Wedding Dress

Well the best part of getting married (besides committing myself to the greatest man in the ENTIRE world for the rest of my life) was wearing a beautiful gown.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE my wedding dress!  So any chance I have to put it on again I'll do it.  And my recent weight loss seemed like a perfect opportunity to me, as well as my mom was visiting and a second person is necessary to put that baby on! 

Here I am on my wedding day.  I've posted this photo before.

There is actually an interesting story about this dress.  It isn't my original.  This is my SECOND wedding dress. 

I had gone on vacation to Calgary, AB with my mom to visit my aunt and family.  A few days before we were due to go home, we decided to go wedding dress shopping and the first store we went to was called Ethos.  After trying on a bunch of dresses (none that were my actual size though-they were all way too small and didn't really give me the whole picture) I found THE ONE.  It was a Pronovias, beautiful and perfect.  I found the veil and hair barrette to match it.  I was in love.  Unfortunately, as the saleslady, Cathy, went to place the order she found out that the dress was discontinued...as in no more were being made.  I was devastated! My mom and aunt told me that we could leave and look at another store or try again on a new day but I had already spent hours trying on dresses and I just wanted to be done. 

So I scoured the racks (which isn't usually allowed but Cathy was desperate to make a sale) and finally found a Sophia Tolli dress I liked.  But it was a size 2.  Okay, no worries.  Cathy found a saleslady who was a size 2 to try it on and said since it was a simple cut that it would look great on me too.  Hmm...I was sceptical but exhausted and couldn't bear the thought of dress shopping a second day so we ordered it!  In 9 months it would arrive!

Fast forward 9 months later-Christmas Eve to be exact- My cousin delivered "the dress" to me from Calgary and I rushed to try it on.  I HATED it.  It was too big. It didn't flatter me at all. I looked awful. My mom and brother were in the room once I was dressed and the expressions on their faces told me they hated it too.  Then we showed my dad.  He said all the right things dads are supposed to say, but I still hated it.  I got on the phone immediately but since it was Christmas Eve I had to wait a few days to talk to a manager at Ethos.  How could I have ended up with a dress that was at least 2 sizes too big when they measured me at the store?  Someone screwed up. I eventually talked to a manager but was told that it was ordered specifically for me and they wouldn't refund my money.  If I wanted, I could trade it in for something in the store though.  No...I wasn't going back to Calgary to find a new dress.

So I took the dress to a seamstress who said she could take it in.  She had the dress for a few months but in the mean time I just knew I wasn't wearing it.  My mom, brother, and I went to Saskatoon, SK for a second shopping trip and we went to a wedding dress store that sold dresses off the rack.  Since it was already March I didn't have time to order a dress for my summer wedding.

And I tried on dresses that fit me!  Lots of them!  I eventually tried on a dress that my brother picked out for me and fell in love.  Again.  It was perfect.  And the kicker?  It was the same brand as the other dress, Sophia Tolli, but in the correct size!  My mom forked over the money for a second dress and I was the happiest girl in the world.  I had found my wedding dress. 

Back to the seamstress!

And the seamstress must have known I would never wear the dress because she never touched it in the months it was at her house.

.......................................................

So Sunday afternoon I donned "my wedding dress".  But it didn't fit. It was too BIG!  How many people can say their wedding dress doesn't fit a year and a half later because the gown is too big?  It's usually the other way around! 

Here are the pictures from Instagram taken on my iPad.

:)  I love that dress.  I also wish I could have a wedding do over so I looked even more amazing in my gown.

Here I am at my wedding with my brother, in the dress he picked for me!

P.S.  I ended up writing a nasty letter to Ethos in December after my wedding and got a phone call from the store saying they would refund my money.  The lady was amazed and as disgusted as I about how the situation went down.