The first of many, I'm sure. As if I really need a disclaimer, but I'll post one anyway: I am not a traditional bride. Bet the two kids and six years of cohabitating before marriage gave it away, right? We are not going to have a traditional formal wedding, costing tens of thousands of dollars. In my opinion, that is RIDICULOUS. Aisle runner? No thank you. Monogrammed napkins? Never. Tchotchkies with our names on them that will sit around your house and serve no purpose? Negative ghost rider. That said, I cannot help myself from buying in a little bit to the wedding complex, after all, I am somewhat of a girly girl.
This brings me to the conundrum: the dress. THE dress. My God, there is a whole two hours of shows every Friday on TLC specifically devoted to obtaining the dress. A big part of me rallies against that, thinking that it's obscene to spend the price of a car on a dress that I'm going to wear for, what, 5 hours? That's also the part of me that loves DIY-ing, loves the earth, the moon, and the stars. The ethereal eco-friendly earth mama Leah. That Leah loves dresses like this:
Simple, yet elegant, and also not costing a small fortune. The cut would look great on me. Throw on a crown of daises and boom: Earth Mama Bride. Granted, I'm not getting married in a meadow, but in a synagogue. But the feeling would still be there, and I would feel beautiful, which is perhaps the most important thing. And heck, I could even wear this dress again, it's not so formal that I couldn't wear it to a party with a colorful belt and a cardigan - that is, assuming I have time and a social life in the future with which to attend parties.
So then, why, friends, why, did my heart flutter and jump when I saw this?
OH MY GOD IT'S BIG AND POOFY AND HAS RUFFLES AND IT'S BLUE! CERULEAN BLUE! I WOULD LOOK LIKE SLEEPING BEAUTY ON AN ACID TRIP!
It represents stereotypical femininity, the stereotypical bride (well, except the blue), and completely buys into the idea of what a wedding 'should be'. But I cannot help myself! This is the part of me that loves neon and sparkles, the part of me that paints my nails before every night that I work, full well knowing that all the hand washing will destroy them before the end of the night! The part of me that wears huge gaudy earrings and leopard print! The part of me that loves to be ridiculous simply to be ridiculous! This is Sparkle Leah.
How do I reconcile these two parts of me? Not to mention that there's also Budget-Minded Leah and Anxious Mama Leah (will I be able to pick up the boys in this dress!?!?) trying to influence my decision. Well I do know this much: I want color in my dress. Perhaps not the whole thing (though a part of me still thinks that would be AWESOME!), but at least the tulle underneath, assuming there is tulle. Where would I even find such a dress? The interwebs? How does one even buy a weddin' dress off the net? Without trying it on? Oy. I suppose I will start with somewhat typical bridal salons locally and go from there. Try and find some local boutiques. Needless to say, I have a lot of thinking to do - and hopefully a lot of trying on poofy dresses.
Wish me luck, dear readers.
Leah, let me start off by saying, imo, the first dress is hands down a million times better than the second dress in so many ways (but then again, i'm not a "poofy" type of person, so that makes my opinion biased). :o) Second, I think the first dress is so fitting for you, your lifestyle, and a synagogue wedding. Also, you are a creative person and there are tons of ways you can dress up the first one with color! Make a ribbon sash in the color of your choosing, maybe add a satin ribbon of the same color to your hair, add one or a few flowers to your hair, buy some tulle or even colored satin and create a second lining under the dress. Any of those options and more! Plus, you could consider dying the dress a different color so you can wear it again and again post-wedding. The style of it would work great for that! I believe a number of craft stores sell fabric dye kits. Here's a former bride who dyed her dress and has used fabric dye for other house projects: http://www.younghouselove.com/wedding-album/
ReplyDeleteThere are lots of options for you to be practical without missing out on the fun aspect, if that's the route you decide to go. I know it's still early in your planning, but just wanted to let you know I'm rooting for you! Glad you are blogging again!
I totally understand Leah!!!
ReplyDeleteAmazing. Did you see that one episode of My Big Fat Gypsy wedding where the girl was marrying into the gypsies and wasn't actually a gypsy herself. So she tried to have the biggest gypsy-ist dress to rule them all? It had light up butterflies and the woman who designed and made the dresses had to follow her around with a fire extinguisher 'just in case'. I freaking love that show.
ReplyDeleteWhich synagogue are you getting married in? Our housemate goes to one kind of northwest. For some reason I thought it was the one you had your bat mitzvah at but I wasn't 100% certain.
One of my friends pinned a peacock inspired bouquet. It was fabulous. I'm not huge into weddings but I keep thinking about that bouquet because I want to make it. I want to make that crazy thing and I can't explain why.
We're getting married at Beth Tikvah, it's the only synagogue on the northwest side...in fact the only one not on the east side, I believe! It's the synagogue that I grew up in. Hey, I get the need the make crazy things. I didn't think I was that into weddings, but pretty much everything cool that I see, I think "I'm gonna make that!!!"
DeleteDo it! Make it all!
DeleteYeah, I'm pretty sure that's Miranda's synagogue too. Although I'm like, Miranda, we live right next to Bexley, why are you driving so far out of the way? (She really likes it there and I get that, it's a nice place.)
Holy crap, during Rosh Hashanah we couldn't even park on our street. I guess we live next to an orthodox synagogue. Found that one out the hard way.
But yeah- totally make it all!!
I think there's nothing wrong with looking at lots of dresses until you find the right one. Go to shops, try them on, keep looking online or on tv or in magazines, and you never know what you may find :)
ReplyDelete