When I left you, dear readers, I was in a dress-hunting slump. I was wondering if there was a "perfect" dress out there for me and how I might ever find it. I hadn't been able to find anything that even slightly resembled what I was really looking for in THE dress.
It was at this point that I decided that I had to at least try the Stephen Yearick lovely on. I was secretly hoping that it would look frumpy on and I would be able to get over it, but alas, no such luck. When I turned around and looked in the mirror in that perfect dress, I cried. I never thought a cynic like me would be such a sap, but tears of relief and joy and anticipation and comfort and excitement flooded out. I could picture myself marrying Mr. Star in that dress.
This did nothing good for the struggle within me between the practical "an article of clothing should not cost more than we spend on groceries in a year" Miss Star and the romantic "but I've known since I first saw it that this was my wedding dress" Miss Star.
So I got to work. The obsessive-compulsiveness tendencies in me that you all already read about in regards to my perfect shoes? Yeah, that side of me was unleashed on the wedding dress hunt, as well.
I stalked sites like:
I even put out an Etsy Alchemy request looking for sellers who might want to make me a replica and got several responses, but chickened out at the thought of all the things that could go wrong. What if it came out to be nothing like what I had asked for? What if it didn't fit like the real thing? What if...what if...what if??
I googled the hell out of Stephen Yearick and the magical style number, which I had clearly memorized by now. Mr. Star had memorized the music that plays on the Stephen Yearick site and could instantly tell when I was just dropping by to say hi to my dress. Did I mention I was obsessed?
Yup, that's the designer, Stephen. Yes, I pretend we're on a first-name basis. Yeah, I'm definitely a bridal stalker.
At one point, I thought my quest was over. I found an Ebay seller that was a bridal shop in California -- and they had several different Stephen Yearicks listed for sale, but not mine. So I emailed her on a lark and asked if she had my particular dress and, lo and behold, she DID! The shop was selling their sample size 6! She sent me pictures and it was every bit as beautiful as I had remembered it being. Trouble was, even after some negotiating, she still wanted about 2/3 of the retail price for the dress, not including shipping from California and the hundreds of dollars of alterations I would need to make it short enough and small enough for little old me. In the end, I decided I wasn't willing to risk spending thousands on a dress I hadn't seen for a savings of only a few hundred dollars :(
The chances of me somehow getting this dress in my budget were getting slimmer and I was getting seriously bummed out. Not to mention, I had family members and even my MOH (who's usually always on my side!) telling me that it was way too much to spend on a dress and that I should find something else. Maybe they're right, I thought.
Did you stay within your initial dress budget? Did you get your dress from a bridal salon or from somewhere more crafty?
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