Towards the end of Summer 2008, I went for my first try on of wedding dresses with my mum, we were browsing through all the dresses on the rack, including bridesmaid dresses and I pointed out the colour (hot pink) to her. I said how I wasn't sure I liked it any more and that I REALLY wanted to have purple. So she suggested looking in catalogues and on the high street as purple was going to be the colour for the winter season! Who knew that my mum was so bang on trend!
So I started scouring the high street online... Monsoon, Coast, M&S, Debenhams to name a few and in my mum's catalogues to. Lots of purple - but not the right purple, not the right length, not a suitable style that would suit all 4 BMs, not the right price - lots were still over £100... I was starting to panic now - typical me - 11 months to the wedding and already panicking!! (＞。≪) I thought I would never find "the dress" for my girls...
Then mum said, why don't you try Kaleidoscope? So I did and there, on the landing page of their website was this purple dress....
My eyes popped out of their sockets! It looked the right shade of purple, it looked nice and floaty and airy (ideal for a summer wedding), it had a similar bust style to the original dress we all picked out, it was available in all my BMs dress sizes and best of all it was only £65!!!
I sent a quick text to all my girls asking for dress sizes and that I'd found the dress. I ordered 4 straight away - and an additional one for myself - I loved it that much!!
So the wait was on for the dresses to arrive. I started worrying - what if they were nothing like the picture, what if they were horrible in real life... what if, what if, what if???
They came after about a week and I rallied the girls round to try them on - had to send one up north to my best friend who lives 200 miles away from me... but they all liked the dress, they all fit and need no alterations at all, the mission was complete and our wedding colour went from hot pink to PURPLE ＼（＾ ＾）／
TTFN xx
Purple has always been my favourite colour - I don't know why, or when the obsession started, but I always envisioned that purple would be "our colour" at the wedding... it didn't matter where the venue was - purple would be it. I was also very particular - it had to be purple, not lilac, and it had to be a certain colour of purple... I gave myself a challenge!!
Then I started to look for all things purple - with not much luck - I couldn't find the "right" colour purple... and so abandoned that and went for hot pink - because it was bold and vibrant and I kept seeing it in the magazines. I started the hunt for bridesmaid dresses and found this selection by Alfred Angelo:
And this one from ???? I can't remember where now, it was so long ago!
I phoned several stockists to arrange fittings for my 4 bridesmaids asking if they had any of the dresses in the hot pink so I could see what it looked like in "real life" I could only find one!! So off we all went and they tried them on.... although I was mis-told and they didn't have the dress that I preferred in the hot pink colour - but they did of another dress....
Here are 3 of my BMs in all their glory (excuse silly socks and bra straps!)
We then decided that the style best suited to all 4 girls was the silver dress on the left, but in the hot pink. However, this was also the most expensive dress at £150 PLUS alterations!!! With 4 BMs, I just couldn't afford that, nor justify the cost as it would be highly doubtful that they would wear them again!
So I started on the online hunt, even considered getting them shipped from the USA, but then panic over that set in - what if we got them and I ordered them in the wrong sizes, or if I didn't like them when they arrived....and what if I didn't really want hot pink...?
But the main thing was the cost - £600 plus alterations (up to £100 per dress!) was too too much... I had to start looking elsewhere...
TTFN xx
