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The Dress I Got Married In

San Francisco City Hall Wedding
All photos taken by the talented DP.

      There is a lot that I could say about the day I got married. In fact, I think I could probably do a month of posts: describing the groom, the location, our decision not to have a traditional wedding, my friends, our honeymoon, etc. However, that isn't what today's post is about. It is just about the dress. 
     In case you are just joining me here, I love clothes and I love fashion. Once I knew I was getting married, I turned my attention to finding something that would make me feel like a boss. I wasn't having a wedding in the traditional sense (we went to city hall) and I knew I didn't want to wear white. However, I didn't know what I did want to wear, and I didn't have a lot of time to find something. I started out by going on the Real Real, and scouring their dramatic gowns and runway dresses. The only issue was that I had no idea how some of these dresses would fit, and I was concerned about time lost in shipping and returning. I spent a few hours looking at department store websites, seeing if anything jumped out at me. Then, I remembered this dress (the one I ended up wearing) that a friend and I had seen at a consignment store 6 months back. It was on a manikin in the window of the store and, to be totally frank, the owner was a little bit rude when I asked about who the designer was. She simply told me not to touch it. (Helpful.) I figured it was unlikely that it was still there, but I should go back, as the store had a deep selection of gowns and at least I could try them on in person. 
     Well, I'm sure you can guess what happened - the dress was still there! Also, since it had been there for a while, it was on sale, and since I can't help myself sometimes, I ended up talking them down on the price even further. I knew I'd have to get the hem shortened and assumed I'd need to find a tailor who could do a proper job, which probably wouldn't be cheap. (It actually was totally reasonable, and was worth every penny.)
    To back up a step, this dress is from the Antonio Marras 2014 Spring Ready-to-Wear collection, shown in Milan. This is what it looked like on the model, and I think if I'd only seen this photo, I would not have bought this dress, whereas in person, it was totally dreamy.

Should I have gone with the short-shorts, as shown?
     Additionally, you may notice that this model is wearing flats. Along with a few other minor alterations, I ended up having about 5 inches taken off the dress, and wore 4 inch shoes (photo evidence below). That lady is tall AF.
     The dress has a tulle skirt, overlaid with hand painted flower designs, and an embellished neckline.  Since it was a typical San Francisco day (bit rainy, bit chilly) I brought my favorite leather jacket and trusty Mansur Gavriel bucket bag (both of which my friends then thoughtfully carried the rest of the day, so I didn't have to think about them). 
     Fun fact, at the last minute, as I was getting ready, I thought the waist needed a little extra oomph, so I pulled out a ribbon that came on a Charlotte Olympia box, years ago, that matched the dress perfectly, and I tied it around my waist with a bow in the back (it is a black ribbon with white pipping). I added jewelry that belonged to a much loved, departed grandma (who I think would have loved this outfit), remembered to bring the rings, and that was all there was to it.
Oh yea, the groom looked good too.
So there you have it. I love that I was able to find something unique, beautiful and that still felt like me - and was secondhand, to boot. Because it had been worn before (allegedly only once, by a lady who wore to the opera and then sold it, which I sort of believe because the dress was in mint condition) I ended up buying a $4,000 dress for over 80% off. 

So tell me, what did you wear on your wedding day? 

ps. I have one last picture to throw in here. One thing about getting married at city hall, is that other people are there. Not just like people getting business permits, but tourists as well. In the photo below, I was taking some pictures of the friends that came with us, and this tourist was taking a photo of me doing so, so naturally, we took a photo of her taking a picture of me taking a picture of my friends. I hope she treasures those pictures always ☺.
San Francisco City Hall

9 comments

  1. I love all these pictures and your dress. The one of the two of you going up the stairs is so cute!

    I wore a white dress from Nordstrom that my mom bought me. I still love it and would wear it again if I was getting married today. I also considered non white...everything from a beaded turquoise dress at an Indian shop to a vintage black tea dress at a consignment store. I also considered red, tried on my grandmothers wedding dress from 1955, and was very close to buying a short, long sleeved, all-lace 1960s mini dress at a thrift store. I ended up going more traditional because white is one of my very favorite colors to wear and you don't get that many chances to wear a beautiful white dress, so I went with it. Be curious to hear your reasoning on why you didn't want to wear white. Just don't like the color or something more?

    I love the dress you picked, it's awesome. Well done!

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    1. Thank you!! I didn't realize you were considering such a dress spectrum when you got married, and you looked lovely in the dress your mom bought.
      I've never really been that into the "white wedding dress" (even though my love to Say Yes to the Dress would suggest otherwise), and it opened up the door, especially on the secondhand market, if I wasn't looking only at traditional wedding dresses.

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  2. You looked beautiful, and that is a super awesome dress. Congratulations again!

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    1. Thanks! I was going to just put 10 heart emojis but blogger relegates me to only plain text.

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  4. Oh my goodness! My turn- this took my breath away. Thank you for introducing yourself and your incredible sense of who you are in your clothes...I love all of it.

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    1. Thank you so much! This totally made my day.

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