The dress that almost wasn’t
November 30, 2008
There’s so much to share with y’all, I really don’t know where to begin. We’ve been planning this thing for 7 months already, and we still have 7 to go.
I suppose I can start where I started, with the dress. I’ve always loved wedding dresses. Yes, I’m that girl who has been looking at wedding dresses since she was 12. In all fairness, I was engaged once before (to Mini Crab Cake’s dad) and tried on a few dresses then. I never found the one and would not have worn it to wed Mr. Crab Cake anyway. But I knew what I liked then, so I figured I’d like the same style’s now.
I was so wrong.
I started looking at pictures online almost immediately. I didn’t look at anything with beads or lace and really didn’t want a train. Minamalistic and simplistic was what I was looking for. I also wanted ivory.
And I wanted to put off actually trying on dresses as long as possible.
About 3 weeks later, I gave in. I had about 45 minutes to waste in town (we live about 30 minutes out) before I met Mr. Crab Cake for lunch and decided to go browse wedding dresses.
The first dress I tried on was a Casablanca.
Y’all, that dress fit me like a glove. It hugged every one of my curves and supported my D’s with grace and elegance. I might honestly have given up right then and there and bought the first dress I tried on if it hadn’t been for my consultant.
She took one look at me and ran off. When she returned, she had three or four dresses with her. I will go ahead and apologize now, I don’t know which ones they were, and I don’t have any pictures. I hadn’t told her what I thought I wanted. But she knew what I wanted. And it was this dress.
It is everything I didn’t think I wanted. It’s beaded, corset back, semi-cathedral train. So completely not me. The only thing it did have going for it was that it is gold.
I loved it from the moment I put it on.
I couldn’t just buy the dress right there. I was alone. I had no one’s opinion but mine and the consultants.
I left, and drug Mum Crab Cake back about a week later. This time, we got pictures!
author’s personal collection
Mini Crab Cake insisted on trying on dresses with me. Although that dress matches mine nicely, it didn’t entertain me that much. She actually wanted this dress with a bubble hem made out of tulle with silk petals loose in the bubble. It was hideous.
Anyway, Mum didn’t cry, but that’s not how we Crab Cake women are. She approved and the dress was purchased.
It arrived in August and I went to pick it up. Thank God I decided to try it on before I left with it, because it had a huge stain on it. Yeah, you read that right. I stayed calm and my consultant freaked out. Alfred Angelo agreed to take back the stained dress and send me another. It took forever.
But it all worked out in the end, and the dress is safe in my house. I have it stored in a canvas dress bag and hidden in my daughter’s closet. Mr. Crab Cake is pretty adament about not seeing the dress or even pictures of the dress until the ceremony, so I don’t have to worry about him snooping.
Here it is hanging in the door to our office/craft room the day I brought it home.
Did anyone else pick out a dress that was not what they had originally thought they would like?
