How I Found My Wedding Dress
My husband and I got engaged in November 2019, four months before the world was about to change. I got distracted during the holiday season and did not do much wedding planning, but by the first week of March 2020, we had booked and paid for our wedding venue, caterer, and church, our wedding was scheduled for September 2020, and I had 7 bridal appointments planned for the third week of March.
My parents and siblings were home in Florida, and my mom had booked a flight to New York in May to help me find a wedding dress.
Two days after my first bridal appointment on March 13, 2020, I received 6 emails stating “We are rescheduling your appointment. We are closed for business through March 30. We will keep our brides updated on schedule changes as we receive new emergency directives from the city.”
Fast forward to June 2020, and the emails said “We still do not have an exact date for reopening … we highly recommend booking a virtual appointment with us.”
By mid-June, I started to lose hope, but bridal stores in New Jersey were opening up.
We spent the last weekend of June in New Jersey searching for a dress, and that went well, I was very close to making a purchase, however, I felt that I had yet to find “my” dress.
By early July, a few bridal stores in New York City called to invite me to see their ‘sample’ dresses from previous years – but none fit well.
On July 6th, I stayed up late browsing online for dresses, and a video caught my attention. The following day I reached out to the designer inquiring about it and was told that because the dress was a new design, it was not available in stores yet, their stockists likely did not even have it, and a new one would be ready in six months.
With 3 months until our wedding, I called each of their 16 stockists spread throughout the United States, and none had this dress – except one – within driving distance from NYC!
On July 11th, we drove to the bridal store in Darien, Connecticut, and picked up my dress!
Isn’t that incredible?!
GETTING READY DETAILS:
All my fittings took place at the Connecticut home of one of the boutique’s seamstresses, and due to the pandemic, my mother was never able to attend any of them.
My fiancé and I drove from New York to Connecticut to the seamstress’s home and made the best of it by exploring and grabbing lunch in the nearby towns.
The veil I wore is from my sister. She wore this veil on her wedding day in France.
I wanted the dress to be the focus, so I chose very delicate accessories. For jewelry, I wore a gorgeous headband that I found online, and pearl drop earrings from Ralph Lauren.
Deciding whether we should postpone, suspend, or cancel our wedding was not easy. Negotiating with our wedding vendors was not easy either.
No one could have predicted this pandemic, and we never know what the future holds, so I am happy that we decided to go forth with our wedding plans.
I still hope to celebrate with friends and family at a future date…
Allan Zepeda was our photographer; I couldn’t love our photos more!
Photography: Allan Zepeda
Ceremony: Saint Patrick’s Cathedral
Hotel: Lotte New York Palace Hotel
