Wedding Dress Obsession

I have a severe problem. It's my obsession with myself and wedding dresses.
I can't help it, I can't stop thinking about it. Sure I'm selfish sometimes, but this is just ridiculous!

I'm actually looking forward to going back to work so I can think of something other than myself. It's annoying, I'm annoyed with myself.

I've been having dreams about wedding dresses, that's what crazy about all this. It's become worse than that time I watched all 4 seasons of the Kardashian's in 3 days and I would close my eyes and I could still see them.  Or that time I was obsessed with playing "Wario's Woods" (an old SNES Tetris/puzzle game) and every time I slept I dreamed of blowing up sheep and awkward looking fish. 

I must be stopped.

From here on out no more looking at websites, no more magazines. I'm having a wedding dress black out! It's the only way to cure me of this sick addiction. 
And I can't listen to Taeyang's Wedding Dress either. But you can!

Day 2 Bridal Shopping

Yesterday I visited Simonelli and Baccini & Hill. Both are beautiful couture designers with a great range of made-to-measure dresses.
I bought along my mum, sister and grandma for this trip. My grandma was a dress maker for many of the top bridal designers and she knows her stuff. She still works as an on call dress maker even though she's in her 80's! Her knowledge is hardcore, she knows how a well made dress should look and when we were at Simonelli in the morning she got very picky on the samples. But samples are just that - samples. They are not a true representation of the finished product.

Simonelli is in Fairfield right next to the train station, definitely a weird spot for a bridal shop.  They have a beautiful range of dresses. After trying on dresses at Brides of Melbourne you can tell the difference in quality. A well made dress just fits better and feels better. I like a dress that holds me in. I really liked the corset feel I got from Mariana Hardwick's dresses, they just suck everything in and hide any of your imperfections so well. Simonelli was similar but not as full on. There were a few stand-out dresses. One in particular which is the white version of Nadia Coppolino's 2011 Brownlow Medal dress:

It's an amazing dress - but not within my budget right now. If I had $8000 lying around then sure I would totally go for that. But I don't and I need to be realistic about this. The reason why it costs so much is the silk and the drapery, it would take hours and hours to hand sew this.

I found a few other dresses, one my grandma and mum liked a lot - but I disagreed. Aubrey, my sister, sat there looking at me very quietly. She really didn't give me a lot of input like I thought she would. And as everyone says, at the end of the day it's my choice. The one dress I did like everyone else found reason to nitpick it because of one tiny thing on it that could be easily changed. Everyone forgets that because it's made-to-measure you can do whatever you want to the design. You can change bling, colors, the train, how much skirt layers you have etc. It's not what you see is what you get.

So in the afternoon my mum and I traveled to Armadale to Baccini & Hill.  Great service, not as big as Mariana's but the choice and the price of the dresses was very good. Baccini really caters to a lot of tastes and budgets and I'm sure that's why it's so popular with brides.  I tried on several dresses that I had picked out from my research online and we started there.  Two dresses stand out for me, both are very different. One is slinky and light and very Grecian and the other is so Dior with a full skirt and is very sweet. 

So there's the run down without giving anything away (hopefully). I'm going to take a week off from dress shopping because I've found 4 dresses that are great. But I think I was expecting something to really jump out at me and yell "THIS IS THE ONE". I think I've got some great options and any dress I choose is a winner. But is there such thing as "the one"? The one dress to rule them all? How do I know which dress is "the one"? What if I make a mistake and regret it?
Am I thinking about this too much? YES

Day One Bridal Dress Shopping

So the first stop on my list today was Mariana Hardwick on Sydney Rd Brunswick. I have been told a few bad stories about the customer service at Mariana Hardwick but I went in with an open mind and I had a wonderful experience.The showroom is amazing. It's very open and spacious, lots of small areas set up for the brides to try things on in. We were away from the main room in one of the side rooms so it was a little more private.

Our sales assistant (bridal consultant?) was very good. I think it helped having a few dresses already picked out so we could start from there. I only tried on 4 dresses while I was there. Of the two I loved (both were similar in style but very different in embellishments and the skirt was different), one was the first design I picked out and the second was one the sales assistant suggested. 

One of the things I was worried about was having to strip in front of a stranger, but I shouldn't have been worried. They must do this all the time and know where not to look. It reminds me of my Myer days when I used to work Miss Shop and the Bra dept. I had seen some weird horrors there in my time, so I imagine the girls in a bridal boutique would be used to pretty much everything.  By the time I got to Brides of Melbourne in the GPO on Bourke St I was no longer worried about stripping off. I also bought with me my own shoes so I wouldn't have to wear the ones provided, but the problem with this was that the shoes I picked haven't been broken-in yet and killed my feet. 

Brides of Melbourne seems to be a one stop shop for every kind of bride. They had such a range of dresses. There was a lot of organza. I don't think that was a good thing. I prefer tulle or lace.  Most of the dresses in the shop are made- to- order which means you pick a style and they take your measurements and 4 months later you get a dress. After that they make alternations to make sure it fits you perfectly.  There are a lot of hidden costs in buying a dress. Any extra embellishments you must pay for yourself, and any alteration to the design of the dress will cost you.

The service at Brides of Melbourne was good. But I will be honest, after going to Mariana Hardwick, I see why women will pay more for their wedding dress. The difference is the quality (fabric & design).   The first two dresses I tried on were not good. My mother and I shared a few knowing looks, we knew they weren't right and we were both comparing them to Mariana Hardwick dresses.   We eventually agreed on a lace dress, but apparently if I want to try it on again I have to go in before the end of the week because the sample was on loan.  This just sounds like a big inconvenience to me. The one dress in the shop I like and if I want it I have to decided this week! Honestly I'd rather pay more for convenience than pay less and have a dress come in that I guess I'll like. And what if I order the dress having only seen it once. What if I forget what it looks like? What if I hate it in 4-5 months?

But here's the dilemma: Do you buy a dress that is way over your budget but you love it and makes you feel amazing when you wear it - or do you buy the dress within your budget and feel okay with it but not amazed by it?

At the end of the day, does it really matter what kind of dress I wear? Is the dress so important that I'll break my budget just to get the one I feel better in? Is it worth it?

Tomorrow is Simonelli and Baccini & Hill