Wedding Dress???

I'm in the midst of a serious wedding gown crisis right now - or at least, I have been for about two days now, and only now am I seeing some kind of solution. I'm a knitter, not a seamstress (my sewing skills are merely decent), and the idea of making my own dress from scratch has become increasingly daunting. I do, however, want a dress that's unique and personalized - something I've put my own creativity into. The solution? Buy a simple dress and embellish it.

Sounds fairly simple, right? You would think so - unless you've been faced with buying a wedding dress yourself, in which case you will know that it is virtually impossible to get one under $300, new or used. And I'm a bride on a budget - which can be hard when you love beautiful clothes and long for the freedom to pick out the most opulent, stunning gown you can squeeze into. It doesn't help much that I want my dress to be MY dress - that is, I don't want to feel obliged to resell it after the ceremony. Call me sentimental.

So I fished around on OnceWed, Wore It Once, and Preowned Wedding Dresses and found some excellent gowns, but it wasn't until I took the more mainstream route and tried Amazon.com that I found what (I think) will be my gown. (I know it's technically a bridesmaid dress, but the ivory version would do just fine for a wedding dress. And I like the idea of my bridesmaids' dresses being similar in style to mine, which I could do here.) I'm going to wait for advice from my fashion consultant (my cousin Gretchen) before I make any decisions.

On a different note: here's my lovely engagement ring!!! -->
It was made by Etsian megangoldkamp and has a braided silver band with a fiery opal in the center. Unique and absolutely beautiful.