My Dream Dress, Part IV: The Post You've All Been Waiting For

At some point in January, I was making my bi-weekly pilgrimmage to the Stephen Yearick site and noticed that my dress had been TAKEN OFF THE SITE. I freaked out. I called Kleinfeld (where I knew they carried Stephen's designs) and they had gotten rid of their sample. *GASP!*

Luckily, one salon in the city was still carrying it. This new development put me into crunch time as far as making a decision went. So I decided to show my MOH the dress on me, since she still hadn't seen it in person and I needed her honest opinion. She is decidedly the voice of reason within my bridal party and I knew she would be honest about what she thought. When it came time for the big reveal, she was practically speechless. She managed to eek out "I was wrong. It's totally worth it." and I knew what I had to do.

Mr. Star, who has to be the most supportive man on the face of the earth (he's the only reason I finally decided to apply to blog on Weddingbee!), gave me his blessing to start slashing money out of our budget in other places so that I could get the dress I had been dreaming about for years (years? can you believe it was long enough to be years?).

So we:

Decided to make the bouts -- Savings $50

Decided to make the invitations -- Savings $300

Bought awesome rings off of Ebay (story on that later!) -- Savings $800

Decided use parents' timeshare membership to get resort weeks in Greece, instead of doing a cruise -- Savings $500

Are using my makeup friendor instead of hiring a pro -- Savings $150-200

Have an officiant change (story on this later, too!) -- Savings $250

TOTAL SAVINGS: A little over $2k

All of these things made getting a dress that was over budget within reach.

(Photo Credit)

What the dress looks like on the uber tall and thin model -- talk about drama, right?

(Photo Credit)

The photo of the sample dress in California that I didn't buy, just to give you a more realistic idea of what my actual dress will look like (in ivory and in a smaller size than the one I'm about to show you)!

Please ignore the stark white color of the sample and the veil on my head that's totally not my style. Unfortunately, you can't really tell how form-flattering this is from this angle, but this is the only picture I have of me in the dress from the front because we weren't supposed to be taking pictures at all!

The drama of the back! Yeah, my hair is different because this is from a different day. I told you, I'm crazy and needed to see my dress more than once. Again, it's a strange angle, but it's all I've got until my first fitting in a few weeks!

Now that is one happy bride.

Okay, that's the wacky actress coming out again. I'm saying, "It's March and I SERIOUSLY have to wait until September to see this again?!?" Oh, and did I mention that my bridal consultant calls me "Stephen" because that's how I refer to the designer? Yeah, even she thinks I'm a little nutty.

So for all of you who totally blew your budget on that one item you just had to have, dress or otherwise, I'm with you, a sister in solidarity. Sacrifice other budget items to get it, if you have to. I don't regret it one bit. For those of you more practical ladies who either never felt that way about a budget-buster or who were able to overcome your impractical side, I applaud you. Miss Star is not so strong :)

Does your dress search have an equally happy ending? What did you splurge on for your wedding?

Previous Parts in this story:

Guilty as Charged

The Rejects

Save Me, Internet!