The Best Part about Engaged Friends is that You Can Justify Browsing for Wedding Dresses without Seeming *too* Weird

If I were engaged today and panicking about my tiny dress budget, I'd probably be putting down the McDonald's Breakfast sandwiches and rushing to David's Bridal to try on this dress.

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Then I'd starve myself to fit into it.

And although I hate to jump on the BHLDN bandwagon, I may or may not be mentally planning a fictional wedding re-do (and the requisite breast reduction) around this dress:

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Then again, if we're playing the "If I knew then what I knew know" game, I'd probably follow the little voice in my head that was telling me to go balls out in a non-weddingy, jewel-toned dress. I still can't believe how much pressure I allowed myself to feel when I was getting married at age 34 (vs. age 24). So lame of me. If you're engaged, don't do that.

I Am So Ready for Spring.

And I would love to welcome it wearing this:

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Retro Dresses by Audey

I love the retro style of the dresses by Chicago designer, Audey.

{Sources: Dress - Audey, Invite - EnfinLaVoila , Flowers and Cake: The Knot}

{Sources: Dress - Audey, Save the Date - Cheerupcherup, Cake - The Knot}

Visit her blog here.

Adore.

I adore this bride's outfit - perfect dress, perfect necklace, perfect shoes, perfect flowers.

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I love the wedding cabaret. Mara is a great editor with an excellent eye.

Bestill My Beating Heart

This dress.

Image: Vera Wang

This dress.
This dress.
This dress.

This dress is the dress-equivalent of the green Christian Louboutin shoes that made me pout last spring. This dress makes me fantasize that I am so wealthy that I think nothing of purchasing a dress that is, at the Vera Wang Luxe minimum, more than 10 percent of the median income average for the United States. And then it makes me silently pout about the reality that I am not wealthy. (But only for a  minute, I swear. I am very grounded.)

This Brooklyn Bride post is the first time that I've ever seen the dress on a real person. I actually gasped out loud* when I saw it. I think that I've looked at these photos at least a dozen times today. This bride is stunning.

Images: Nashan Photographers via Brooklyn Bride

My 30-year-old self would have rocked this dress. But that was then and this is now. I would have starved myself and hired a personal trainer for that dress. Andy would have hated that flower. But I would have LOVED that flower. And my friends would have laughed and said, "Only you, LT." And I would have shrugged my flowered shoulder at them and ran my layers of silk organdy through my fingers flirtingly. Or maybe I would have had the flower removed and had an organdy overlay made so it wouldn't be strapless. (You know, since I'd be so wealthy.)

*I've only gasped once before. Over pretty.pretty.paper's ensemble.

I Want to Get Remarried...

...wearing this exact ensemble:

Image: E! Online

Oh, how I wish that I had worn a dress worthy of a statement necklace.

Green Dress

Thanks for all of the shout outs on my green dress for my PS shower! I L-O-V-E that dress. I really wanted to wear it in my engagement photos, but we went casual. The green dress is from Banana Republic. It's not online anymore, but the paisley dress below is the same dress, with a pattern. I wish that I could find it in 10 more colors! I also wore the sandals shown below (but I only paid $25 for them!). The sandals are cute, but they were way too high for me. I'm 5'8" in flat feet and I was almost eye level with Andy in these. And they're not easy to scale walls or crawl around on the ground in either.

Images: Banana Republic

I Am Broke.

Here's why:

$100 on eBay:

($124 savings; I'll hopefully wear these for the engagement photos. I may bag the Francesca skirt and wear these to my family shower in September.)

Image: J. Crew

New Bridal Shower Outfit from Banana

Sale Alert: Banana has half off of sale shoes!

I bought this dress in green. I love it. Andy said that it makes me look hot and, more importantly, skinny!

Image: Banana Republic

And I bought these earrings to wear with:

Image: Banana Republic

I can't find the shoes that I bought online and I'm too lazy to photograph them. They are HUGE white wedges. If I wear them while standing on the rug in the kitchen, I am almost eye level with Andy in them. They were only $25!

New Wedding/Shower Dress

((20% off jcrew.com coupon) I am hoping that I dress it up with heels for a wedding we're attending on 8/10 and dress it down with flats for my Sur La Table shower. They didn't have the green in chubby sizes. :( )

 Image: J. Crew

"Mini Me"s

Check out the layered fabric on these evening and cocktail party dresses from BCBG. I'm not too wild about any of them, but they'd be great, if not expensive, compliments to my wedding dress if they came in different colors.

Images: BCBG

I want to be 25 and skinny...

...or Cameron Diaz, so that I can wear this to my shower:

Photo: J. Crew

"She's a bigger girl too."

Great News!

1. I found the Venus dress! I have an appointment to check it out on Saturday. It's in the suburbs, but it's only an hour or so away. Yeah! AND the price is right! Double Yeah!
   
   
   
2. I found the Watters dress! I went to Macy's tonight and they're going to have it shipped from another store so that I can try it on. Which totally makes up for the fact that the saleswoman kept referring to other brides/models that have worn the dress and saying, "She is a bigger girl, too." Yes, "too" means LIKE ME. WTF? I need better mirrors. I obviously had no idea exactly HOW beefy I apparently am. But, she did give me two appointments...an early timeslot in case my mom can make it and a later one for if she can't, she looks like my friend from Texas, and she is bringing the dress in for me, so I'm not complaining. I'm thick-skinned (no pun intended) AND at her mercy. If girl gets me a dress, she can call me whatever she wants.
   



3. I had to be at work at the (_:_) crack of dawn today, so I didn't get to publish my post for today. Now I have an extra post on file! :)
   
   
   

I can't believe all of the nice compliments that you've been leaving in the comments. Everyone is so nice! They're much appreciated and very much needed as fighting cabin fever and balancing work and all of these evening wedding appointments is catching up with me. My nerdy little blog is keeping it fun.

Stay Warm!

I want to blow this pop stand:

Photo: Chicago Tribune

For this one:

Photos: Cinque Terre -- My 2007 Vacation!

Dress Envy

There is a new dress that I'm on the mad prowl for:

Photo: Venus bridals

I discovered it today it in a "Real Wedding" article in the Knot Chicago magazine and just love it. I've already e-mailed the manufacturer and have some follow-up e-mails out to the salons that they recommended trying. I'm hitting Macy's after work tomorrow for some more humiliation, I mean, to try on some more dresses. (fingers crossed)

Also, check out the "Real Wedding of the Week" featured on the knot.com site. I actually had this article saved to post at a later date. 1) The bride is so wonderfully creative. 2) It's at our venue:

http://www.theknot.com/keywords/ch_528.shtml

Speaking of the the Knot, don't forget to vote for enjoy/Mimi's entry in the Real Wedding Awards. I was out there the other day and her's seems like a winner hands down!

Maids to Order

Yeah! The bridesmaid dresses are selected! I originally asked the girls to select their own brown dresses, but long story short, we're now ordering three unique dresses in the same color. I'm really excited because I think that each dress represents each girl's personal style perfectly. The dresses will be the "Sienna" color shown in the first two images.

Maid of Honor Dress

Bridesmaid Dress 1

Bridesmaid Dress 2


Photos: Jim Hjelm Occasions

The Hips Don't Lie...

...and mine are saying,

"A mermaid fit? Really, sweetheart?"

Wedding dress shopping is not fun. I've gone to a few places this week and its exhausted me about three dresses in each time. I was so weakened by Wednesday night's trip that my friend and the saleswoman were speaking about me as if I weren't there:

• Saleswoman: "Oh, she's exhausted."
• Friend: "The poor thing's just deflated."
• Saleswoman: "She has to realize it's not her. Our samples are just so small. But, really, our samples are bigger than most."
  

"It's not her? It's us, but we're better than most?" What the hell? Am I getting dumped by the House of Brides? Aren't you not, by definition, supposed to talk about the Tulle-covered Elephant in the room?

In their defense, they may have honestly forgotten that I was there, as I spent 50% of the shopping trip with my head stuck inside dresses after their size 8 waistlines got stuck around my chest. I think that I may have demanded that they cut one off. I'm not sure, though, as post-traumatic syndrome has caused me to block the experience.

It frightens me that there is an entire industry built on people handing over thousand(s) of non-refundable dollars for something that they've only held against their bodies because the sample size is a size 8 that "runs small."

I will triumph, I know it. Just as millions of hippy sisters before before me have. There have been two dresses that I've tried on that I just adore, but both are out of my price range. I can't stop thinking about the one. Andy keeps telling me to stop worrying about the price, but they're way beyond my already-increased-$500 budget.

One of my two loves is very comparable to this dress, for which have been looking EVERYWHERE, to no avail:

Photo: Watters

Fingers crossed that Macy's calls me back with good news (i.e., that they have it). If not, I'll be trekking it out to the suburbs to look for it next weekend. This dress is my last affordable hope!