gowns

so here's that lacey dress that we had seen at blush. the owner sent me a photo, right, but never indicated the designer. i ended up finding it by happenstance online to be madina vadache, and here's another two photos of it on some vancouver bride taken by chris and lynn, photographers that i am considering. i ended up finding it also entirely by chance at voletta, a high end, designer couture wedding store in seattle near the university that carries dresses upwards of $16,000 including vera wang, oscar de la renta. not only that, but apparently she's a seattle-based designer and can customize her dresses, and has, in the past, made this dress in a mermaid style. that being said, i'm not crazy about the dress; the skirt fabric is kind of bulky, physically and aesthetically when compared to the delicate top, and nothing like the silk shantung of some of the other designers. it runs an "affordable" $4600 or so.

here's a dress by st. pucchi. i adore the top, but here, bulky is an understatement for the bottom, although it does have that couture wow factor. i adore her collection because it's so unique, and if you're going to drop several thousand on a wedding dress it better look the part! the fact that i found that vadache dress on a vancouver bride made andrew question if all brides end up wearing the same few gowns. the downside is that there are no shops in washington, but, lo and behold, blush carries them!

i googled "blush west vancouver" the other day to try and find the url to their website, and my blog was the first one that poppped up! so i guess my opinions could hold a bit of power. the owner wasn't overtly rude, but there were definitely some disdainful undertones. she told them to change out of their bridesmaid dresses even though i had wanted them in them to compare to each dress i put on, saying that they could change back when i found one i liked. and on top of that, she flat out told my bridesmaid to stop touching the dresses (being overtly rude), and she somehow insinuated that my perfectly proportioned maid of honor, jenn, was obese even though she fit perfectly in all of her one-size fits all (aka everyone is a size 8-10) bridesmaid dresses. i think her exclusivity to vera wang and melissa sweet in british columbia is solely responsible for her business because she is not a dress consultant i would ever recommend.