The Perfect Wedding Dress

From the moment we got back from holiday the search for the prefect dress began. I had a good idea in my head what I wanted, but finding it and it not costing the earth was the challenge.

I took to the internet for some inspiration and with a little help from some friends, I’d soon found some top contenders. On our trip to Scotland to look at venues I ran some of the ideas past Jilly and she was most definitely in favour of one particular dress. I had to agree it was stunning, but all I had was a google image, and no idea of where I could actually buy this elusive gown. Frustrating!

Back in the office, I got chatting to the ladies in my team about this (Fliss, Paula, Karen and Ali) and soon had them all googling. Fliss saved the day, finding the exact dress available to order custom made on ebay… from China. I wasn’t too sure about the whole China thing; seemed a little bit of a risk especially with the price being too good to be true. But Paula told me her niece had done exactly the same thing and that the dress had been stunning!

A few days later, Darren and I made the trip down to Ramsgate to visit Mum and Dad in their new house and I ran the dress past Mum. She loved it. And so I took a leap of faith. Mum helped me get my measurements and I ordered the dress… and started the frustrating wait for it to turn up. I got a little bit nervous when communication with the company was less than straight forward; a definite language barrier going on. But a couple of weeks into November I got home from work one day to find a package waiting for me.

Pulling it out of the packaging, I was stunned. It was beautiful. Everything I’d wanted and hoped for. But then disaster, it didn’t fit! I was devastated. No fault by the dressmakers, they’d made it exactly to the measurements we’d supplied. Just so exactly it was literally skin tight in places. I guess we should have added some extra, but we didn’t know.

Arriving at work the next day, I broke the news to the ladies. Fliss remembered a dressmaker based at Holme Grange Craft Village that she’d used before for alterations; worth a try! And so a couple of days later I brought the dress into work — the ladies loved it! — and took it down to Pins and Needles, with Fliss along for moral support. From the moment we walked in, the lovely ladies put me at ease. They took one look at the dress and assured me they could help. Such relief!

Several fittings and some excellent alterations, I have the dress I dreamed of. I simply can’t wait to put it on and walk down that aisle.

For obvious reasons, I can’t give anything away… so you’ll just have to wait and see!