the dress has landed!

I repeat, the dress has landed! Well... it landed two weeks ago, but it is here!!!

If you've forgotten, you can catch up here, but in short, this is the custom made spankin' deal dress from China purchased via Ebay. Yah... could we have gambled more? :-P

(Source)

I am happy to report it came out pretty well. :] I will say now that it is not perfect or the most fantabulous dress I have ever tried on in my life, but it is white, pretty, $160, and it will do. Now to some, that might sound sad, like I'm settling or even putting up with my dress. But in truth, the dress itself is not a high priority on my wedding list of must haves and it's much better than settling on some man who is white, pretty, worth $160, and will do right? HAHA jk jk.

So it came in this!

Yeah... its as small as it looks.  And classy too, eh?  :)

The customs form.  hahah.  Tim and I were like... the declared value is $10?!  $10 US or $10 RMB (Chinese yuan)?!?  (The exchange rate is ~1 Chinese yuan = ~ 0.15 U.S. dollars.)

Anyway. I don't want to post pictures (sorry!) cause Tim randomly frequents here but you can see how it's suppose to look like here (granted the link doesn't expire). I tried it on after it came and it fit okay. Tim was actually here! at that time and being the traditional guy he is, he didn't want to see it, so he was hiding in my room while my mom helped me try it on upstairs, but it was only a brief try on, and my mom didn't lace up every hole to see how well it fit. (Yay run on sentence!)  I thought the boobular area was a bit strange... like the points of the busts seemed too close? But then when I was shifting it around, it didn't seem too bad. (And I was the one who sent in the measurements!) The fabric is light, and the chiffon layer on top is nice. I had read horror stories of custom China dresses that came back with with lead-like fabric that was waaay heavy. (And the one I tried on at David's Bridal was actually kind of hefty.) The beading/design work is very nice, and actually is on the front and on the back (running down the lace up back area).

It seems a bit long, but I didn't try it on with shoes yet. I'm kiiiinda regretting the lack of a train cause they look so pretty in pictures, but I'll live. :] Now the biggest issue is that the skirt part of it... there seems to be a lot of fabric. Like to the point where it's making me wider than I am because of the bulge of excess fabric. I will try to try the dress on with an under-skirt poof thing (borrowed from our officiant/pastor's wife!) and see if that helps it. If it doesn't, I'll get it altered, which will hopefully be like $40 or so. (Bringing the dress total to $200, oh my! haha).

I just need to deflab my arms, have nice hair, and I'm sure the dress will look just fine. :) It is actually quite nice. This is definitely not for someone who is super picky about their dress or has a very specific design in mind. If you're pretty easy going about your wedding dress, this is definitely a very budget friendly option. And while all brides want to look pretty and have their dream dress, don't forget why you're having a wedding in the first place!  (Marriage, commitment, relationship... big party, pretty dress, flowers, la la la)

Have you gambled on anything (to work out for the best!) for your wedding? Or in your current stage of life (for the rest of the world who aren't planning a wedding)?