I said yes to the dress over a year before my wedding and I didn’t regret it!
I genuinely thought that I would have a traditional approach to buying my wedding even though I knew my dress wasn’t going to be traditional wedding dress. Probably because I watched to much ‘Say Yes To The Dress’ I was so sure that when I found the one it would be with my mum and my bridesmaids and I would shed a little tear, they would all cry and it would be a big fun day out with champagne. It was in fact the total opposite of that, but I’m getting ahead of myself so let’s head back to the beginning.
I knew that I wanted to get married in something non traditional and I had been a huge fan of Needle & Thread dresses since I discovered them a few years before I got engaged. Mum and I had been scrolling through some potential offerings in different colours and patterns but as a petite lady I wasn’t sure if they would be too long on me or what size I should order. As they are mainly an online store I knew that it would be a lot of trying on returning and I wanted to make sure that we at least got the right size before we started the process. I had decided that I wouldn’t buy anything until 1 year before however mum and I thought it would be a good idea to go to Selfridges in town where there is a small franchise to at least try some Needle & Thread dresses on to get a feel for the sizing so that when October 2019 rolled round it would be more fun than stressful. So with my bridal shoes safely tucked into my bag and absolutely no thought of buying anything we set off on a Saturday in July.
We arrived at Selfridges where there was only one of the dresses that I had in my mind as a possibility so we added it to our pile of varying lengths & sizes and headed for the changing room. I have to say I really should just try on beautiful gowns more often because it is so much fun, mum and I were desperately trying to work out what events I could possibly attend to wear most of the gowns we tried on. As I had suspected even with my heels on some of the dresses were a little too long although it varied from style to style. With dimly lit phone photos and a lot more knowledge than when we started we headed off for a cup of tea. Mum loves Liberty’s so we decided to just head there for a little look around and low and behold there was a very small Needle & Thread Franchise there. We had a quick look and I found a dress that was more of what they call Mini (but I knew would be more mini/midi on me) as well as a gorgeous heavily beaded maxi. I decided I might as well try them on as we were there and it would be good to see what the mini one looked like on length wise. By this time we had figured out my sizing and luckily they had a 6 in this style so I marched off for the changing room.
Putting on a dress that just feels right is the most amazing feeling. It fit like a glove and I automatically got that warm feeling, no tears but just a feeling that this was the one. It automatically made me feel confident and as if I was wearing the dress the dress wasn’t wearing me. I stepped out of the changing room and mum also immediately knew that we had found the one, I popped the other one I had bought to the changing room on but although it was beautiful I knew I had found the one and changed into it again. We hadn’t even seen this dress on the website and I was worried that it would disappear, luckily my absolute hero of a mum (who very kindly purchased my dress & my bridesmaids outfits for us) said we could get it that day.
I have to give a quick shout out to Richard who is in charge of the third floor women’s clothing section in Liberty because he was the nicest most informative sales person ever! Not pushy at all but gave us so much information about the designer, how to care for the garment and just made the whole moment of buying my wedding dress that much more special. With a spring in my step and a very large purple bag we left and headed home to store my precious new purchase. I genuinely do believe that when you try on the one you get that ‘feeling’ its not all hysterical crying but there is just a little something that says this is the one.
Am I sad I didn’t get the experience I had envisioned in my head, not really. I am so glad I had bought all the outfits before the pandemic hit as I think it would have been a nightmare trying to do it all in-between lock downs. Will I be trying on a bunch of frivolous dresses before my vow renewal next year, yes I certainly will!
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