Your Best-Dressed Moment

My fiancé and I decided to get married on the celebration of our 8th anniversary. I’ve been thinking about my wedding gown since that evening. Sixteen months later, I still haven’t made my final decision for my wedding dress yet. This entry is a warning to all single women: IT’S SOOOOOOOO HARD TO DECIDE ON YOUR WEDDING DRESS! You won't believe it. I thought it was going to be simple because I knew what I want.

I had the following considerations for my wedding gown:
1. There’s no way I’m going to wear a strapless dress/gown because that’s what most brides wear! (I got the chance to meet Inno Sotto at work. He once said the Pinay brides always want the strapless silhouette and he wishes Pinays would explore other silhouttes. There are so many silhouettes that are more interesting and flattering than the strapless dress. I totally agree!)
2. I want a silhouette that will compliment my tall, pear-shape physique.
3. I want to be able to dance and run around in my wedding gown.
4. I want to be able to wear flats when my feet grow tired.

Let me just say, looking for the perfect dress was harder than looking for Mr. Right! Whew!

Initially, my idea was to order from Ferdi Abuel a white (or cream or ecru…whatever light shade we’ll end up with) version of this beautiful dress he made for me. I wore it to the Monique Lhuillier benefit gala here in Manila on November 2006. It’s a jersey dress that you can wear in so many ways—haltered, one-shoulder, strapless, V-neck, it’s all up to your styling.


Multi-way jersey gown by Ferdi Abuel. To order, call Ferdi at 0917-8288845

This dress perfectly meets my criteria. And it would only cost me about P10,000 – P12,000! This is my best fashion purchase ever. If you want to order, call Ferdi at 0917-8288845. (NOTE: my price reference was from 2006) It’s so beautiful I’ve already worn this to 2 parties and I’m going to wear it to 3 more. You see these 5 events are with different circles—1 from work, 1 with my Mom’s side of the family and 3 with different sets of friends. It’s classic and timeless, I can wear it in so many ways, it’s very very comfortable and you’ll really feel beautiful in it. So by the time my wedding day comes, I’d be wearing a dress I’ve worn several times and most of the guests have most likely seen me in it.

So now I had to look for a dress. I have this folder in my laptop where I save clothes/designs that catch my fancy. I was able to dig up these dresses:


From left: gown by Zac Posen, from www.style.com; gown by Zac Posen, from www.net-a-porter.com



Gown by Zac Posen



Both gowns by Halston, from www.style.com

From left: gown by Oscar dela Renta, gown by Elis Saab, gown by Jonathan Saunders, all from www.style.com

These are all exquisite dresses but I was looking for “that feeling” as I was looking for MY dress through my files and online. “The feeling” that will tell you it’s the ONE. Here’s another warning girls, there’s a big chance you’ll get “that feeling” more than once. You’ll find a dress that will make you say “I’ve finally found the ONE”, then you come across another dress that’ll make you say, “No, THIS is the ONE.”

I must’ve gone through thousands of dresses. I went through local and international magazines, www.brides.com, the knot, Martha Stewart Weddings (magazine and the website), Pronovias, and the list of bridal references goes on. I’ve reached a point where I was growing sick and tired of all the white dresses that I stopped looking at bridal sites. I realized if I can’t find anything in these sites, maybe I should look outside the bridal references.

Look what I found in style.com. My top 2 choices: (I had to tell my fiancé, “imagine these in white or cream.”)

From left: gown by Elie Saab, gown by Monique Lhuillier, both from www.style.com

I was more inclined to choosing the Monique Lhuillier dress. I had my seamstress cost it out for me—labor and materials. (This is a totally different story. I’ll have another blog entry about cost of custom-made wedding dresses). She met my budget. And then, my heart broke when my Associate Fashion & Beauty Editor told me that the Monique dress won’t look as good in white. Ugh!

And then I wanted ruffles… and then I wanted ruffles and one-shoulder neckline… and then I wanted a full skirt… and then I wanted lace…

Row 1: gown by Carolina Herrera, from Marthe Stewart Weddings; black gown by Monique Lhuillier, from www.style.com; from www.brides.com

Row 2: gown by Notte by Marchesa; gown byJ Crew; gown by Monique Lhuillier, from www.style.com

And then I stopped looking. I just got tired. And then on Sept. 9, I attended RAJORED—Rajo Laurel’s 15th anniversary gala show for the benefit of the Philippine National Red Cross. And then I found the ONE. :)

Rajo Laurel (image from www.stylebible.ph)

Amen.