A Dress That Won't Allow Me To Hug: Part 2

For the first incredibly long and dramatic post about my dress alterations, go here.

Today, I finally dusted off the wedding dress bag and brought it over to my girlfriend's apartment for an assessment. What we realized when I tried it on and tried to walk was that not only was it falling over, it was way. too. long. WAY too long. Like 4-5 inches too long. I did not realize this at the bridal shop because they kept me confined and didn't have me walk around, so I didn't even realize how unbearably long it really was until I tried to walk the length of her room. My girlfriend consoled me, and told me to bite the bullet and call another seamstress. The dress really needed it.

So I clutched my credit card and drove it over to a seamstress in La Jolla. I tried the dress on for her and told her what the other seamstress told me, that this was the best it could be and that tape was the answer.

Well, new seamstress took one look at it, and told me what I had sensed all along (especially since I couldn't wear it without holding it.)

This fit was bad news bears.

The length was way too long, the sleeves did not fit properly, and it was obvious that I was not comfortable since the top kept slipping off. The funniest part was when she told me to tie my hair up and I told her "I can't. My arms can't go up." I showed her and she looked at me with pity and said "oh dear."

Long story short, it's getting hemmed, and the sleeves are being de-poufed (which the last seamstress claimed could not be done.) She also tried to solve the falling off my shoulders dilemma. "Oh! I have something that will work!" She came back with a really thin ivory string with pearls and beads on it. "We made a dress for a client, this was leftover from hers." It matched my dress, and she pinned it to the back to make my shoulders stay up. For the first time, it actually looked like the dress fit me. I'm trying it on again next week, and am going to decide if I want the thin piece of string or not.

I had put this off because I knew I needed to pay more money, and I am embarrassed at how much this one dress has cost, but at least after seeing a new seamstress I feel better. I hope she does a good job and doesn't shaft me.

The other bummer is that I returned my shoes. The pearls kept snagging the lace, and so I need a pair of flats that don't have embellishment. That also means no Vera Wang shoes. :(

As a final note, during the fitting, I got a little sad because she asked where I was from, and if anyone had come with me to the bridal shop. I told her my family all lived up north, and I didn't have any relatives here, so I was by myself at the shop. "Sometimes it's hard when you go alone, you can't really tell how it fits when you're all by yourself." (She asked some other ladies in the shop to comment on how my dress fit, so we had different opinions on how to keep the dress up.) Anyway, it made me sad because it reminded me of going shopping for my prom dress by myself, and I remember bumping into my friend and her mother at the mall and her mom insisting that I shop with them for the rest of the day. (For the record, my Mom did go back with me to the mall, where we did buy a strapless lavender dress that I basically loved so much I wanted to sleep in it.)

Planning a wedding is so emotional, it's been hard doing it alone with my mom and sisters away and with a boy that spends a majority of his time within the confines of a lab.

Is anyone else doing a lot of the planning solo? And, what do you think about using the thin ivory strap to keep the shoulders up?