I was that cliche, yep. The first wedding dress I tried on was ‘the one’.
I still can’t quite believe it happened that way, but there you go.
Choosing a wedding dress is much like how the wand chooses the wizard, the dress chooses you. Maybe.
My wedding dress is by the designer Melissa Sweet and sold at David’s Bridal. I really liked the Melissa Sweet range, her style is very romantic and feminine. Think flowing fabrics and floral details. And lots and lots of lace. I bloody love lace.
My dress is an ivory and blush lace strapless wedding gown with floral appliqué in lace and delicate sequins sewn in. It has an almost 3D effect which adds a lovely texture to the dress.
It has a sweetheart neckline and fitted bodice. This becomes a full length A-line skirt with several layers of lace, tulle and a satin-polyester underskirt. The back of the dress reaches out into a sweeping train.
The dress, thankfully, is secured with a zip so it was super easy to get in and out of (which I had to do a few times that day!).
Overall the vibe of the dress, to me, was very much woodland-fairy-princess-vibe – it was long, floaty, lacy and pretty. In fact, if I could’ve got married in the woods I probably would’ve done.
Although, I never in a million years would have thought I’d wear a blush wedding dress. Never, ever, ever. In fact, I don’t really like pink as a colour at all. And yet, against any preconceived ideas I had, there I was loving this beautiful blush dress. I almost can’t quite explain how I ended up with a blush dress, it was just the dress that looked like ‘me’.
My wedding dress was a very subtle blush colour as most of the layers of the dress were ivory. It had just one layer that was a blush colour and it was underneath. Overall, it was very subtle and flattering.
I loved how swishy the dress felt, the long sweeping train of the dress was stunning. And if you looked up close you could see an incredibly amount of detailing in the lace.
I adored the flower and leaf pattern of the lace. I’m a huge flower lover anyway, and I’m always filling my own home with flowers. I have a long history of wearing floral dresses. This just made total sense to me, to wear a floral wedding dress.
The floral pattern itself was elegant and dainty, not at all gaudy, and was a gorgeous detail of the dress.
I did try on a few other dresses and I’ll share the photos of my shortlist dresses on another post. But this was the one, even if it was a little more than I thought I would end up spending!
The process of saying yes to the dress at David’s Bridal was pretty fun. When you make the decision they bring you a bell and you give it a shake and make a wish. Everyone claps, and it really is quite emotional.
(You can watch the moment I said yes to the dress here)
That’s the thing about this dress. Every time I tried on my wedding dress I welled up, I got super emotional. It’s so weird, the rational part of me can’t quite understand it. It was just the one.
My only complaint really is that the store wouldn’t let me pick the size I wanted. When we went to get the dress in January I was a little podgier as it was post-Christmas and I’d eaten all of the treats in December. I knew I was going to lose weight before the wedding but they insisted I bought the dress to fit me then.
The problem is, sure enough, I lost weight and my dress didn’t fit. So I had to spend a bit of money getting the bodice taken in to fit my newly shrunken boobs and waist.
I was always going to have to have the dress taken up as I’m a little on the short side at 5ft 3in. But I do feel like the dress would’ve been better if I’d ordered the size down as I wanted. So my advice for any would-be brides is to buy what you want!
We had our dresses altered at a local seamstress in Warwickshire. It was easier for us and I did really like the ladies there. Plus it was a slightly more affordable option than David’s Bridal, and much less hectic.
I initially wanted to have a bustle put in (so it could be secured shorter at the back for the evening of dancing) but because of the design of the dress meant there were long panels coming out at the sides, it wasn’t quite feasible to add in a bustle without quite some work.
In the end, I decided to just go with the dress as it was and spent a lot of time on the wedding evening either picking up the dress can-can stylee or just falling over myself. By that point I was enjoying myself dancing too much to care.
I was watching some of the GoPro footage back from the wedding and there’s a part where my cousin, who has clearly been enjoying the wine, is talking to the camera telling me how beautiful I looked, and how I looked like Elsa! Ha!
First of all, love the Disney reference. Secondly, you know what…I did feel like a princess in that dress. It was an epic dress. It was pretty, and swishy, and I felt beautiful on my wedding day.
Even if it was a tad impractical for all the dancing we did later on…
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Read my other wedding posts here
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All photos by Simon Brettell