.the story behind the dress, part 2.

7.06.2010

In yesterday's post, I shared with you part 1 of my dress drama. Here is part two. I ended up buying the Jovani Cowl Back dress:


At my endocrinologist visit in July, my blood work confirmed that my C-peptide was .8, which is the bare minimum it can be before requiring full-time insulin. My previous reading was 1.2, so it was declining and I was put on insulin shots. Within a few weeks, I was up eight pounds. By the time my gown arrived in mid-September, I was up about 12 pounds. Scroll back up and see how slim and slinky that dress is.... yea, no room for anyone to gain 12 ounces, yet alone pounds. But never fear, I still have seven months until the wedding and can easily lose that weight. Ahem.... if you've never been on insulin before, you won't understand. But it is a fat producing hormone. And fat, it produced. I continued to gain weight until at least late December.

I first tried on the dress in September with K-Zilla when we also tried on the Zillaz dress. Yea, there was evidence of a weight gain, but it wasn't of worry yet. Matter of fact, we celebrated this day with pizza, afterward.






Even with working out, the weight didn't fall off. I will admit to this: knowing that I can now eat more than 30-45 carbs, I actually started to eat real pasta and enjoy me some more sweets. Yea, I took advantage of my insulin pen.

Long story short.... I worked out insanely and the true test came MLK weekend in January 2010. I was having a "Zillaz" day, the morning belonging to K-Zilla and the afternoon belonging to M-Zilla. It was M-Zilla who was with me at Nordstrom when we tried on undergarments and the dress. Sadly, it was a disaster. Not fully because of my weight gain, but there is no room for any undergarments. The seams were showing, the line where it ended above my knee was showing. It was a nightmare. With four months until the wedding, I knew that sure, the weight could come off, but was it worth the stress? Not to me. So M-Zilla and I walked briskly to Jessica McClintock and tried on some dresses. I worked at Fashion Show for months while I was engaged and never once tried on any of her dresses. Odd, because they are amazing. I thought they were out of my budget, they aren't. Wait until I tell you how much I paid for my dress, in the end.

So I tried on a few and these two were the contenders. I loved this one shoulder gown and I know that Mr. Nearlywed loves me in one shoulder garments. I didn't like the way it photographed. Granted, this was a point-and-shoot camera. Forgive my poor posture. This gown was $2,000-it was a one-of-a-kind couture gown. Gorgeous.







But then I loved this one... it was simple, yet fun and would go with fun & fab shoes and the veil that I had in mind. The price tag on this one was just over $400.









If you've seen even one wedding photo, then you know I chose the above dress. The coolest thing was that I told virtually no one, except Mr. Nearlywed, M-Zilla and a few others who were not related to the wedding. The shock came to them on the wedding day.

So now that you know my dress mess, how did I do?

.the story behind the dress.

7.05.2010

For as long as I've been blogging on this site, my wedding dress was a huge source of stress. I can finally, two months after the wedding, share all with you. Yes, I could have done this sooner, but I must say this-- the wedding wore me out. It seemed like recovery was nowhere in sight at times. But here I am, to recap everything from the wedding. Let's start with my dress.

When I started out, I didn't have a budget, but in my head, I knew that spending over $1,200 on a dress (and even that was pushing it) would eat me alive. But I still tried on Elizabeth Filmore, Amy Michaelson, Vera Wang and more. They all look maaaahhhvelous. And I loved the silk charmeuse on my skin. So at one point, I went to a seamstress and took her this love of my then bride-to-be life. It is Taj Mahal by Amy Michelson. It retailed for about $3,800 at Kleinfelds. Which, by the way, shopping there is ground for a whole other blog.

Here is the dress, courtesy of AmyMichelson.com



Gorgeous, huh? After trying on this gem, of which there are no photos courtesy of Kleinfeld's rules, which we respected, I needed a sexy back dress. I wanted to hear my guests gasp after I passed them while walking down the aisle. But I refused to pay that much. It was a new dress, from the fall 2009 line, so there weren't any for sale. I also found some from Winnie Couture that had the open back and they came in my price range, around $1,200.


This is the Winne Couture "Giada" dress. I wasn't able to try it on, the only store in Vegas who carried the line wouldn't order a sample. Silly, because I probably would have bought it. So...at this point we moved on.

Come June, my sister, my six-week-old niece and I went dress shopping. Again. We turned up at a little shack-on-the-road called Tina's Bridal in Totowa, NJ. When we pulled up, I almost told her to turn around, it was that much of a shack looking place. But we went in, smart move. What I would like to say most about Tina's is that we had an appointment to look at bridesmaids dresses, but when I asked if I could see their bridal gowns, they didn't even bat an eyelash and 100 percent accommodated us. And in the end, I bought a dress there.

I wasn't looking for poofy, I didn't want any skirt underneath and then I came across two gems there. One was a "Destination" label by.... I don't even remember. Darn. This was the dress. Of course, I wanted to open the back and make some adjustments to it....




Then, there was this beauty by Jovani. I had to slide into and hold my breath. However, wearing it on my wedding was of no concern. I was the thinnest I had pretty much ever been, with no intent on gaining weight, so I was good to go in this looker. I loved the back and how vintage it looked. I pictured a glamorous walk down the aisle, posing for photos with my chin just coming over my shoulder. And my body? It would be bangin'! It was June and I had 10 months to firm up and rock this dress. Apparently, my pancreas had other plans in the weeks to come.




This is what it is supposed to look like on the model who needs to be fed a steak.


So there you have it, my dress loves.... I went from loving a $3,800 gown to not being able to try on a $1,200 gown to deciding between a $400 and a $350 gown. I ended up buying the Jovani gown.... we had it ordered in a size bigger than the sample shown in the above photos. As you can tell, it was a bit snug. I was thrilled to buy my wedding dress in a size six. As someone who battled weight my whole life, this was a huge accomplishment. However, I would only be able to bask in that glory for a few short weeks.

What happened? The rest in my next post. Which will not be in six weeks. I am going to write it now.

By the way, I have the Jovani dress in my hands and am willing to part with it. If anyone is interested please message me.