I picked my gown out from an a la carte rental shop – we’re neither one of us keen on spending crazy money on the wedding because it’s only one day. We’d rather use the money to build a home for ourselves – anyhoo, we’ve had to fork out quite a bit for COV and of course we’re furnishing the flat from scratch, so it’s going to take quite a bit of money there. I can’t believe a good mattress (vital for both of us with creaky backs) can cost more than $2k! That’s my entire month’s salary right there.

So I went to try on the one dress I really liked. The shop turned out to be an entire HDB flat that was purely used for gowns, gowns, and more gowns. I swear it was wall-to-wall gowns! One of the bedrooms was mirrored and used for a changing room. The first one I tried on was the one I liked best.

No photos of that one because I ended up choosing it!

But here were the other possible contenders. Since I’ll only get to wear this dress once in a lifetime, I decided just to try other dresses on – just in case.

I tried the typical bustier and poofy organza skirt combo:

It was a little loose, so I had to hang onto the back with one hand. I didn’t mind it – the skirt was quite fun to swish around in.

Then she let me try on a bustier with a different sort of skirt:

She kept raving about this one, and the beading was gorgeous, but it was twice the rental price of the initial one I liked, plus with my long torso this dress made my legs look a little short. And the choker just makes my head look tiny.

The next one she brought in was too similar to the first – and showcased my lack of a significantly-sized chest.

Apologies for ghastly makeup-less face – wasn’t wearing any because I didn’t want to stain the white dresses! The bust area for this one was hilariously huge. It wasn’t too bad, I thought, but gah everyone picks bustiers with organza skirts.

In the end I tried on the first gown again and just loved the details on it so much. But, one huge problem about being taller than the average Singaporean girl means that most of these dresses skimmed my toes. Some of them were alterable in length, but the gown I liked isn’t alterable due to some lovely detail work around the hem. :( Despite my dream of getting married in my cream 4 inch Aldo heels getting promptly crushed, I decided to go with the dress because it was too pretty (and too affordable) to pass up. Am now on the hunt for a low-heeled pair of shoes to wear instead!

[10 bends in the road]