a red wedding dress...

I've decided that what I REALLY want is a red wedding gown. Originally, I figured I'd just have to buy a "bridesmaid's" dress in red and use that. But then Jeri pointed out that there ARE actually red wedding gowns, which in fact are a lot nicer and more traditional in the style of a "wedding gown" than a bridesmaid's dress would be, like these here.

These dresses are made by a UK company called Hollywood Dreams. Yeah, it's a terrible cheesy name for a wedding gown producer, but the dresses are fantastic. My favorite one is the first one pictured here, which is called Amara. The problem is that only two bridal stores in the US carry this line: one in California, and one in Virginia.

Lisa and I have both been calling around everywhere, from big obvious David's Bridal to the lesser-known little bridal boutiques, and we've gotten very little information regarding red wedding gowns - mostly I just got "no" answers when I inquired about them. One bridal shop I called was particularly helpful, Francia Bridal in Hinsdale, (unimpressive website but great customer service over the phone) whose employee said that the owner would try to help me out as much as she could, such as trying to order a dress from wherever we needed to, etc etc etc...

...there are other red dress makers out there, but they are very few and far between, and many of the dresses are, um, not exactly my style. Maggie Sottero makes a few, some of which are quite lovely, but not designs that immediately catch my attention (the Lana dress is a runner-up from the Hollywood Dreams dress). Otherwise, I can only find 1-2 designs by other makers, and they're usually UK brands or otherwise ugly as heck... you know, too much seqins and decoration on a long mermaid-y dress... ick.

So... Mom said we could try some white dresses that are the style of the red ones just to make sure that I like the dress style (a corset-style top with a long, full ballgown skirt and a chapel train in back) before we go any further. I'm hoping to find some time soon... maybe later today?