Wedding Wednesday White Wedding: The Dress

Happy Wedding Wednesday!! I can't quite believe that we've nearly been married 6 months. Where has that time gone?

It is definitely about time I talked about THE dress, right? 

For those who don't know, I found dress shopping really, really difficult! In my fantasy world, it would be like playing dress up only with a nice glass of something cold and fizzy to drink with my mum and sisters. In reality, I visited one dress fair with my mother in law where she had to help me in and out of dresses that were entirely the wrong size whilst I stood on a stage in a village hall (the curtains were closed, it wasn't some sort of impromptu am-dram performance) and the one shop I visited only had one style of dress (big, puffy with long trains - beautiful but not on me or particularly suited to a wedding in December) I then promptly cut my leg on the shoes they provided and bled on a dress! Needless to say, my dress wasn't there- and I told my mum to get me out of there before I cried! 

 Eventually, I gave up on the idea of "the feeling" and decided for some people crying when you put on your dress just doesn't happen! It was at that point that we started to look to The High Street for dress inspiration. Enter Phase Eight and all it's wedding gloriousness! On Christmas Eve 2014 they released a whole new range of beautiful dresses whilst me and mum obsessively checked the website and messaged each other back and forth. Hope really caught our eye for its beautiful 1920s style glamour, heavy beading and lack of long train! The only problem was Phase Eight only have three wedding stores: Winchester, London and Edinburgh and Hope was selling out fast!

By chance, we were visiting Oxford Street in January anyway and stopped at Debenhams. Due to a lack of communication we didn't have a booked time slot so had to blag a chance to try the dress on, again in less than ideal circumstances. But even in an overly bright, busy Debenhams changing room with an ill-fitting dress, I knew there was something special about this dress with all its embellishments, sequins and beautiful draped top. Plus the reaction from everyone when I put it on was enough confirmation that if there is such a thing as "the one", this was it! Within 2 days I had ordered it (with a bit of cashback from Quidco!) and my dress buying drama was over!

Of course, I then spent 11 months worrying that I didn't actually like it, that I'd just picked it to get out of any more dress shopping and that I'd hate it on the day. Even at my final fitting I wasn't convinced. But it was a bit late to change then. 

However, the morning of the wedding, when I stepped into it I felt amazing, so sophisticated and beautiful. With the theatrical makeup and my hair all done up, it looked perfect and felt like a really unique choice which went hand in hand with our art-deco theme and venue.