Let's Fall in Love: Evolution of a Wedding Dress

I bought my wedding dress a year and a half before the wedding day.  The thing is, however, I didn't see my wedding dress until the week before.  How does that work, exactly?

This is the dress I ordered:

Only when I tried it on, we thought it would look better like this:

And also better in ivory instead of champagne.  So then I waited.  The designer (Jasmine) had to approve the changes and then place the order.  We got the thumbs up and the waiting continued.  I struggled with an epic case of Dress Doubt for the next four and a half months.

But then the call came.  The Dress was in.

And it was pretty good.  But then again, it could be better.

 So I ordered more organza, and made the sash wider.

But still, I wanted more.

So I added little satin buttons down the back, which came from my mom's wedding dress.

 And decided I needed a bow and long organza tails too.

And when we first tried the bustle like this:

I went ... meh.  Turns out, it was a huge pain in the hoo-ha for the seamstress too, since there was an unattached layer of organza over the train.  I was dead set on a French bustle, but in order to make it work, she had to get creative.

So then it turned into this:

Just a little more ... complicated.  There were roughly ten points of bustle in there.  One layer French-bustled, the other layer over-bustled.  Oh, and the tails from the sash were pinned up too.

Because the alterations work, especially the bustle, were so complicated, the seamstress was doing work basically until the very last minute.  We had to wait for her to finish when we went to pick it up.  I did not see my finished dress until I put it on the morning of my wedding. 

I had anxiety about all of these changes and alterations from the moment I ordered it, until the moment my mom helped me step into it.   But then the dress was on.  My mom zipped it up.  And it was magical.  All the stress, all the nervous, all the "will I look fat," and "I hope it's right" ... it all went away. 

And this is the dress I wore on my wedding day.

(all photos care of family and friends)