Horrifying things about wedding dresses and one or two good things

One of the interesting and challenging things about wedding planning so far has been trying to find a way to indulge my desire to have a fun and memorable wedding without buying into the ridiculous culture of bridal and wedding indulgence.  I want to vomit when I think about the huge trade shows like “Bridal Fantasy” and was floored when I saw an ELEVEN THOUSAND DOLLAR engagement and wedding photo package.  I know it's important to value the services and equipment that a photographer provides, but my head about exploded when I saw that.

There is so much pressure to plan a wedding that is totally beyond our means, and in a lot of ways I feel like the wedding dress embodies or symbolizes the crazy insanity that weddings can become.  I was apprehensive when I started looking for a dress because I feel so uncomfortable with a lot of the things that are attached to THE dress.  Because of this, there were some things that I absolutely hated about dress shopping, but thankfully there were also some positives and things worked out almost better than I could have hoped in the end.

• The first thing I took issue with, as alluded to above, was the price. Oh my word.  I had budgeted a maximum of $1,000 with a goal of spending waaaay less, and when I would go into stores and be up front about my price, a lot of the stores were unhelpful, even though they totally had dresses for under that price point...they just weren’t all that interested in showing them to me.  I think every consultant I met asked me "do you have any wiggle room in your budget?".  So I would tell them that it wasn't that I couldn't spend more, it's that I had made a decision that I WOULDN'T spend more than that.  On top of that, almost every store told me it was impossible to find the kind of dress I was describing for less than 3 or 4 thousand.
• The next lame thing is the sizes. For some cruel reason they make wedding dresses to fit small, so you can count on having to buy one that’s at least one or two sizes bigger than what you would normally wear.  Way to make someone feel good in a white dress.  Jerks.
• Just as I was getting used to shopping for dresses, I ran into people at a couple of the stores who reminded me forcefully that you have to order your dress way in advance because ALL of the dresses come from China.  They went on to emphasize how timing is an issue because of Chinese New Year when all the shops close down for an extended period of time.  The sales person who told me this was acting personally affronted that those jerks in China would dare close down their businesses to celebrate a national holiday.
• Now on the positive side I eventually learned that not all dresses are actually made in China.  There is a line called Mikaella that makes gorgeous dresses right here in Canada (outside Toronto).  I probably would have ended up with one of those except for the price, which was reasonable for a wedding dress but still out of my price range.
• Enter: Bridal Consignment.  This is basically the best thing ever.  Dresses worn once sold for half the price.  I was sceptical at first and thought that it might be a nice idea in theory but feeling doubtful that I would actually find a dress that fit me while also being better than what I had seen in stores.  But, I did.  I found one I liked, tried it on, it fit great, I loved it, it was pretty much what I had been describing to people so I bought it and walked out with it that day.  No ordering 6 months in advance.  It was so easy, and now I basically get to feel good because I am recycling.

And finally, just to make this post more interesting for you all who might not care about the ins and outs of wedding dress shopping, here is a sketch done by Joel.  This is what he thinks my dress will look like. 

 *Untitled Ink on napkin, 1/1, Artist: Joel K. Date: November 2010. Price: $200