Dress Stress, Part II: The First Fitting

(Are you a guest at my wedding, or Mr. Spaniel himself? If so, please go away now. kthxbai.) :)

I've already told you about my little meltdown about the bridesmaid dresses. For me, the late bridesmaid dresses (and the missing sash) felt like major catastrophes, even though I objectively knew that I had tons of time and a million options for resolving the problems. My rational brain was just not switched on when it came to the girls' dresses. But my rational brain was on when it came to my own dress—I didn't panic when the dress came in months after it was promised; I just got angry.

I bought my dress on layaway in late August, after declining the bolero, which I was quoted an extra hundred dollars for (I knew House of Brides included the bolero for Allure 8601 in the cost, so I didn't see why I should pay more for it when I didn't like it enough to pay extra money anyway), and was told the dress would arrive in late November—about 12 weeks later. In the meantime, I came in every month to dutifully make my next payment, and in November I asked when I could expect my dress.

"Oh, it should be here in 12 weeks... beginning of February."

o_O Wh...WHAT???!!!

(source)
I usually go with the flow, even when I don't like the answer, but I think I had a mini-stroke right then. It was probably the first time I ever actually confronted a wedding vendor about the discrepancy between what I was promised when I forked over my money and what I was being told now. Would that be enough time to finish my alterations? What if it came late? How would they make me whole if I didn't have a freaking wedding dress to wear? And how was I going to think of enough to blog about with three more months to wait for my dress? (You can see I managed to think of a few things!).

So thank goodness when I called the shop at the beginning of February, I got the response I expected the first time I asked the question: "It has already been shipped and will be here by the end of the week." And even better when it did, in fact, arrive at the end of the week and I was able to schedule a fitting for this past weekend!

(personal photo)
The first thing I noticed when I walked into the dressing room with my gown hanging in front of me? The bolero. (It's that little lacy thing you see hanging behind the dress.) It was included. Sneaky saleslady tried to get me to pay another hundred dollars for something that was free! (See, ladies? It pays to do your research!) The rage hat came back on, but this time I kept it to myself: I didn't want it to disappear by the second fitting and held for $100 ransom. ;)

But now that I got that part of the story out of the way, I can tell you that seeing my dress (again? for the first time?) was such a happy moment for me. With the weight of my wedding chores building up on me, I haven't been enjoying the last few weeks of planning as much as I think I could, but getting my beautiful wedding dress was just... joyful. It definitely needed some alterations (I had to order three extra inches of length even though I only needed one, and despite all my newfound buffness it still needed an inch let out in the hips and waist), but trying it on felt just amazing (in between gasping, that is... that bitch was tight!).

Oh, you would like to see?

The front
(photo by Mama Spaniel, who couldn't find the lens on my Droid camera and so took a picture of the mirror instead)

The back/French bustle
(photos by me, when Mama Spaniel finally gave up on the Droid camera altogether)
I love it. Do you love it? :) I still can't decide what I'm doing about the bolero, though.

How did your first fitting go, if you've had it? And if you didn't, how do you expect to feel?