It was very different for me. I was 19 weeks pregnant when I got married, and my situation was different. We had a 3 month engagement and planned the wedding within 2 months, so I didn’t have time to wait or shop around. I went to 1 shop, tried on 2 dresses and 2nd one was the one. We got engaged 13th January 2015, set the date mid February 2015, and got married 9th April 2015. As soon as the date was set I went dress shopping. I knew I’d have to get a sample dress. Luckily I knew exactly what I wanted so it was easy for me. I went to a local independent bridal boutique, I tried on 2 dresses and the 2nd dress was the one, fortunately they were happy to sell me a shop floor sample, even though it meant they would no longer have it for other brides to be to try on.
I had always known exactly what I wanted which was a pure white strapless tulle ball gown with a sweetheart neckline, subtle sparkle all over (didn’t want it to look very silver as I knew I’d be wearing yellow gold jewellery), boned bodice, zip back and long train. For me my dress had to be white, not ivory or any other shade of off white, I couldn’t and wouldn’t wear anything but white.
I’d looked on the website and saw a couple I liked a lot. The first dress I tried was the one in the first picture I showed them. It was a beautiful dress but I didn’t like it as much in person as I did in the picture. But the sample was only in ivory. (They said most of them were because not many wear actual white anymore). And as I didn’t have time to order it in white I had to decide between trying a different style of dress that had a white sample (which I didn’t want any other style at all), get the ballgown in ivory (again I wanted to wear white not anything else). Or the third option which was try the only ballgown that the sample was white.
So they got it out. It was the one I’d looked at on the website and didn’t like, which is why I never mentioned it to them. It looked way too silver in the pictures and I wasn’t keen. But when she held it up I loved it. It looked so different in person so to speak. So I tried it on, and instantly fell in love with it.
I also knew type of veil I wanted, long, the same length as my dress train, sparkly and two tier, as I wanted to wear the blusher over my face to walk down the aisle. They had a perfect one in ivory that I tried on with the first dress. Obviously I didn’t want that dress but I did want the veil. So they looked to see if they had the same one in white, and they did.
It was everything I wanted and more, a pure white sparkly strapless tulle ball gown with a sweetheart neckline, boned bodice, zip back and long train. I also got a perfect veil, same length as my dress train, sparkly and two tier, as I wanted to wear the blusher over my face to walk down the aisle.
My wedding was 9th April 2015. My first fitting was mid March, my second was the end of March and my final fitting was 5 days before the wedding as I was pregnant and wanted to keep the zip back on my dress as I don’t like corset backs at all. It was way too big when I got it, it needed to be shortened, and taken in all over, especially around the bust area. The in house seamstress did a fantastic job.
When it was finished you’d never have known it wasn’t made to measure, it was perfect.
I was so happy I didn’t have to compromise at all on my dress or the type of back just because of the short time frame and with me being pregnant. I didn’t want to. And I was so comfortable in it. I didn’t want to not wear my dream dress just because I was pregnant.
I never worried at all that it wouldn’t fit. I literally trusted the seamstress who promised me it would fit perfectly, and it did.