Purchase a Suitable Wedding Ensemble: Achievement Unlocked

First off to answer J's question about a date:  There is no date yet.  There is one very important thing that needs to happen before we can set a date- Honey needs to get his K-1 Fiance visa.  We're gathering all the information, filling out all the forms and so on and so forth and plan to petition for it soon.  I'm not going to detail everything that we're doing, but I will keep you all posted on highlights.  I'm not even going to hazard a guess at a time frame as you never know what happens with these sort of things until they happen.

The most important thing that needs to happen when Honey receives his visa is that we have to marry within 90 days of him entering the US with it.  When it does happen, the wedding will go down as quickly as possible because there are a boatload of other things that need to go down immediately after the wedding too.  Because of this, I am trying very hard to get as much of the "little stuff" out of the way as soon as possible so that when we do get notice of the visa, we can move quickly on the more important things like venues, flights, and getting family and friends from all over to the wedding.  To simplify things as much as possible, we're having a very small wedding.

So far, we have the wedding rings.  Priorities, priorities - with those and a license, we can run off to the court house if we need to do that.  I think our collective families would kill us though.

Anyway, back on topic now please.  The most important of the "little stuff" for me personally is having something nice to wear.  I have never had an easy time buying clothes for my shape.  My torso is rather potato shaped so it is usually hard to find things that not only fit, but are comfortable and don't look like, well, a potato sack.

Side Bar! 
I know what I like and I know what "used" to look good on me when I had a shape way back in the day a few years before I got pregnant.  Fitted bodice, fitted skirt.  Once upon a time, I had a true hourglass figure for about 2 years.  In my mind, I still see myself with that hourglass figure.  But that was 20 years ago and now age, perimenopause, sloth and so on and so forth has perpetuated the spud look I sport now.  I had to reign in the fantasy and think of what I could actually wear with my current shape.  I decided to look for something with just a tiny bit of shaping to keep it from looking like a fancy sack.

Yesterday Antonella, Spencer and I met up in the City to spend the day shopping for dresses.  I was set for a rather trying day.  Quite honestly, I expected to be reduced to tears in a dressing room somewhere by the time the day was over.  Much to my surprise, we were very successful very quickly.

Bam!  The third dress tried on at Macy's (the first store we went into) was purchased.

Bam!  The shoes bought at DSW match the dress perfectly.

Just for the record, that has NEVER happened to me. EVER!!!!  Here's the way it usually goes down when I need to find something "nice" to wear.  Go to every store in town, try on everything in my size, go home empty handed.  Cry myself to sleep and whine that I'll never find anything.  Repeat several times until finally it is the day before the event (sometimes a few hours before the event), try on something that mostly fits, buy the damn thing and be extremely uncomfortable the entire time wondering if I took off all the tags and hoping no one will notice that it really shouldn't be a maxi-dress but I didn't have time to hem it up and I hope the safety pins keeping the v-neck from revealing all can't be seen.

Anyway, we were done by about 2:30 pm and we went off in search of iced tea and to sit and chat and relax while I pinched myself over and over because I could NOT believe I already had a dress that I LOVED and shoes that I LOVED and both of which FIT and were comfortable - and within budget.  No more nightmares that I would be wearing a new t-shirt from Old Navy and a new pair of jeans while my Honey was in a suit.

All I will say here about my dress is what my Honey is allowed to know so he can get a coordinating tie.  It's silver.  He says he's getting a silver tie to wear with his dark grey suit.  He'll look awesome, and for once, so will I because I'll be COMFORTABLE.

The best part of my ensemble is that I can lose weight, gain a pound or two, or even bloat up like a balloon and the dress will still fit.  In other words, I can continue on like I have been for awhile now and I'll still be able to wear my dress.  It has just enough shaping to NOT look like a potato sack, but enough ease to cover my potato torso.  Oh, and there is a very lovely, very light jacket that hides a multitude of sins.  If by some miracle I actually manage to lose weight, a tailor can still take in a bit here and there and it won't detract from the original shape of the dress.  On anyone taller, it would hit at the knee, but because I am short and wide and needed to get a larger size, it comes down to about mid-calf on me.  I don't mind it, so it will not be taken up.

I can now concentrate the dress energy back towards hair and makeup.  Lord knows that needs a LOT more work and I still need to find a good lipstick.