Weeks to Wed Pt 4: Finding the Dream Dress

Back in the days of having pay TV, most of my shows consisted of food, fashion and science drama (of those Daniel hates the latter the most). Hours have been spent watching Say Yes to the Dress, Four Weddings, Bridezillas, I Found the Gown and whatever else there may be. It made me happy when I watched the brides find their 'dream dress' and I hoped that I could do the same! So here we go with the most anticipated post in this series (I think). ;)

So far:

Part 1: The Proposal

Part 2: The Ring

Part 3: The Venue

So apparently us girls start planning our dream weddings as soon as we could put on our mum's jewellery and heels? Not me, as my mum didn't wear those things. I found a picture of my dream dress one day whilst I was browsing the interwebs waaaayyyy back in 2006. I printed off that picture and stuck it to a wall in my bedroom and it's still there at my parents' house. Oh the memories!

What I loved (and still love) about this dress was how elegant it looked. I love the mix of silk and lace and textures and love the strapless! The silhouette is beautiful with a tight bodice and free flowing bottom. I couldn't visualise myself in ball gowns or mermaid dresses and I'm surprised my tastes have not changed too much.

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In January this year, I went on my first ever wedding dress hunt with my good friend Miss L to Penrith Bridal Centre which is located in the Greater Western Sydney region (about 50 minutes from Sydney on a good day). I found this store simply by searching through google, blogs and directories. After reading this post from A Wedding in Wonderland, I quickly made an appointment for a consultation. I knew I had limited time to find this elusive dress as most people say to get one 9-12 months before the wedding, and I had 6 months! Eeps! The lovely Vicki was my consultant for the day. We had a look in the sales section of the store but didn't find anything that I liked so we ventured out into the 'big girl store'. Here are some dresses that I tried on.

I fell in love with this dress when I saw it on their website prior to the appointment. It is called Pasadoble by Roz La Kelin. It was more beautiful in person!! I wasn't completely convinced with this one even though it ticked a lot of boxes. Oh the lace! Vicki was definitely cheering for this one.

This beautiful champagne (I think... or light rose) number is by Wendy Makin called Sabrina. I wasn't looking at the colour as it's not my style but I loved the lace bodice and silk bottom. A cool thing that I found out about her dresses are that the tops and bottoms can be swapped between dresses. This didn't work out for me as the bodice went to low on my torso as I'm short and made the dress look weird.

Another Wendy Makin number. This one is Santina. I loved the lace top!!! There were so many layers to the skirt. It made me look like a princess! 

For something different, I tried on Adrianne by Karen Willis Holmes. Vicky wanted me to try on a different silhouette. This dress was very fitted to my torso and down to my hips. The bottom was very pretty but too much tulle for me. I love the belt detail!

I think I tried on about seven dresses during my appointment. Pasadoble and one other were favourites but I found the former a little..... too sexy??? Hahaha, I'm not sure if that's the right word for it. It looked beautiful on but I didn't feel right about it.

I also went to another bridal boutique in Wollongong. It was a quick visit, only trying on one dress as they didn't have the style I had in mind.

So I went back to Penrith Bridal Boutique a week later with Daniel's mum and tried on the dress the wanted to get! It's an off white, flowy A-line dress with lace on the top and three layered chiffon skirt. My dress was kind of rushed ordered (from Spain!) and it made it to the store in April. Thank you to the lovely ladies at Penrith Bridal Centre that made it possible! 

I tried on the actual dress last week and had alterations done. I will pick up the dress at the end of the month! The lightness of the fabric made it very hard to find underwear for it so it didn't show up (lol)!! I can't wait to reveal the dress to you in a couple of months!!!!

All images curtesy of Penrith Bridal Centre website and the respective designers.

What's your dream wedding dress or what did you wear for you wedding?

What were you wedding dress shopping experiences?

xxx Kat

Tips for Wedding Dress Shopping (my own experiences)

• Research different styles of dresses and find those that you like and let the consultant know
• Do try on styles that you don't like
• Dresses on the rack are sooooo hard to visualise and I skipped past many that I thought were not right
• Stay true to your style, make sure you feel comfortable in the dress
• Do have a budget - I was looking for dresses under $2000 but I didn't even know what the costs are for them! So I ended up looking at nice dresses around $2500
• Finding dresses at short notice can be possible!