Getting The Dress... Part 1

So my dress and veil are bought. It was an interesting process, one that was neither as fun nor as emotionally draining as I thought it would be.

I ended up buying my dress in Edmonton because that’s the closest city to where my parents live and they were actually the ones who bought the dress (thanks!) so while this might be a blog about getting married in Toronto, it won’t actually contain any entries about me buying a wedding dress in Toronto.

But despite this geographical conflict, I’m going to share my dress shopping story anyway.

It started at a place called Pure Bridal in downtown Edmonton and initially, I was quite looking forward to dress shopping though I was a bit worried that the process might end in a screaming match with my mother (not only did this not happen but I don’t think my mother and I argued once during the entire dress shopping process).

Pure Bridal is one of Edmonton’s more upscale wedding dress shops, the kind of place with large, private dressing rooms where you have a dedicated clerk. My clerk could have been a bit more interested in who I was and what sort of wedding I was having. While I realize that hearing people’s wedding plans day-after-day might get a bit tedious, I still expect a least a hint of interest in my plans (perhaps I have just seen too many episodes of that TLC wedding dress show).

I also found it very odd that she didn’t ask me any questions about my venue or theme. All she asked about were my dress budget, my wedding colours and if I had any idea of what I wanted. I gave her some rambling answer to that last question and as a result, more than a couple no-go dresses were pulled.

The first dress that she pulled wasn’t bad. It wasn’t quite right but it did confirm what I wanted: something with a large tulle skirt and a touch of silver. I also wanted my dress to be classic but different and under $1500 (while I’m sure there’s a dress out there that meets all this requirements, I didn’t have the energy to hunt it down).

In the interest of being open-minded, I did try on dresses that didn’t meet my requirements but I kept coming back to that original idea of the big, silver and white tulle dress. Unfortunately, Pure Bridal doesn’t stock a lot of tulle dresses (while annoying, this fact also makes me happy because I’m choosing to believe it means that tulle dresses aren’t very popular and that’s fine with me). The closest one I could find had a ton of silver beading on the top and while it looked great on me, it didn’t feel quite right (and it was over-budget and there was no way we were going to go over-budget on a dress I didn’t love).

This turned out to be the situation with most of the dresses—they looked great on me but none of them felt quite right. By about dress six, I was feeling rather frustrated. You always hear stories about how the first dress the bride tried on turned out to be the perfect one or about how a bride falls in love with the image of a pricey dress and is then able to find the perfect knockoff of that dream dress. For me however, the search had to continue...

Pretty Dresses #6

Blue by Enzoani

This isn't a cheap dress, selling for over $2,000. Bridal & Beyond will order it for you.

Pretty Dresses #5

From Maggie Sottero

This dress is currently on sale for about $1,300 at Bridal & Beyond.

Pretty Dresses #4

From La Sposa

Pretty Dresses #3

From La Sposa

Pretty Dresses #2

From La Sposa

Pretty Dresses #1

I’m off tomorrow to Alberta for an 11-day trip that kicks off with two days spent in Edmonton wedding dress shopping. I don’t think I’ll be able to do much actual blogging while I’m gone so I’ve decided to load my blog up with pictures of pretty dresses, all which should be available in Toronto. Check back every other day for a new dress. Here’s one below to give you a taste of what’s to come.

From Mia Solano


Jealous Bridesmaids carries this line. It didn't have a price available for this dress but in the US, it goes for around $1000.

Crazy Cakes

I’ve had a long (but fun) weekend at the lake so today’s entry is going to be short and sweet.

Meet Cake Wrecks, a blog that is sure to give you nightmares about your wedding (or really any) cake. I first saw this blog awhile ago but completely forgot about it until my cousin reminded me about it this weekend. Its entry today actually features some amazing Harry Potter-themed cakes but usually its focus is on sad, bizarre and sometimes just plain disturbing cakes.

Recently, it dedicated a posting to wedding cakes, complete with the cake inspiration and then the actual result. Personally, I think this one is the worse:
However, then I started flipping through some older posts and I found this gem:
For more wacky wedding cakes, also check out UglyWeddingCakes.com, home to such winning cakes as this one:


WTF?

Review: Secrets From Your Sister

Two Thursdays from now I will be trying on wedding dresses for the first time. I’ve been told wear clothes that are easy to change out of, heels that are similar in height to what I’ll wear on my wedding day and a really good strapless bra.

While I already do own a couple strapless bras, I decided to use wedding dress shopping as an excuse to get a really nice, high-quality one. And since proper fit is particularly important when you’re wearing anything strapless, I decided to skip the mall lingerie shops and instead head down to Secrets From Your Sister, at Bloor, just west of Bathurst, where one’s bra shopping experience includes time with a professional bra fitter.

I headed down there on a Saturday, just before one, and there were two ladies in front of me, waiting to be fitted. I waited for about ten minutes (they provide chairs and magazines) and during that time the store quickly filled up with shoppers. So first tip: go during the week or first thing on the weekend.

When it came my time to be fitted, I told my fitter what I was looking for and she took my measurements. She then returned with a couple “normal” bras just to make sure my measurements were right. Once she was satisfied, she returned with a pair of strapless bras, both which fit perfectly.

The whole process was actually quite speedy and surprisingly modest. Yeah, the fitter sees you in your bra but hey, that’s her job and since you’re in your own little change room, it’s not like anyone else sees you. And if you’re worried about belly fat or your overall body image, don’t be. You’re not getting fitted by professional models and when I was there, ladies of all kinds of shapes and sizes were stopping by to be fitted.

While Secrets From My Sisters is a lingerie shop, its focus is more on “practical” bras, though it does have some cute matching sets. If your wedding dress require a good foundational garment (or maybe your bridesmaid dresses do), this is definitely a store worth checking out. Their products are a bit pricey (I picked up a Panache Superbra at about $80) but they will last a long time if you take proper care of them and the customer service is excellent. You can also return any unused bras for store credit (just leave the tags on) so if you end up picking one out that doesn’t quite work with your dress, you can swap it for something more appropriate.

S.'s Wedding

Meet S., the next bride to be profiled here on WedTO.

Who are you: I'm a 27-year old elementary school teacher. My fiancé is a software developer. He's 32 years old.

When’s the wedding: Aug 8, 2009

Where is it: Tower Garden, Mississauga, Ontario. This is a banquet hall on the twelve floor of the Civic Centre in Mississauga. We get the whole floor to ourselves and there are windows all around.

What will it be like: There will be approximately 150 people there. The "wedding colours" will not be very obvious since we are using the decorations that are already at the hall. On top of that, we will be bringing in some flowers....although we haven't figured out those details yet! The bridesmaids dresses will be a shade of violet. Since our cultural backgrounds are Chinese and French-Irish, we are just taking what we like out of each set of customs and making it our own.

Why are you having that type of wedding: Honestly, we're just looking forward to having a big party with all of our friends and family. We're paying for it on our own, so we're trying not to spend too much money on anything that is not important to both of us. I'm not very picky about flowers, or the decor of the hall. We just wanted to make sure that the most important things were taken care of: Good food, good music, and good company.

Any advice for other couples who are busy planning: I guess I could offer two pieces of advice:

1-- Set out your priorities and work from there. Focus on the top three things and let the other details just fall into place. I keep catching myself on the verge of stressing out about something that usually doesn't matter to me (for example, what colour will the linens be? What kinds of flowers will we have for the centre-pieces? etc.) just because other people expect me to care about those details. I think it's important to step back frequently and keep everything in perspective.

2-- People will not miss what they don't have. No one will notice the fact that I did not have an extravagant sweet table with 60 different types of desserts and cheeses. When they see a platter of fresh cut fruits, it is fresh cut fruits that they will want to eat.