The Dress

After marrying my fiance, together 10 years and counting, on our wedding day – I’m listing this dress here in the hopes it brings someone else the same happiness it brought me.

This dress is like new and has been cleaned after our May 2022 wedding. I wore this dress for about 4 hours up through our first dance (had a second dress for the dancing portion of the evening) on my wedding day. I added buttons for detachable off the shoulder sleeves (taken off after the ceremony) and also added a bustle (for our first dance). One of the attachments for the three point bustle (1 out of 3) did come loose (as it was a thread), but that would be very easy to add back on. I was very tempted to keep this but we don’t have that much storage space at home and it doesn’t make sense to me to save it in the off-chance we have a daughter in the future and she wants to wear this, so… my loss is your gain! I hope this dress brings you as many happy memories as it brought me.

DRESS & DESIGNER INFO:
--The Hattie by Rebecca Ingram
-- Color: Ivory over Misty Mauve (gown with Natural Illusion) color
--Strapless bridal gown in oversized lace
--Sweetheart neckline
--Floral lace motifs over sparkle tulle
--Strapless
--Detachable sleeve attachments (this listing does NOT include the detachable sleeves I added but if you like them, let me know and I can see what we can do)

MY DRESS SEARCH:
I tried on many dresses and then I came across Hattie by Rebecca Ingram (designer who is a part of the Maggie Sottero family). We were getting married overlooking the beach and this dress gave me ALL my dream dress vibes. I wanted something detailed and elegant that still had that “wow” factor and this dress delivered 100%.

I wasn’t sure at first if we’d have a whole wedding celebration and part of that hesitation was that I didn’t think I could pull off a ‘white’ wedding dress (the main hesitation was the money factor), this dress changed my mind. I really wanted our wedding to feel like us, and it did. Looking back on our day, we still laugh and smile just feeling the joy that our day brought.

LOOK OF THE DRESS:
I’m not a big fan of wearing white so this mauve color with ivory lace motifs over it hit the mark. I was still in a white dress, but it wasn’t the stark white dress I didn’t envision myself in. There is glitter in the tulle but it is very understated, it gives it a shimmer but you won't look at it and think “wow, that’s glittery”.

The dress flattered my curves in all the right places, I felt supported and secure (something I didn’t think strapless dresses would do before I started my wedding dress search). I don’t naturally have an hourglass shaped body but this dress made me feel like I did, the fabric is stunning and did a great job smoothing over the places I wanted them to (the stomach area), I love the color and the way it fits on my body is amazing.

Please message me if you have any questions, happy to see if this is the right dress for you :)

Alterations

This wedding dress is a label size 18 (my street size is a 12) purchased brand new from Janene’s Bridal shop in Alameda, CA. My measurements when I purchased the dress were bust 45”, waist 37”, and hips 43”. There were minimal alterations made to the dress, the alterations that were made were the length (I’m 5’6” and wore heels that were 2.25 inches for my wedding day and the dress was tailored to barely sweep the floor), and we took in the waist and hips about 0.5-1”. The retailer I bought it from, as well as the professional wedding dress tailor, shared that this dress can be sized down 2 sizes without compromising the integrity and fit of the dress.