The not so white wedding dress

Every bride knows at least something about their dream dress. The only thing I knew for sure before I went dress shopping was that I wouldn't be wearing white white. My skin is naturally a on the dark side, and white just doesn't do it for my complexion. When choosing the final color for my dress, it was clear I didn't want white but to my surprise I actually had options!

Obviously champagne is my favorite!! All gowns may not come in these color choices, but this was enough for me. When I tried on dresses, it was obvious that ivory or darker would be the best for me. When the dress was actually photographed, I saw how WHITE the ivory looked. Unfortunately, the sample dress was ivory so I tried on a different style dress in champagne. At first I was worried that champagne would just look like I was wearing a previously loved or dirty wedding dress, and well that wouldn't be good!

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Champ, if by some slim chance you're reading this, please please don't look closely at the pictures... you might get a peek of my dress!

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Here I am in a champagne colored dress... now as you can tell from my facial expression, the empire waist dress did nothing for my figure. I had to keep telling myself it was "just for the color, just for the color". My imaginative ability was tested as I had to physically hold the dress to prevent an unexpected boudoir session, but I felt pretty confident that champagne would be better than ivory. p>I also made sure that the champagne dress I tried on was the same designer as the dress I had chosen- pretty important detail. My dress is satin with a lace overlay, so this was a good example of what the color change would do for me. Here's the champagne color closer.

And for comparison sake, the champagne dress next to my ivory sample dress... quite the difference!

So I ended up ordering my dress in champagne satin with an ivory overlace. That's always been my favorite combo, and I'm so fortunate to be able to choose my colors! Here are some other brides who have chosen the combo-

Eli Manning's wife chose this champagne dress with ivory lace at their spring 2008 wedding. It's pictured below as well.

I actually tried this Jim Hjelm dress, and loved it but it just didn't quite hit me in the right places. So sad.

This gown is by Brittish designer Sassi Holford. Very pretty...

Katharine McPhee also chose a gorgeous lace dress. Another thing I'll point out here is her mantilla veil. I love it, but more on that later!!!

Wedding dresses come in so many variations... what makes your dress unique?!