I bought my wedding dress yesterday. So let me get this out of the way up front. I am not going to post a picture of the wedding dress that I bought. This is because I just don't want to risk Eric seeing it by mistake. I may be an old bride, but I believe there is something fundamentally special about your husband-to-be seeing you in your dress for the first time on your wedding day. Getting married/having a wedding is an experience that I never predicted for my life and I am really going to stick with the traditional (as much as it can be without appearing foolish for a woman my age).
The experience of buying the dress was everything I had hoped it would be. Considering that I never really ever thought about getting married, I didn't have any preconceived wishes for what I wanted my wedding dress to look like. This is probably both a good thing and a bad thing. No expectations, but no good ideas either. I had two girlfriends with me and that was a GOOD thing. They were both supportive and gave me eyes that I didn't have. They also knew when to stop me. Basically at the dress that made me go "Oh my god" as I looked in the mirror. This was my dress. It had no price tag (as was the case with almost all of the dresses that were appealing to my eye), and perhaps there have been too many episodes of "Say Yes To The Dress" in recent weeks, and that terrified me. Say Yes To The Dress Rule #1, never ever try on a dress unless you know you can afford it because without a doubt, that will be the dress you fall in love with and have to mortgage your home to own. But I was pleasantly surprised at the cost of this amazing Casablanca gown. And afford it, I could. And buy it, I did. I thought lovingly of my mom for a moment or two who passed away almost 12 years ago, and knew she would have absolutely loved this dress and being with me for the shopping. I am sorry I missed out on that part of the experience but I don't think I could have asked for a better day or a better result. I know she was looking down at me, and giving her approval.
The rest of the world will just have to wait until June of 2011 to see it.
