A gorgeous dress for gettin' hitched...

Before I move on from our honeymoon recaps to our wedding recaps (yay!), I want to share the story of one detail of the wedding I didn't reveal in advance: the dress.

I've already written about our whirlwind two day shopping experience in NYC.  I loved every minute of it and had blast trying on so many gorgeous gowns.

But it all came down to just one gorgeous gown for me - Amsale's Penelope.  (Lots of photos ahead!)

After walking out for the first time in Penelope.  

I am not smiling a whole lot in the photo above, mostly because I was desperately trying not to let the waterworks run!  It turns out I was one of those brides who just knew when I put the dress on that it was the dress.  You know what I'm sayin'.

Penelope was actually the first dress I put on at my appointment at Amsale, and I got crazy butterflies when I looked in the mirror.  I remember just saying "ohh..." to Emily, my consultant, as she zipped it up.  She smiled at me in the mirror and said "Wow, right?"  I walked out to my mom and two bridesmaids, and they all said pretty much the same thing!  I swallowed hard, tried not to cry, we took the picture above, and I went back to try on more gowns.

None of the others held a candle to Penelope.  So I put Penelope back on again, and headed back out to my trusty advisors.  They couldn't stop smiling.  And this time Emily brought out a veil.  Now, I know from watching too much wedding-oriented tv that this is often the moment that totally seals the deal, and boy did it ever!  Who knew what a huge wave of emotion that simple veil would bring!  I started crying, my mom and the girls started crying, and it was pretty obvious to everyone that we had found the dress.

Tada!  Totally the dress.  Look at that smile!

We also loved the back:

The gorgeous back.

And Emily did a little demo of the bustle:

All the while, I couldn't stop smiling (once the tears had melted away!)

Yup, I'm a goner.

I finally got back into my regular clothes, and we let Emily know we'd more than likely be calling her back, but that we wanted to finish out our two final appointments for the day.  In my heart, though, I was sure we had found my dress.  At the final shop that day, I re-tried on a dress that we had seen on day one that was a close number two to Penelope.  Chicago J held up a photo of me in Penelope while I stood in front of the mirror in the number two gown.  And Penelope totally won!  (Thank goodness for digital cameras!)

My mom and I happily went back to Amsale the following day to place the order.  I was mostly just excited to put the gown back on!

Here it is!

Still as pretty as the day before.

Mom gets creative with the mirror.

I took one last picture before we left the salon, knowing it would be a loonnng time before I would see Penelope again!

So much prettiness.

Fast forward almost nine months (!!!) and I finally set foot back in the Amsale salon for my first fitting.   My very own beautiful Penelope was there waiting for me, and it fit absolutely perfectly!  No alterations necessary, except for adding in the bustle.  No taking in, letting out, or hemming - at all.  How crazy is that?!  Clearly it was meant to be.  (Just like my wedding ring.)

So glad to see Penelope again. 

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Trying on all the accessories too, just to see how they look with the dress.

Setting the bustle.

Ready to go off and get married!

So that's the story of my dress - which I still absolutely adore, even two months after the big day.  It was my gift to myself for the wedding, and I felt simply beautiful wearing it.

How did your dress search end up?  Did you just know your dress was the dress?!