My Wedding Dress At Last - Pronovias Francoli!

I wrote a few months ago that I bought the Tadashi Shoji dress from Bloomingdale's.  I actually bought it twice - first time in a size 6 which was a little loose, so returned that one and bought it in a size 4 which fit a lot better.  Since then I've been so busy studying and whatnot, that I didn't have time to think more about it.  Now that I'm done with studying, I had a change of heart because I just felt like that dress didn't look as good as it should on me for the price.  I wanted a dress that would give me more shape - i.e. more of an hour glass figure.

So this afternoon I went to a wedding salon in Glendale by the Americana called Karoza Design to try on more dresses.  It's a mom and pop shop, and it's not the type of place that one should expect a champagne upon arrival, but they have over 3000 dresses and they let you look through the racks yourself if you wish.  One of the main reasons I went there was because I have been looking online at Pronovias and La Sposa catelogs, and have been really wow'd by some dresses.  I think I just really love the romantic look of these Spanish designs - they are owned by the same people so many dresses are similar looking.  Karoza Design is one of a few bridal shops in LA that actually carries La Sposa as well as Pronovias.

I was really overwhelmed by the sheer amount of dresses they had!  I only went through the Pronovias La Sposa section, and that was about 1/10 of the store!  I picked out about 7-8 dresses to try on.  I must say, these dresses are really made to flatter the figure.  I picked out different styles - mermaid, A line, blah blah, and I could have gone with pretty much any of the dresses I tried on!  I loved all of them.  I guess this is why Pronovias is such a well-recognized brand, it really does you wonders.

One of my top choices when I browsed online was the Pronovias Francoli dress.  They actually had one in the store for me to try on!

Of course this model is gorgeous and any dress would look awesome on her.  The one they had at the store was a size 12, which was too big for me.  But when they clipped in the back, it looked really good!  I would have ordered it in my size, but they said I probably would not be able to get it until a week before my wedding since I'm cutting it so close, even with rush order.  That's a big chance to take!  So after thinking more about it (I actually left the store then went back in 15 minutes later), I decided to just buy the size 12 I tried.  It was a brand new dress that nobody had tried on before me, it looks to be in perfect condition, and they were willing to lower the price to only $1000.  I figured it was a good deal, and I even searched online for this dress and they were all coming back at about $1500!  Also, I think even if I had ordered my size, I would still have to get it altered.  Because 1. it is made for a 6 foot giant lady, not a 5'5 shortie like me, and 2. there's always stuff they can find to make you look better.

So yay!  This dress is it!  I am so happy because I definitely like it better than the Tadashi Shoji dress I have hanging in my closet.  It fits better and the quality is better.  The price is pretty much the same as the Tadashi dress give or take a couple hundred bucks, and I can still return that dress to Bloomingdale's.  I am glad I went with the Francoli dress eventually, since I was deciding between it and some other more dramatic styles that would look silly at a beach wedding.  For example, this La Sposa Lido dress looked amazing, but not really a "beach" look.  

Since the model is way taller than me, the dress proportion looks different / better on her.  On me the ruffle part ended too short and makes me look kind of bottom heavy.  Plus, it was about $1000 more than the Francoli so I decided it was definitely not worth it.  If I were having a church wedding or something, this would be more the type of dress to go for.

So anyway, I can't wait to take my dress to get altered in a couple months and see how much better it will look!  I want to wait till maybe about a month before the wedding so I can attempt to get more toned before then.  But still I feel better to have it here with me and I know I don't have to worry about it anymore.  I still got lots to do!  Next I'm going to attempt to create some DIY wedding invites.  Hehe, we'll see how that goes.  Arts and crafts is fun!