The Dress

Wow! It's hard to keep a secret! I have no idea how I'm going to keep my dress a secret for a year. I assume it will become easier with time but I am excited and bursting at the seams right now...mostly to tell the fiancé. My best friend, pictured left, said it best (since she's also getting married in May and is currently having the same dilemma) when she said "It's so weird to keep something from somebody when you're used to telling them everything." She's so right! I don't have any secrets from him and now I have this big exciting secret to keep. I'm sure it'll just accumulate and burst from my eyeballs the day of the wedding when we have our first look and he sees me. in the dress. for the first time. I think that's appropriate though.

The experience was exciting, logistical, stressful and horrifying all at the same time. We went to two stores and I was pretty certain that I would find the dress at one or  the other. I am pretty decisive when it comes to clothing and I generally know what I want. I was able to narrow things down as we shopped. I like this hem line, that neck line, the other color, the different bottom, blah blah blah. The problem occurred when we got to the second store and it was crawling with people. I do not do well with crowds but mostly crowds of people looking at me. I was instructed to parade myself up on the little stage for my group and also the rest of the store to see. After about the 4th dress and lots of comments from the peanut gallery as I boarded the stage train I was shutting down a little. My consultant was wonderful though! She fixed me right up with a little pep talk and brought my group to the dressing room for a private dress critique as opposed to the E! News version of me trying on dresses. No thank you! It made all the difference to have them in a more intimate setting that allowed us to talk about the dress and how I looked with it on.

THE DRESS was actually the last dress I tried on. Actually, I almost didn't try it on. It was similar to a previous dress that I decided I didn't like and I was a little worn out on dresses. For whatever reason I decided to try on one more. I told Kendra, my consultant, "I really like this" a minimum of 4 times before she could even get the dress zipped and clipped. Somehow I knew I felt different in it. I was immediately validated when I stepped out onto the stage (the crowds had gone by then). Everyone in the group quickly decided that this was their favorite and I even got a smidge of a choked up comment from my sister and bestie. Mom and future mom agreed, the veil was added and BAM! I said yes to the dress. Now I just have to wait 5 months to have it in a size that fits. I'm certain it will be the longest 5 months of my life. Except for the 5 months prior to our engagement...but that's normal, right?!