Short Dress Bride

12Aug08

I wasn’t always imagining myself as a short dress bride, I once had the fantasy of the big poufy ballgown dress, but as I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized that i would look like a marshmallow in one of those dresses, and that also, they don’t fit in with the kind of wedding I want to have. Sure, I’ve had the dream of the fancy schmancy wedding with everyone dressed to the nines, but it’s not who I am, nor is it who the boy and his family are. We are humble people who do not live fancy schmancy lives, so why pretend? I also don’t fancy the idea of a dress dragging behind me like a dead fish. I want to be light on me feet, not dead tired by the end of the day.

I love the idea of a Sunday brunch reception, or a Friday night champagne and dessert reception, but that’s probably as fancy as we would get, everyone in cocktail attire. I really am hooked to the idea of an outdoor wedding, but I’m not sure if that will be able to happen, as I’ve mentioned, my finger is still ringless! So depending on when that ring lands on my finger depends on when we will get married. We’ve already looked at rings and will be engaged by the end of the year according to him, so we’ll see!

I’m hoping for late summer early fall of next year, but in my journeys on the internet, I see so many brides who ALREADY have their weddings booked for next summer and fall, so this might limit us, and might force us to have a wedding that is fully in fall (read mid-October or November), thus no outdoor wedding as we live in Virginia, not Florida. I’m sure you’re wondering “why not just wait until the following summer?” Well, I am not the typical 25 year old bride. If I was, sure, I could wait. But the boy has told me he wants us to be married for at least a year before we try for children, which I agree with. I am 32 now. Sure, women have babies later all the time now! But I’m hoping to have my first before I’m 35, hence me not really wanting to wait another full year before we get married.

Okay, enough babbling already, here’s today’s inspiration board.

The dress in the center is my dream dress, it’s from Stephanie James Coture. While I’m not certain of the exact price of this dress, I know that it’s over my budget. It’s not a $6,000 dress, so it still might be doable if I budget for it, but I don’t know if I could spend that kind of money without feeling terribly guilty as it will be a dress I wear only once. I love this dress exactly as is, with the green ribbon, as I don’t want my wedding to be pink overload!

All of the dresses surrounding the Stephanie James dress are far more reasonable. My favorite is in the far left, from the Chinese wholesale site Light in the Box. The price is a whopping $82, but they won’t let you buy less than 3 dresses, as it is a wholesale site. Still, at $246 for three, you could sell the other two on ebay and make a profit. This way you could also buy dresses in a couple different sizes to be sure to get one that fits. Still, I am hesitant to buy a dress online from China, because what if I get it and it’s scratchy against my skin and cheap looking?

My second favorite dress is in the far right corner and is from White House Black Market and is only $158. I could find a crinoline to put under the dress to give it a bit of extra oomph.

Who knows, I may try on a fancy ballgown and fall in love with it, but I doubt it. Being a budget bride makes being a short dress bride more practical, as the dresses tend to be less expensive.

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Tags: ceremony attire, weddings