Here it is! THE dress!

Walking into Kleinfeld NYC last fall, I had very little idea of what I really wanted in my wedding dress. I knew I wanted classic, southern, and no lace, but honestly didn’t realize how sure I was on the bow element until Lisa started pulling dresses without them… and I didn’t like any of them!

Because of my feeding tubes, I could only go with non-waisted or drop waist styles. My 7th dress in I tried on this Sarah Nouri ‘Elinor’ gown and it was almost perfect. I loved the look, it was super comfortable, strapless (which I thought I wanted) and the amount of ‘poof’ was just right- but I didn’t like the back. It came to two points on either sides of the buttons and reminded me of a pirate., and it also didn’t have a bow! After trying on several with dramatic bows, I couldn’t NOT have a bow on my own!

So we stuck with the Elinor gown to start playing around, and ended up pulling a bow from Sarah Nouri’s ‘Peony’ gown and I FELL in love!! The bow was perfectly dramatic and elegant.

When we went in for my first fitting with my seamstress, Lorenna (we love you Lorenna!) the gown was so big It literally wouldn’t stay above my waist. It’s surreal to see it in real life for the first time, as opposed to trying on samples, but it was hard to really get a grasp on how it looked with it being so big! So the second fitting we went to was the first good look we got at it all together.

Not long before my second fitting I had gotten my GJ separation surgery and had a new J tube. With the placement of my J tube, the waist of the dress had to stay in place- not drop any lower, or it would weigh down on my J tube and really hurt. With the dress being made out of satin and so, SO many layers of tulle, it was way too heavy to keep up on my own. So Lorenna worked her magic, and use scraps from my hem to make the sweetest straps that I honestly cannot imagine not having as a detail on my gown! We LOVED the straps- and who wants to pull their dress up all night anyway!?

It really felt like we were creating a gown just for me- adding this, taking this away, tweaking this. It ended up being perfect and magical and I almost cried changing into my exit dress that night because I really never wanted to take it off! Thank you to my Mom, for taking the train up and back to fittings with me, my mother in law, for driving me to Manhattan to pick it up and drive it home in person, Sarah Nouri, for creating impeccable gowns, and mostly Lorenna Quinn for all your beautiful work with my dress— you are SO talented and we adore you!

LOVE,

Jaime