Finding THE wedding dress

To be honest with you, I never dreamed of getting married one day. All I ever wanted was to find someone I could love and who would love me back (I love you Davidson ). I’m feeling lucky whenever I look back to my solo trip in South America 3 years ago where I met Davidson. And I’m always amazed by the timing of everything…

But anyway… let’s get back to the main topic of this blog post 🙂

What to wear when you’re under 1m60?

The one thing that was making me feel nervous about our wedding was to find THE dress that will fit my “shortness”. Since I’m only 1.50m tall, I was afraid of looking like a walking ghost. So I (literally) checked on Google “wedding dress when you’re under 1m60”. I wanted to know which type of dress could fit me. At the end of my research, I understood that I should be aiming for:

• Something fluid, V-collar: so that it creates some vertical lines and this helps with making you look taller.
• No volume: otherwise I would look like a ball or a meringue.
• High waist: to give the illusion that I have longer legs.
• Short dress: for obvious reasons ^^

My budget

Ideally I wanted to find a dress around 300€ but by checking on Internet and watching some wedding TV shows, I could see that it would be more like 700€ (minimum) in a traditional wedding shop.

I decided to try 2 shops: a traditional one and an unconventional one 🙂

My first tryout: A traditional wedding shop

I booked an appointment on Internet and I was asked to pre-select some wedding dresses.

On D-day, I tried most of the dresses that I pre-selected but none of them looked good on me. So, the woman in charge of me started to make me try so many different dresses that were waaaaay out of my budget (and ugly). Sometimes I really looked like an old curtain lol

I must’ve tried more than 10 dresses in a little bit more than 1h. I couldn’t visualize myself in any of them. The fact that I was trying dresses that were too big for me (size 40-42 when I’m size 36) didn’t help though.

At the end of my appointment, I was left with only one option: a dress that was costing 1400€ with 400€ worth of tweaks (BUT!) on the house (lol).

In my mind I was like “really? lol I said 700€ maximum and the best she could offer was a 1400€-dress? Are you kidding me?”

I didn’t feel like she listened to what I said. It felt like she just wanted to sell an expensive dress to earn her commission.

The only good side of this appointment though is that I realized that a strapless dress could look well on me too. So it helped me to shortlist the dresses I were to try for my next tryout.

My second (and last) tryout: Graine de coton

Unlike the first shop, at Graine de Coton you can rent your dress. I thought the concept was perfect for me because I never understood why women buy an expensive dress that’s gonna be used only once and only for a day? Am I the only one thinking that way?

But anywaaaay… ^^

I booked the appointment on www.graine-de-coton.com. I had to pre-select up to 10 dresses and it said that during the appointment I’d be able to try only 5 of them.

On D-Day, Laura (the owner) displayed the dresses I pre-selected and told me to hide the ones I didn’t want to try. In the end, I was left with 6 dresses to try. 2 of them were short dresses, that’s why she allowed me 6.

What I liked about this place is that you’ll try a dress that’s actually YOUR size. If your size is 36, you’ll try a 36-size dress. And not a 40 or 42-size dress. So it was easier for me to project myself.

Then second good point is that the store was open only to us: Laura, my witness and I. It was really cozy. I loved it!

Which dress did I choose?

It’s with no surprise that I found my dress at Graine de Coton: Bianco Evento – Peonia, size 36

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It was just perfect on me: right size, high waist, very simple, fluid, not so many details but just enough thanks to the added top.

Just perfect.

And the price?

Right into my initial budget: 308€ 😊 I couldn’t be happier.

Final words

If you’re like me and don’t see yourself spending a fortune on a wedding dress, I highly recommend Graine de Coton (or any other wedding shops where you can rent).

I was really worried about not finding a dress that I would like AND in my budget. In the end, I really found THE dress for me, plus at a minimum cost. It couldn’t be more perfect.

Thank you Graine de Coton for the amazing experience 🙂

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