THE Dress

Now that we know how I got here, let’s get to the good stuff. I do have a particular dress in mind. After looking at hundreds of wedding gowns online, I was not totally excited about any of them. They were nice and pretty, but nothing really stuck with me. I began looking at non-bridal collections and found a winner.

         On the runway.                              Tina Fey at the 2010 Emmys.

It’s from the Oscar de la Renta Resort 2011 collection; although, it’s a few steps up from anything I’ve ever worn on vacation. I do not want the organza overlay or any embroidery. What I love about it is the silhouette. I want to do it in an ivory (or some kind of off white) mid-weight silk.

I know that I want it to be close fitting from the top to mid thigh. I also know I don’t want much “puff.” I like how the lower part of the dress and the train seem to just hang rather than being stiff. I really do like the neckline and cap sleeves, but they may get designed out if they don’t look great in fittings. We’ll see. I’m not sure what other neckline I would want, though, if that does happen. Maybe a strapless sweetheart? A deep(ish) V in the front and back? Hopefully I won’t have to make any changes, but I’ll just wait for the fittings. I’m not crazy enough to think I’ll do this dress entirely on my own. I will be doing fittings with Sharon Blair at Portland Sewing. I will also be consulting her on technical and design questions.

So just how will I be tackling this project? Well, first of all, I would not be even thinking about doing this if we were planning on getting married in a few months. I’m not that much of a masochist. We don’t have a specific date set yet, but we are planning on doing it next September or October. Not quite a year should be enough to make the most important dress of my life, right? I sure hope so.