what's the fuss about wedding gowns anyway?

i have asked myself this question so many times over the past couple of months, and never have i come up with a logical, satisfactory answer. nonetheless, the search for that one special dress that i will wear for about 6 hours - 8 max - continues.

i remember the very first time i imagined what my wedding gown would look like. it was about 6 years ago, while i was watching a school play starring my niece. she played the role of the bida pero kawawang princess, and her evil stepsister wore a royal blue gown that, at the time, looked simply magnificent to me. i vowed then: i will wear a royal blue gown when i get married, exactly like what evil stepsister was wearing.

i won't.

the next gown i pictured myself wearing when i wed was a gown i saw on teri hatcher in a magazine my officemate lent me. it was a combination of pastels - pink, peach, orange, yellow, layered one on top of another. i can't quite describe how it looks - only that when i saw it, the word "shimmering" suddenly became visible to me. but my officemate has left for vietnam and i can't remember what magazine that was and i have spent hours browsing the net looking at pictures of teri hatcher and i still can't find that gown. so that's down the drain, too.

moks has his own idea of what he wants to see on me at our wedding. his vision can be summed up in one word: tight. the thing about him is that he's very articulate but he's not much of an illustrator. actually, he is no illustrator at all. here's his rendition of my wedding gown.

looks more like a tooth, or a zipper, than anything to me.

i'm certainly more creative than moks, but my visualization of his idea was not much of an improvement either.

which is why thank God, really, for creative designers and wedding magazines and wedding sites in the net. i found the gown design i want - and would most probably go with - in a site selling designer gowns. i've been imagining the alterations and additions to the gown design from the pictures i've seen in the mags. and i've alreaady sat down with two designers to discuss the details. the second designer i met with put on paper exactly what i had in mind for the entourage without me describing it, and her drawings were far better than what i was able to sketch even in my mind.

i still have to meet with three other designers this week, after which we will decide who to go with. considerations, of course, are affordability and dependability. i have already decided to drop from my options a designer whose creations are quite affordable but who cancelled on two meetings with me. i think it's too risky to trust a designer who can't even be professional enough to make time for a pre-arranged meeting. i' m not worried anymore though - from our meetings with the two other designers, looks like our search for our perfect gown-maker will not go unrewarded.

moks is already complaining, though, that i am only making arrangements for what i'm gonna wear, and that i'm not paying any mind on what he will don on our wedding. so just to pacify him, i'm making another call for help here. moks doesn't want to wear barongs or suits for the wedding. he wants something he would be more comfortable in - something like a cross between a barong and an indian kaftan. anyone know any tailor who can make this?