A dress decision

I finally decided on the wedding dress for me.

It's a beautiful ivory bridesmaid dress made of taffeta silk with what I hope is a good mix of modern and sweet. I spent $311 (including tax, rush charge and other silly fees) - which is pretty amazing for the dress. (Definitely less than what B will spend on his suit, which has several magnitudes more wearing power, but will be somewhat less admired come July 24.)

I'm happy I've learned so much, become pretty confident about my ability to look hot at the Academy Awards (seriously, I rock quite a few different styles... invite me!) and felt incredibly appreciative of my patient, honest friends/family. Here are the major lessons learned from this fiasco-that-landed-me-a-dress:

• Love your consultant. Alex, at House of Brides, gave us the idea to look at bridesmaid dresses that come in ivory. It's brilliant for anyone who wants less dress and less expense. Consultants really help a lot - they help you actually get into a dress, respond to what you like and help you put really heavy strapless dresses on hangers.
• Take sample size into account - I didn't fit properly into 90 percent of the dresses I tried. But I tried on a lot and figured out how to imagine the dress fitting by asking a lot of questions about what'd be bigger and what stayed true. Hopefully this translates into a perfect fitting dress.
• Try everything. I never, ever would have predicted that the contenders or the dress I picked would look good on me. But I'm glad I tried on every silly dress I did. I even ordered a dress that was mailed to my home, where I modeled (to everyone except B).
• Keep calm. In the time I spent trying on dresses I felt fat, yucky, chubby-armed, chubby-backed, sexy, daring, silly, matronly, weird-shaped, freakish, embarrassed, awesome, radiant, bride-y, happy, beautiful and awesome.
• Bring along amazing people. It's pretty ridiculous, but I brought along friends and family who found the humor in the bad, the positive in everything ("Well, that doesn't flatter you" or "You don't look happy in that.") and enjoyed the process. My amazing friends hardly rolled their eyes a bit. They're the truest, most wonderful, patient and thoughtful people ever. I've seen the yuckies that people on bring along for dress decisions on Say Yes to the Dress bring along. Gross.
•