Saying yes. And then maybe. And then no.

Most of the time, I am indecisive. This is no good for us because Josh can't make a decision to save his life most of the time and we're left floundering for hours, sometimes just trying to decide what to have for dinner.
NO GOOD.
Then, there are times when the planets align perfectly and just like that,
BAM!
I make a solid decision and no one is going to change my mind.
It was during one of those times that I found the dress that would inspire much whining, crying, budget-fudging, and self-torture.
I'm not even sure where I first saw it, but it was love at first sight.

Maggie Sottero's Rhianna Royale

I didn't care where we were getting married, I was going to wear this dress. It's perfect! The flower detailing, the soft gold color, the dramatic back-everything was perfect for me! I started scouring the MS website, looking for a retailer in northern New Mexico that carried the line. Luckily, a store did come up. One that was inside of a small mall about five minutes away from my office. I paid the store a visit one afternoon and showed the saleslady the picture of my dream dress.

They didn't have it. WOMP WOMP.

She told me that the dress would be coming in right around spring. At this point, we were still eighteen months away from our proposed wedding date. I relaxed because I knew I had plenty of time. I lied to myself and said I could spend two thousand dollars or a little more (!!!) on my wedding dress. This was all going to work out! It would be awesome!

Of course, that didn't stop me from visiting the shop once a month to see if it had come in yet. On one of my visits, I was overwhelmed by temptation and tried on another Maggie Sottero to, in the shop owner's words, "see how the designs fit." 

Bad choice, Joyce.

I fell in love again.

Maggie Sottero's Nora

It was beautiful on. It was like wearing a cloud. The salon owner put a veil on me and I was a goner in that moment. She started to cry, and then I cried too. It was ridiculous. 

Once I got home, I felt like a dirty cheater. I had betrayed my first love. That Nora kind of scratched the insides of my arms up. It was a little too poofy in the skirt for me. That wasn't going to work out at all! I went back to pining over the Rhianna Royale.

That spring, I moved to Texas to live with Josh and we started to make solid plans for our wedding. I decided to go dress shopping with my mom, sister, nieces and Josh's mom in October to leave enough time for the dress to come in and be altered. I called the bridal shop in Santa Fe again to ask about my dream dress, and the saleslady let me know that it still had not come in. I tried not to panic and promised that I would keep checking back. 

A week before our trip back to New Mexico for the dress hunt, the shop still did not have the dress. I called a few shops in Albuquerque to see if they had the dress. No one had it. They all let me know that they could order the dress for me, but I was not about to buy a dress sight unseen. I knew from my experience with the Nora that the pictures from the Maggie Sottero website were very different from the product in the store. The Nora was not something I'd look twice at on the website but I had loved it in person. What if I paid for the Rhianna Royale and HATED it in person? What would I do? In the end, I had to give up the dream and be realistic. I wouldn't be happy if I couldn't try the dress on or at least see it in front of me, feel the fabric before paying for it.

 I made an appointment at David's Bridal after seeing pictures of Vera Wang's line for the store and said yes to the second dress I tried on that day. That's right, I made a decision after trying on a total of three dresses. How did it work out? Very well, I think. I love my dress. Both my mom and future mother-in-law teared up when they saw me in it. 

I haven't stopped thinking about what could have been, though. Maybe I'm still a little bit in love with the Rhianna Royale. 

Do you have a dress that got away?