Wedding Dress: Check!

Like whoa.*

*Note: I considered leaving this post at that, but then I decided to give you a few more details to chew on (though not too many!) - I mean, it is the wedding dress. A checklist item this big merits at least some explanation. For the record, though, this initial statement pretty much sums it up, and so you may stop now if you wish; no further reading necessary.

A few weeks ago, as mentioned in this blog post, I bought a dress in New York City. Bought. That's not the same as finding the dress I'm going to wear on October 30 (although, it might be). Any dress I buy or heavily consider is subject to a rigorous obstacle course of tests paneled by only the harshest and most scrutinizing of judges (i.e. Lauren, Sarah, Melissa, & Courtney).

Here are the 10 stages of wedding dress selection, according to, well, me:

1. Earmark catalogs, magazines, or books, and/or capture screen shots from online galleries and stores.

2. Select promising gowns off the rack. (If satisfied, skip to step #4; if still panicking, go to step #3.)

3. Enlist your friend, sister, mother, or sales associate to select a gown off the rack for you.

4. Try on selected dress. (Eek!).

5. Take pictures of selected dress and/or dress feature while you are wearing said dress. Important for when you get home and realize you've completely blacked out most of the dress-shopping experience.

6. Bring home information about the preferred dress (stock number, price, size, etc), and "sleep on it." This step may be skipped altogether if you get either, a) overly excited and credit-card-happy, or b) overly nervous and credit-card-happy.

7. Purchase the dress. (Omg!).

8. Invite trustworthy friends and family over for mimosas. Get them tipsy. Try on the purchased dress in front of them, and make them tell you the truth.

9. Conduct the Mom Test. Try on the purchased dress in front of Mom, and cross your fingers she doesn't think it's too tight, low, sexy, modern, or any other common motherly clothing worry.

10. Do your happy dance on top of your living room couch while no one is looking. Voila! You have yourself a wedding dress!

Pre-New York, the furthest I'd gotten with any dress was step #6, with a few gowns not getting past #1, and several gowns dying after #4. Looking back, I was far from close. But I knew I'd find my perfect fit in due time.

Brutal, yes. Overboard, maybe. But do I feel amazing and confident and ecstatic with my purchase? Like whoa I do.

Just think, I haven't even picked out jewelry, shoes, hairstyle, makeup...