Frankly my dear - I do give a damn!

First, I want to introduce you to the inspiration behind my reception dress:

Behold - the loveliness that was known as Michelle Roth's Maya. It's no longer being made but even if it was, there's no way I could afford it. And even if I could, I wouldn't be able to stomach paying lots of money for a reception dress. So I looked for alternatives. Here's a copy done by Julius Bridal:

This is only $354 when you factor in shipping. I've read several reviews of Julius Bridal and some people have been very happy with their dresses, while others haven't. I still felt slightly queasy spending that much for a reception dress so I talked to my seamstress and asked her if she could make me a dress. She said that for under $100 (plus the cost of the fabric), she could definitely do that. I just had to find the fabric - white polka dots - not to hard to find, right?

Wrong. I searched through Joann's fabric department. I asked several internet savvy sewers to see what they could find online. I scoured ebay. Nothing. So on the advice of some friends, I headed over to Mill Agent fabric store. They sell fabrics for home furnishings. I automatically started imagining something like this dress, just in white:

I spent about two hours looking through at least 60 fabric sample books. I knew it had to be sheer so I only checked the sheer curtains books. When I walked out of that place, I was covered in lint but had found about four different fabrics that might work. I brought those pattern books over to the seamstress and she told me that two of them would work for the dress. One was a tiny swiss dot material. The other was this:


I liked this material but it was a fairly dark ivory. I really had wanted something that was more white and something that wasn't $24 a yard. But it looked like I might have to settle because it takes 6-8 weeks to get this material ordered. I ran by Jo-Ann so I could check out some patterns and get an approximate idea of how much I need to order. Here I am pretending like I know how to read patterns and sew:


I decided to look in the fabric section for material for the dress lining and on a whim, checked out the home decorators fabrics - something I hadn't done the first time I visited. The Boy was the hero and spotted this:


Score! $24 a yard with 50% off of that price! And this fabric only takes two weeks to get in. I walked out of there feeling so relieved. I hadn't wanted to spend a lot of money on a reception dress because it seemed so frivolous - who the heck needs two wedding dresses? If I can do it cheap though, I don't feel too guilty. My regular wedding dress weighs a ton and there's no way I can bust a move into the dawn hours in a huge, heavy dress. The only thing left to do is pick out the lining material and the crinoline netting (I'm thinking dark red) and I'll be good to go.