So.. a little back story about my dress. I’ve had this dress since early 2008 when I bought it for my friend’s wedding.. She wanted it as her bridesmaids’ dress. I ended up not being in the wedding and despite several futile attempts to sell and give away this dress -it was still hanging in my closet when it came time to write up my wedding budget.

Let’s just say that already having a perfectly good dress and spending $1000 on another dress (I think I want – because I haven’t actually gone to try it on) – seemed silly to me.. And with a great seamstress – I can totally look JUST the way I want to look – fabulously chic and elegant.

So… I have a perfectly good J. Crew Dress:

Which will look totally different once my seamstress (FMIL) is done with it. We’re adding crystals to the waist, a very beautiful and sparkly lace train and matching veil and dropping the shoulders. I also have one more surprise planned that I’m going to keep secret until the reception (of course I’ll be sure to post pics after the BIG DAY).

And let’s just say that I paid more for the fabric (at 50% off than I paid for the dress) because evidently J. Crew wasn’t impressed with this dress and put it on clearance way back at the end of 2007 and then brought it back at full price about a year ago.

So – discounted dress WINS over $1000 dress and TOTALLY helps keep us close to our 12K goal.

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Technorati Tags: Bridal Gown, DIY, Dress

I took a MUCH needed break from wedding planning this past August. We just had too much going on: 4 weddings (including one in Vegas), enjoying the last days of summer and gearing up for the fall. Just a few days shy of my Sept. 1st return to planning – I went out with the FMIL (future mother in law) to check out fabric stores. I have my dress but it’s a little plain. So she offered to revamp it for me and make it FABULOUS. We were able to pick up the crystals she’ll be adding, fabric for my train and fabric for my veil. I absolutely LOVE the fabric and I was able to get it 50% off at Joann’s. I’ve never been so excited about a textile in my life!

I have ONE goal for the month of September – FIND SHOES. For some reason it has been very difficult for me to make any types of decisions when it comes to the style of footwear I want on the BIG DAY. I can’t even narrow down color and style. I’ve actually been online browsing the last 4 months.. but I decided that it’s time to BUCKLE down – especially since it’s the end of the season and I’ll have to wait until next spring if I want a chance to snag a summer shoe.. and that’s a NO-GO because we need to start my dress soon and we can’t hem it without my shoe. So – every weekend in September will be devoted to finding THAT shoe. I’ll keep you posted on my shoe journey.

~DetroitGyrl

(PS. Joann’s has a magazine on sale for $2.99 – it includes 6 coupons (including 2 50% coupons) – totally worth the $2.99)

Possibly Related Posts:

• Found a Wedding Dress Preservation Box – Should I Buy it?
• Roma Sposa on Groupon Today!
• Nice Hanger Now, Nice Pictures Later
• 4, 3, 2…. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days! (oops – this was drafted 1/19/2011)
• Shoe #3