{insert high pitched girly squeal}

The dresses are done and being shipped!!! Here’s how they turned out.

First, my dress (don’t tell Morgan):

I cannot wait to get it back here and try it on!!!!!

Here’s Kira and Chris modeling the finished bridesmaid dress and the finished suit side by side:

Add a little peacock feather fascinator and some strappy sandals (for her, not him) and we’re gonna be good to go.

Phew. What an enormous relief to have that done!

The Dress. For Real this time.

Okay, so the dress I picked out from a picture on the internet did not so much translate into an actually flattering dress when Kira had it made by the Vietnamese tailor and tried it on. I’d show you the picture she sent as proof but she would kill me.

After calling me in a panic at 1 am (it was 10 am where she was) to discuss the situation, she sent me a pic of a dress she thought would fit all my criteria, but be more flattering, more forgiving of the fact that we are all in our 30s and ain’t none of us skinny models anymore, and would just generally work better.

I couldn’t actually look at it when she called (computer at home is not working so well), so I spent a sleepless night tossing and turning in anxiety. Kira couldn’t afford to stick around this little town in Vietnam too much longer, and she was already doing us a HUGE favor by arranging to have the suits made and the dresses made. If I ended up not liking this dress she’d found, we’d probably be back to my looking at department store dresses online, which would be more expensive and not necessarily guarantee a flattering dress.

Morgan had to listen to me wailing, tipsy, at 3 am, about how it was all a disaster and we were never going to find a dress that everyone would like, and…

Well let’s just say its speaks more to his character than to mine that he is still willing to marry me.

So. The picture she sent me turned out to be this dress:

My initial reaction was, “Wow. Simple, summery, elegant, thai silk, wrap dress. Brilliant. Just brilliant. This is like a shorter version of the dress I’ve been drooling over (but can’t afford) for my wedding dress.”

and then, “Now I wish I got to wear a bridesmaid dress so I could get one of my own.”

And then, “Oh CRAP. What if the girls don’t like it?!?!”

I sent it out with an urgent message for people to give me a thumbs up or a thumbs down. Holly and Briana both like this dress MUCH better. Phew. Holly said “YAY! Halter!” and Briana said, “Yay! Thai silk!”

So, then I got to thinking (and this is where its a good thing that Morgan never reads this blog because I’m about to ask you to keep a secret):

Why can’t I just have them make me a longer version of that dress in white with a peacock blue sash to match the girls’ dresses? It will be much cheaper than the dress I keep mooning over in the window at Lena Medeyoff’s on 23rd. And the dress is SO similar… with a few additional details that I think will make it even easier to wear and more figure flattering.

Still. Its a huge leap of faith. I mean, buy a dress sight unseen that will be made on a continent 18 hours away and shipped to me? Am I NUTS?

But. Then this little voice whispered in my ear, “That’s what getting married is. Its a leap of faith. Go for it.”

So. I decided to do it. But it meant that I had to get measured RIGHT AWAY. Fortunately, I work in a theater. So I popped down a flight of stairs to the costume shop where the Paula and Fuschia were able to slip me into a dressing room, take incredibly detailed measurements on this little chart they have, and get it all done in about 5 minutes.

Emailed it off to Kira and felt a huge weight lift. Considering that I have been looking at and thinking about wedding dresses for a year or more, it feels strange to have it be all decided and done. But good too. Like, I can’t back out now.

So. SHHHH. Don’t tell Morgan that Kira’s getting my dress made. It will be out little secret okay? I have no idea what I’ll tell him.