Special things don't have to be expensive

As much as I have long been looking forward to marrying the lovely man that I adore, there's something else I've been anticipating even longer: Getting to buy a wedding dress.

Now, I realize that the dress is just part of the theatrics of the day and that the vows and the promises are so much more important. But still. I'm a girl who loves dresses and a wedding dress is the mother of all dresses.

So, my Best Woman (That's right, because she's married with children, but is way too young and hot to ever be called a "Matron" of anything.), her Cinderella-loving 6-year-old daughter and I started the search pretty much right away. Finally I had a reason to wander into the fancy looking stores and try on all the gorgeous gowns and stand on that weird pedestal thingy. (Why do they even have those pedestals? Sure, it may show you how the trains flow to the floor, but does anyone actually stand on a pedestal at any point during their wedding? Wait - I probably don't want to know the answer to that!) I'll admit that I didn't go in with a budget in mind, which every episode of "Say Yes to the Dress" warns you against, even though those brides accidentally go over their $6000 budget with an $8000 dress and I wasn't planning to get anywhere near those kinds of figures.

Anyway, our first stop was The Dressroom on the Danforth where we received incredible service from a really nice woman named Sarah. She knew that it was my first time trying on dresses and that we most likely wouldn't be buying anything, but she pulled dress after dress off the floor and helped me get into them and then debated the pros and cons with us. Even though my favourite options at the end of it all were the first two that I chose, she encouraged me to try on every kind of style, if only to truly know what I wasn't looking for.

I left with thoughts of one winning dress in my head. Price tag for said dress: $900 before alterations, which I'm told can run up to $400-$500.

We headed down the street to Becker's Bridal, where the service was considerably less attentive, although we were just showing up without an appointment, so I have to cut them some slack. I tried on a few more dresses, including a variation on the first winning dress that was so much better. It also came with a bigger price tag: $1,700 before alterations.

And so the stress began. Because I simply cannot spend $2000+ on a dress for one evening. While I don't think that's outrageous for a gown, it is outrageous in the world of me. As much as I want to have a special dress that I love, there's a whole long list of other money-needing things that I want to have more.

So I checked out more stores and saw lots of dresses, both beautiful and hideous, but I was really just looking for a more affordable version of the $1,700 dress. I kept telling myself to put it out of my mind, but there is was, demanding attention. I even went back to try on the $900 one after having a dream that I bought it, but it no longer even seemed special enough to spend $900 on. I turned to the Internet and ordered a very simple dress for closer to $450, thinking I could add some accessories to make it my own, but I was worried that I would regret not having a true "wedding dress" experience.

Long story even longer, I decided to check out another place today. Recommended by a friend, this was an outlet on Orfus Road called My White Dress where every dress in the store was priced at $299. I gave myself a little pep talk before going in and decided to open my mind up to all possibilities again, rather than just looking for a version of the $1,700 dress.

And now I have a wedding dress hanging beside me as I type this.

I BOUGHT A WEDDING DRESS!!

Total: $327 and change.