Wedding Dressaster

When I first got engaged, I immediately flew to Scotland to plan the wedding. On the plane, I watched the Katherine Heigl movie 27 Dresses and fell in love with the dress her character's sister wore, pictured here.

Looking at this pic, I am reminded of why. It's a freaking fantastic dress and I think I would look great in it - the pockets are just so Ali. I researched the dress and figured out the designer and model and scoured the internet for it, only to discover that it was very pricey - $4700.00.

Obviously, I didn't even attempt to go try the dress on and instead decided to be practical and frugal, so I purchased dress #1, the grey Max Azria dress.

As you know, I then decided - albeit late in the game - that I wanted a new dress, so my amazing friend Kari and I spent an entire Friday canvassing Jersey for a new dress and after giving up hope, found one.

Dress #2 is a lovely dress but of course it wasn't perfect so I re-designed the dress and took it and my ideas to my seamstress who took on the challenge.

When I went for my fitting earlier this week, I discovered that dress #2 is now unwearable do to a number of reasons. My seamstress graciously offered to loan me a $3000 designer version of the dress as a replacement. Her offer seemed so generous and so I tried on the designer dress and it was almost a perfect fit. She said she would take it in a bit and then when I brought it back, she would let it back out and sell it.

Sounded like a good idea at the time - a time when I was overwhelmed in so many ways that I could barely manage more than a few nods.

When I got dress #2 home and tried it back on, I discovered that it had been altered to a ridiculously small size and in no way fit. To make matters even more irreversible, there is not enough room to give enough leeway to let it back out.

So now I'm on my way to my fitting for dress #3 and I must admit that whereas I was kind of excited at the idea of wearing a designer dress, the reality is that it is not my dress and I'm nervous to wear it.

I can't believe I have spent over $1200 and still do not have a wedding dress and I leave the country in 13 days.

I used to make fun of girls who made such a big deal out of finding "the dress" and who were opposed to trying alternative options and insisted on marching straight to Kleinfelds but now I totally get it and realize just how important the f-ing dress is to a girl and want to kick myself for not realizing it sooner.

Wish me luck.