THE dress and how it came to be

So today I bought my dress! After visiting 8 stores (in 4 cites) and trying on countless dresses, I found it. I found it in the flagship store of Amy Kuschel in San Francisco. I had never heard of this designer before, but on my hunt for pre-owned wedding dresses, I found a pretty dress by her. Intrigued, I checked out her website only to find that dresses bought in her SF store are custom made for each bride, but don't carry a couture price tag. While browsing her site, I found a style that I loved almost as much as The Jillian from my last post. I had to wait 8 long days to get my appointment to try it on, but boy was it worth it.

Once there, I was treated very well, better than any store down Miracle Mile. And the actual store is situated below their pattern/dress making floor, which is very cool. I was put in about 8 dresses total. First, I put on the dress I picked out online and really loved it. I then proceeded to try on the other dresses. At this point, I know very quickly if a dress works or not on me. None of them were for me. I put on the first dress again and then I knew. How did I know? Well, it was just me. Not overly ornate (in terms of wedding dresses), with a touch of whimsy and old school glamour, all while being pretty darn modern. Plus it had the requisite bit of drama in the back. But the real "tell" was my physical reaction to it all. I felt nauseous and even faint while they took my measurements. I couldn't stop my hands from shaking! The funny thing is that last time I had that nervous nauseous feeling was when I first started dating Ralph. I felt so ill, I couldn't eat and lost about 10 pounds. So I feel that it is fitting that the gown I am going to marry him in gave me the same feeling that he gave me 10 years ago.

In the end, I am going to have The Hayworth custom made to my unique body. They took about 15 measurements so far. And after 5 or so fittings, I will have a dress resembling something like what is pictured below, but better (click on the images to make them bigger).....

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It looks like I am popping out of this. But for some reason, my consultant kept pulling the dress down - don't know why

So after all was said and done, I met up with Ralph, still all shaky, nauseous and faint. He thinks I am ridiculous, by the way, for having that sort of reaction. All the same, he took great care of me as we toured the city...

Not a bad day!