictured in my head. My mistake was that I didn't even know what I had picture in my head.

At the end of the day, I can't fault them at all. They had my dress to me within a month, the quality of fabric and workmanship was surprising for the price, and in all honestly the dresses were pretty damn nice ( I ordered a second dress after the first dress wasn't exactly what I had in mind...I didn't like the sequin and beading on the top, so I gave them another chance).

My main problem was, I didn't know what I wanted, I didn't know what looked good on my body, and I hadn't tried on a single dress before trying to explain to someone who lives across the world what I wanted. In all honesty, if you know exactly what you want, you've tried something similar on, and are willing to describe what you want to a tee, then I would actually recommend giving it a go. It's under $250!!! Needless to say, I didn't do this, and now I have 3 dresses to my name right now, 2 from China, and one gorgeous dress I bought at a bridal boutique for full price right off the rack. It isn't my Monique Lhuillier, or my Melissa Sweet, but it's mine, and it's pretty.

Another bump I hit along the way...I found the most gorgeous dress one day at the bridal salon, and instead of trying it on and buying it, I just left it there, assuming that when I went back 2 months later it would still be there. IT WASN'T!!! The dress I ended up getting is very similar and I'm very happy with it, but I still can't get over how stupid I was!!!!

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