I haven’t given much thought to what I’ll wear to the rehearsal dinner — I have a closetful of beautiful dresses, and given that 70% of them are not work-appropriate, many of them are on unfortunate house arrest — but thanks to Julia, I might’ve just found the rehearsal dress.

Beautiful off-white satin dress, from Spiegel of all places. But then I start thinking about shoes… Some gold flats maybe? Not Maloles for $260, but something similar perhaps.

Considering the original source, there’s a good chance that these mismatched bridesmaid dresses cost as much as traditional bridesmaid dresses, but at least they were of the maids’ choosing — and did I mention oh-so-gorgeous?

Via Heather.

I never had “the wow moment” when I went wedding dress shopping. I expected this obscenely painful process filled with hundreds of dresses and unhelpful employees and total frustration finally culminating in a tear-filled moment of realization. Instead, it was a very rational process where I tried on half a dozen dresses with the delightful Gabrielle and gradually narrowed my list of favorites. Seeing my dress again yesterday, I’m absolutely certain that it’s the one. I’ve poured over websites and magazines, I looked at every dress in the store (and two other stores, for that matter), and no other gown even compares. It’s perfect. Now I just have to face the agonizing process of waiting until January for it to arrive — and then waiting again during the subsequent rounds of alterations.

Of course, I did have my mandatory painful dress-hunting experience at a bridesmaid dress shop in San Francisco. It was quite possibly the worst shopping experience I’ve ever had, and as Mr. R can testify, I’m no stranger to poor customer service experiences. But at least now I have an excuse to visit the Jenny Yoo flagship store in Los Angeles or check out the English Department in downtown Portland.

I started off looking for pale gray-blue shoes in luxurious satin with a low heel and some kind of embellishment — like shoes that I fell in love with from a 2005 issue of MSW, but with a lower heel. That was, of course, entirely too many requirements for a shoe. My mom suggested shoe clips, which got me started looking for brooches on Etsy, and I found these gorgeous flowers with pearl cluster centers. I’m working with the talented designer to make some custom ones with blue petals and pearl centers. I also ordered a pair of white pleated satin D’Orso heels from Zappos, and they seem plenty comfortable enough for the ceremony and photos (after which I’ll slip into some ballet flats for dancing the night away). One more thing to check off my list: shoes!

At last, the first runner-up: Barbara by Cymbeline. Choosing between this lovely raw silk, ruched gown and the now-victor was not easy… They are quite different from each other, and this dress was more what I expected myself to pick for the big day — not to mention that this was the first dress I tried on, so there’s a sentimental quality to it. But ultimately I can only wear one dress so a decision had to be made. The added benefit: Now that I’ve decided on this, it feels like everything else is starting to come together.

I have never seen so many blue ballet flats in my life. Not sure if I want something quite this simple, but they have flats in virtually every shade and fabric one could want.