Community: Real Life

Buying the dress


Ellie and David

Ellie has been with David for three years and they've decided to tie the knot. She tells us how planning the big day can turn into something like a military operation.
Entry: 3

With meringue-mad shop assistants and a competitive mother in tow, can Ellie really find the dress of her dreams?

I don't know where all the time is going. I swear it was October just last week but I've just realised that I've only got four months left before the wedding and I'm still not organised!

Apparently you are supposed to begin your quest for the perfect dress a year before your wedding date, but as we only began organising things seven months before the big day I keep playing this rather crazy game of catch-up and never quite succeeding. It's awful. To add to this, I had this horrible mental image in my head that buying a wedding dress was going to be torture.

Now I'm not the largest girl ever, but I've most definitely got Hips And Boobs, and as I booked the appointment I could just visualise how it would be - gorgeous dresses all around me but I'd be confined to the big fat heifer section. I know that people are supposed to cry when the bride arrives dressed all in white, but definitely not out of pity. I smiled ironically when the woman said that she didn't like bridesmaids coming to the first appointments because they tend to get jealous, but mothers of the bride don't. It was actually making me even more nervous that my mum would be there with me; while our relationship has improved no end in the last few years since I moved out, she still has this huge competitive streak in her. I didn't want to have the comments about my weight, or how I could get a much nicer dress if I dropped a size.

"It was a slightly surreal experience, standing there in bra and knickers while two women ran around pinning things."

It was a slightly surreal experience, standing there behind a big curtain in bra and knickers while two women ran around, poking and pinning things, and shouting when I kept slouching. Next I was being paraded out in front of my mother in a series of scary meringue-type creations; but somehow I survived it. And it was worth it all in the end, because I found my dress! I would love to tell you all about it but I have the sneaky suspicion that David would find out, so it will have to remain a surprise. I'll just say it's the nicest thing I've ever bought and I wish I could wear wedding dresses every day.

It's also the most expensive piece of clothing I've ever bought and I'm petrified that I'm going to ruin £600 worth of dress by spilling red wine over it. Apparently that is not very much money for a wedding dress, but it is definitely a lot of money for me. It's just a good job I've only had to pay for half of it so far!

My three best friends are my attendants, and we've managed to find their dresses too. I'm quite tempted to buy one for myself because they are gorgeous, and hopefully they can wear them after the wedding for posh dos and the like.

My main wedding-related task for the foreseeable future is to get incredibly thin, which is no mean feat with Christmas coming up. Anyone who has ever dieted at this time of year will probably feel my pain, and I have the feeling that watching what I eat might well go out of the window. If I've put weight on by the time I go for my next dress fitting, I know that the scary dress shop woman will probably start slicing bits off me. Hopefully that thought will make me strong enough not to succumb to all the lovely mince pies and Christmas dinners and puddings, and Yule logs... OK, OK, it's not going to happen. I'll just have to hope that she'll use anaesthetic!


Bookmark with:What are these?

Also on TheSite.org