Let’s get one thing straight: I did not enjoy my wedding dress fitting process. I was not at all prepared for that to be the case. My wedding dress selection process was so lovely and pleasant that I think I expected the same to hold true for the fittings. And I haven’t heard much from other brides about their fittings, so I figured that it must be at worst uneventful and at best enjoyable.

Now, I fully expected the first fitting to be less than wonderful. My dress was ordered to my largest measurement, so it was a little more than three sizes too large in the waist, and I knew I wanted to remove the straps and belt/sash from the get-go. I walked out of the first fitting feeling like I still didn’t have a good sense of what my dress would actually look like on me when it fit but I was 100% confident that it would be fabulous.

Well, someone should warn you about second fittings. You’ve waited months for your dress, and now the seams are open and exposed and it still doesn’t fit and all of a sudden your brain kicks into overdrive. I always made fun of the girls on Say Yes to the Dress when they came in for their fittings and went on and on and on about how that wasn’t their dress and it wasn’t the same as the sample and the color/detailing/proportions/etc. were completely wrong. “They must’ve gotten my dress mixed up with someone else’s,” they would say. I now know that all those girls must just be there for their second fitting, because I was so there. I was so freaked out that I actually tried to go to Gabrielle’s and look at the sample the next day to see if it was different from my dress. And when I got there and they were closed, I called my seamstress and asked her to compare my dress to the sample the next time she was in the shop because I swore that the pleating was different. Seriously.

I ordered my dress when I was living in the San Francisco area last year, so I was hoping to have my dress altered and shipped to me in Portland after the second fitting. But I was way too traumatized after the second fitting to trust that everything would be right, so I decided to fly back down to the Bay for my third fitting. And let me just say that it was worth every penny — ultimately, it only cost me $50 more to fly down and back than to just have my dress shipped. I didn’t have to worry about my dress being rained on, tossed around, and stacked under hundreds of other boxes in shipment. My flight home was nearly empty, so my dress had its very own overhead bin. (Southwest will let you take your dress on board as a carry-on. They don’t have flight attendant closets like some larger airlines do, but if you carefully fold your dress in half, it fits nicely in an overhead.) And the dress had to be taken in again after my third fitting, so being there enabled me to have a fourth fitting to ensure that everything was as it should be.

Eight months, four fittings and two airports later, my dress is home and somehow looks even lovelier in my little pink bedroom than it did at the bridal shop. Not sure how that’s possible but it’s true.

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.

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.

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.

Meet the second runner-up, Sadie by Melissa Sweet. I’m pretty sad to eliminate this one… Who knew I was such a sucker for delicately beaded lace with a feathery train. And the drop-waist sash would’ve been the perfect place to bring in some color. I don’t sound like I’m ready to let go, do I? Farewell, dear Sadie. And then there were two…

Of course I can’t post any photos of my four candidate gowns (it should be a surprise, after all!), but this is a Junko Yoshioka gown that I tried on today. (It was beautiful and so intricate, and it looked better on me than I originally anticipated, but it’s really meant for someone without curves.) I chose four favorites from three designers: Melissa Sweet, Cymbeline and Renella DeFina. Despite the somewhat exhausting process of trying on wedding dresses, my consultant at Gabrielle’s made the afternoon thoroughly enjoyable. To stay on time for March 2009, I need to make a dress decision before July.