Dream Dress

A popular topic for lolita fashion conversations is the Dream Dress: the item you fell in love with at first sight, that drives you to spend hours on auction sites or hundreds on shopping services to obtain. Although it isn't strictly lolita, I just had to share with you my current dream dress, by the impeccable Vera Wang:

*sigh* Isn't it amazing?!? It's so terribly me: romantic and quirky, classic but deconstructed, a tatterdemalion princess hiding out in a forest grove.

It is also so far beyond what I would possibly pay for a wedding dress that it's not even funny. Seriously. This thing costs more than my reception dinner (4 courses + open bar for 130 people) will run. I fell in love upon first seeing it in a magazine, and promptly resigned myself to never, ever owning it.

Which is, of course, one of the biggest problems with unobtainable dream dresses: they spoil you for everything else! I've been shopping for gowns over the last two days and, although I've tried on some very nice dresses, not a one of them can possibly hope to measure up to this gorgeous confection. Although I'm a fairly good seamstress, I'm unsure my talents can measure up to this particular challenge - or that it won't make me crazy in the process! At the same time, my perfectionist side is unwilling to settle for less than exactly what I want, especially on such an important day. Besides, if I'm going to be paying equivalent of two full lolita brand outfits on a single dress, it better be worth every not-going-to-Innocent-World penny.

(as an aside, am I the only one who measures purchases in "what lolita item could I buy instead of x"?)