I just bought my wedding dress on eBay!

[BrightSpot]

Thanks for the reassurance, everyone--I feel better already! And thanks for the sweet compliments as well! You guys sure know how to brighten a girl''s day!

I was a little concerned that the pattern of beading/chiffon on the gown pictured on the eBay listing looked different from the gown I tried on, but a friend of mine pointed out that the gown was altered a lot (down 3 sizes) so maybe that changed the look a bit.

Anyway, I guess there''s nothing I can do until I get the gown. This wait is almost as difficult as the wait for the ring! (ok, not really...

)

In another note, I''m starting to get really irritated w/ my mom & gran about this gown stuff. They''re going out of their way to express their wishes that my gown be ivory, not white, not too fancy, without a train, not floor length (i.e. wedding gown length!?) etc because this is my second marriage. I know they don''t mean to be hurtful, but it''s really hurting my feelings. I don''t plan to wear a veil & this gown is ivory (frankly, I would''ve preferred white, which the etiquette sources I consulted said was fine for a 2nd wedding, but I couldn''t pass up the deal on my Tayla, which happened to be diamond white/ivory). It''s dressier than some of the gowns I was looking at & does have a small train, but it made me feel like a princess! Isn''t a girl entitled to dress up for her wedding, even if it''s her second time around?

I''m visiting them this weekend & am almost starting to dread it.

 

[Tybee]

Your mother and grandmother will get over it as soon as they see you in the dress.
I agree that not wearing a veil will make a difference, they''ll see, and they''ll LOVE it. Your dress was fate. Just breathe, it''s so easy for others to get us down. You have so much to be happy and excited about. Tayla is such a great choice.
You are going barefoot? I think I"m planning on flip flops-
I wish my dress would get here already. I can''t wait for yours to arrive, because I know that you''ll shower us with pictures.

 

[MelissaSue]

Brightspot - Don''t listen to your mom and grandma.. YOU CAN WEAR WHATEVER YOU WANT, even if it was your 15th wedding!! Its 2005! You could wear a big white princess ball gown if you wanted (although that might be a little hot for your DW) I think that tybee is right about them changing their mind once they see you in it. But you should just tell them that it is your wedding and you want to wear a real wedding gown!!
When do you expect it to come in?

 

[BrightSpot]

Thanks so much Tybee & MelissaSue. I feel much better now!

I agree with you guys...they''ll probably feel differently when they see me in the gown. And I really think this gown is a little different/nontraditional looking & not wearing a veil should help. (Do you think I could wear a tiara w/ it instead, or would that look silly in Jamaica?) I just sent a pic of the gown to my FMIL at her request. I hope she doesn''t think it''s inappropriate too! (though, she suggested that my FI wear "Fire Island formalwear" to the wedding--a tux shirt & jacket & shorts...I don''t think so.

)

And you''re right, MS, it is my wedding & I deserve to wear a real wedding gown!

Tybee, I haven''t decided on the shoe option yet. You were smart & already bought your adorable flip-flops! I''ve been looking around for a flat pair of sandals, but haven''t found one yet. I should buy a pair, though, because even if I go barefoot for the wedding, I''ll have to wear shoes afterwards for dinner. (And I don''t plan to change out of my dress that soon!) What is your FI planning to wear?

The gown is scheduled to arrive by the end of the day on Friday. I hope it comes before we go out of town (Friday morning or early afternoon), otherwise I''ll have to wait to post pics! But I''ll definitely post them as soon as I can!

 

[Tybee]

Fire Island formal? That is hilarious. My FI is still deciding. He wants to wear dark pants and a white shirt, probably linen. He has a thing for french cuffs, so french cuffs it is. He will be wearing flip flops as well. I''m putting my three nephews in the ceremony some how. They will also be wearing simple linen shirts, dark pants and flip flops.
I''m not sure about a tiara. I don''t think that wear one. I was thinking about a wreath of flowers or something like that.

 

[selflove]

Damn straight you can wear whatever you want at whatever numbered wedding it may be!

 

[BrightSpot]

Tybee, yeah, the Fire Island formal thing is funny, but I don''t think I''d be happy w/ that for our wedding.

Plus, then my FI wouldn''t be able to get into the restaurant for dinner--the dress code requires that men wear long pants! So I''m between a lightweight suit for him or maybe a Cuban wedding shirt & pants. My FI loves French cuffs too. In fact, I had an idea for cufflinks as a wedding gift, but I guess that won''t be really appropriate if he doesn''t wear a French cuffed shirt. Your nephews will be adorable!

I was thinking more along the lines of flowers in my hair w/ some of the other gowns I looked at, but the sparkles in the bodice of the Tayla just seem to beg for a tiara. I can hear it calling out across the miles...

Selflove, you''re right, darnit!

 

[MINE!!]

Good God Girl... don't listen...

MY wonderful southern friend gave me this advice when I got pregnant.. but I think that it will apply in this situation as well...
Everyone is going to have a complaint or some overbearing advice on how to live your life
You have to perfect the nod and curtsey method....
So next time you feel as if you are getting unwanted critisism or advice just~
Nod your head to agree with them .... and curtsy so they can kiss your a$$.


I know it is your family.. so it sounds harsh.. but even family needs a good nod and curtsey every once in awhile.

 

[BrightSpot]

ROTFLOL, Mine! (I truly am...)

Thanks for the smile....

I guess everyone always has opinions about other people''s wedding plans (or life plans in general!) regardless of the circumstances of the marriage. I just have to find a polite way of telling them that, while I appreciate their concern, I''m doing things my way!

It should help that I''ve already bought the dress & am not asking for permission or their opinions on whether or not to get this particular dress.

 

[Kaleigh]

As I have told you privately before, don''t let them get you down. The dress is gorgeous and will look terrific on you, they''ll love it, you''ll see.

 

[BrightSpot]

Aww, thanks kaleigh. What would I do w/o you & the other wonderful ladies of PS?

 

[flopkins]

Brightspot - I just wanted to chime in and say you look fantastic in that dress, and it''s perfect for a beach wedding, and it''s your wedding, you can wear whatever the frick you want!!!!

I can''t wait til you get in in Friday... hope all goes well with the post office!!!

 

[BrightSpot]

Thanks, flopkins! I''m pretty excited about the dress.

I can''t wait until Friday either! Actually, it''ll be more like Monday because I''ll be out of town this weekend--leaving on Friday probably before the dress arrives. What torture!

 

[BrightSpot]

Well, I have a bit of an update on my dress! It came in on Friday, but I was out of town for the weekend so wasn''t able to try it on until last night. (I had an anxiety dream about it on Sat. night...so silly!

)

I attempted to try it on last night by myself, which was quite an undertaking. I got stuck for a while

, but finally got into the dress. I wasn''t able to lace it up, though, so I don''t have a clear idea of how it fits.

So, here''s the good news:
*The dress is as-represented & an authentic Maggie. (and really pretty

)
*I like the diamond white color. It''s more of a soft white/light ivory than a cream. Yay!
*It doesn''t appear to be too short
*The dress is clean & new

And the bad news:
*The alterations might''ve been done strangely/a bit sloppily. It seems the hem may be uneven, but it looks fixable. There are a few other spots that need attention/stitching.
*The previous owner cut the corset laces!

The dress arrived laced very tightly (probably too tightly for me), then knotted & the ends of the laces were clipped. No bow, no streamers, nothing! They were kind enough to enclose the remnants. (as though to taunt me?!) So I''m not sure if I''m going to try to sew the pieces back together (would this look horrible and really compromise the strength of the laces?) or try to find something similar in a fabric store.

Any suggestions?

A friend of mine is coming over this week to help me try on the dress & lace it up for me. I''ll take some pics then & post them for you guys.

 

[Kaleigh]

Oh that''s a bummer. Guess the seller didn''t disclose that to you huh??? Sounds like it can be fixed though. I would take it to the best alteration place that specializes in wedding dresses perhaps. The other ladies will have much better suggestions I''m sure. I can''t wait for pics of you in it. Sure is a gorgeous dress. the other things sounds pretty minor. Good luck!!

 

[BrightSpot]

No, the seller didn''t tell me about the corset laces.

But I guess this problem is fairly minor (albeit annoying!) I''m not sure if I''ll have to have similar laces made or if I can find something at a trim shop that might work.

Yeah, I''m looking forward to actually being able to try it on too!

 

[gingerBcookie]

THat sux that they misrepresented that, but think of it this way, for the price you paid for that gorgeous gown, the laces are prob the easiest to replace. I bet if you decided to completely replace it, you would have no problem finding the replacement...talk to your alterationist for ideas! All in all it sounds great! Congrats on your dress and good luck with the details of getting it perfect!

 

[MelissaSue]

I''m sure you can find fabric to do the laces with. I see girls on the knot all the time that put pink laces in thier dress or whatever. It does suck that they cut them though. I can''t imagine why they would do that!

 

[Morticia]

Looks beautiful on you! Congrats!

 

[rms]

Hey BrightSpot,
I would think you should easily be able to get some kind of fabric to use for the lace. I would and will happily send you my corset lace from my dress to use...the only problem is that my dress is white vs. your diamond white. But you can always send it back to me if the color clash is obvious and doesn''t work.

I am happy to hear that the length is not a problem. I would think an awesome seamstress can make all the other needed adjustments to fix it up and look perfect on you...

 

[flopkins]

WTF? why would someone cut the laces?!! I would complain to the seller before you give feedback on the purchase.

In any case, it sounds like it''s a minor thing though, so glad the dress is fine otherwise.... I''m sure you can get a good seamstress to fix the other small problems.

Yay! Glad it got to you safely and it''s authentic!!

 

[AndyRosse]

Well, I'm so glad that you got the dress!!! I still dumbfounded as to why someone would cut the laces, but I think I would rather not know LOL... I'm sure this will be easy to fix, and all the other details can be fixed rather easily by a seamstress too.

So congratulations again! And I can't wait for some more pics of you in your actual dress!!

 

[Tybee]

Oh crud,
I''m grumbling right now. That really stinks!! The good news is that you paid a good price for it, and can probably fix it, but grumble grumble, I want to see you in it!
I hope that you can work things out to your liking.
Ty

 

[caligal]

I''m sorry they cut the laces!! Go to a seamstress- they will be able to replace the laces. You might actually find a prettier ribbon to accent it with. For shoes I''d go with something like this if I was on an island/destination wedding. Perhaps you can find something more delicate along these lines?

 

[BrightSpot]

Hi ladies,

Thanks for sharing my pain a bit in the corset lace dilemma! I still don't understand why someone would cut the laces!

Anyway, I took them out last night to look at them again & it turns out they were cut exactly in half. So I sewed them back together!

I don't know that I did the best job, but I figured I'd try them out this way & see how they looked/held up. I can always have a tailor redo them later. I think this might be easier than finding something different to lace up the back with, but I still have plenty of time to make that determination. Now I'm fretting that the dress might be too hot for Jamaica. It's always something with me...

Thanks for your sweet offer, Rita! I think I'll be able to make it work w/ my laces, but it made me feel so much better to know that there was an in-case-of-emergency option!

Caligirl, are those shoes are barefoot sandals? I'd love to have more information.

I've been looking at these shoes on Zappos. Do you think they'd look nice w/ my dress?

Link

 

[flopkins]

cute sandals brightspot! i like! plus w/zappos you can always return them if they''re not what you want...

i STILL don''t understand the cutting thing, but yeah, sewing it back together sounds like a great solution... I''m sure that it can be reinforced later on too... whew!

As for being too hot in Jamaica, I have no clue, but I wouldn''t worry about it - you''ll prob be too happy to notice!

 

[caligal]

YAY- glad you were able to sew them together! The shoes I posted are barefoot ones- which would be nice for a beach wedding. The ones you posted are cute too! I just did an internet search on barefoot sandles and pulled those up.

 

[BrightSpot]

Hey again!

Well, I was able to try on my dress last night w/ the help of a friend. After a few amusing moments of me stuck in the dress waving my arms around like a crazy person, we were able to get me laced in. The laces I sewed together seem to do fine. (actually, they were probably long enough before once I got laced in, but how was I to know?) Here''s the scoop.

Pros
*The bodice fits really well. Yay for corset laces!
*The length seems good. I tried the dress on w/ my Dr. Scholls sandals to approximate a tiny heel. (I just ordered the shoes I posted above from Zappos--I think the 3/4" heel will be just right!)
Cons
*The dress looks light as air, but it actually quite heavy. Due to the amount of beading on the bodice & the corset back, I understand that the bodice would need to be fairly heavy, but the skirt is really heavy as well. There are 2 layers of chiffon over one layer of heavy satin over one layer of thin polyester lining. My friend is afraid I''ll pass out from heat exhaustion in this dress in Jamaica & I fear he might be right! He had an idea of removing the heavy satin layer in the skirt & replacing it with a lighter fabric. Do you think this could be done?
*Another issue is that the dress is a size 12, which was altered to fit a size 6 person. So the bodice fits perfectly (love the corset lacing!), but the skirt is still basically too big for the dress (and my body). It bells out a bit strangely & I can see where the skirt has been altered & it looks odd. This is especially obvious in the back of the dress where there''s just too much fabric. It doesn''t look like a full skirt to me, but a slim A-line that''s too big. I hope this can be fixed too.

Any ideas?

As for the train, I''m considering having it bustled, or even cutting it off entirely. It seems a shame to remove the train, but that would definitely make the dress more manageable on the beach.

Ok, here are pictures of me in the dress:

 

[BrightSpot]

Here''s the back of the dress w/ train. We were running out of space in the room to get the whole dress in the picture, hence the photo of me pressed against the wall!

 

[BrightSpot]

Side view. See what I mean about the extra fabric in the skirt?