I’m so excited to share with you about my wedding dress!! Ever since I was a little girl, I dreamed about the special white dress I would be wearing on my wedding day. For this shopaholic, wedding dress shopping was the best part of the whole planning process! I loved trying on all sorts of dresses- big, fluffy, tulle, satin, short, long train – I felt like a princess every time!! I think one of the highlights of my entire life will be going wedding dress shopping with my twin sister. We got engaged within weeks of each other and had the unique experience of wedding dress shopping together in California, it was a dream come true for us! We were like little girls, giddy and giggling the whole time! It reminded me of us playing dress up when we were younger. We would rifle through stacks of dresses, each pick out a gown, go into our adjacent dressing rooms, put on the dresses and model for each other. And because we are identical twins, we basically got to try on twice the number of dresses! I knew exactly what I would look like in a dress that my sister was wearing. If she looked good in it, then I knew I would like it, too! It was so special to share the wedding dress shopping experience with my sister, it was one of my favorite wedding planning memories!
The search for my fairy tale dress was filled with highs and lows. It was fun at times but also frustrating and long. The dress search also led me to have my second bridal breakdown….in the middle of the checkout line at Costco, of all places. The dream dress that I was crying about? It was Melissa Sweet’s Deanna:
(photos from Priscilla of Boston)
The moment I saw this dress at Priscilla of Boston, I was in LOVE!!! I couldn’t wait to try it on!!! It had everything I wanted- strapless, fit and flare style (mermaid cut), double silk satin. I swooned over the chiffon flowers, swarovski crystals and feathers running diagonally across the front. It was SO ME. Feminine, romantic and different. When I tried it on, I knew it was “The One”. But then I saw the $3,675 price tag. Gulp. I knew my expensive tastes would come back to bite me! There was no way I could justify spending so much money on a dress that I would only wear for a few hours, even one that was seemingly made FOR ME. So with a heavy heart, I put the dreamy gown back on the rack and went to by groceries for dinner. Tears started streaming down my face as I waited to pay for an economy-size package of raw chicken thighs as I reasoned with myself and told myself that the dress of my dreams was out of my reach. I was heartbroken!
Fast forward a few months. My dress search had now gone bi-coastal. I pretty much exhausted every bridal shop in the Greater Boston area, Manhattan and in Southern California. No dress I tried on could make me forget about the Melissa Sweet Deanna dress. Every dress I tried on just didn’t seem right and I would find fault in all of them, subconsciously comparing them to my first love. Time was ticking, all the bridal magazines said I should have purchased my dress by now, and I was growing increasingly frustrated. The Friday after Thanksgiving, I found myself taking a bus from Boston to Manhattan to join a friend for some Black Friday shopping. I was getting desperate and had booked appointments at multiple bridal boutiques in Manhattan, including the famous Kleinfelds, to squeeze in that weekend. As luck would have it, on the day of my arrival, Wedding Atelier was having a designer bridal gown sample sale that ended at 5pm. My bus was scheduled to arrive at 4pm so my friend G planned to meet me there. My bus, however, was stuck in holiday traffic and taking a frustratingly long time to get to Penn Station, it was almost 5pm when my bus finally pulled in! My friend G was at the store, perusing the racks as she waited for me. She called me to say that the Deanna dress was one of the dresses on sale!! For $2,600!! (That was still a ridiculous amount to spend on a wedding dress, even now I cringe at how much money I spent on my wedding dress.) But I had to hurry because the store was closing and they already locked the front door!! G, proving herself to the ultimate shopping companion and best friend, plead to the sales staff to stay open for me as I sprinted down 5th Avenue, luggage and uggs in hand, to claim this dress!!!
Here is my wedding dress on the day of our wedding, in all her glory:
(photo by Jules Bianchi)
One of the details I loved about the dress was the buttons along the back, encrusted with swavorski crystals (on right):
(photos by Jules Bianchi)
(on left) I made my cathedral-length wedding veil for $10!
We had a “trash the dress” photo session a few days after our wedding so I was so thrilled to get to wear the dress again!! We took pictures at the beach, but I couldn’t bare to ruin it! Here are some more pictures of the front and back of the dress:
(photos by Caroline Tran)
I love love LOVE my wedding dress!! I still can’t believe I got to wear such a gorgeous gown! One year later and I am still totally hopelessly in love with it. (And with Jeff!!)
Hi! And welcome to my site! I hope you find something that inspires you while you are here. 
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Which consultant did you have at Kleinfeld??
Hahah, I had a woman who wasn’t one of the consultants on “say yes to the dress”. I did see Randy walking around though!
ilene
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