Non-traditional gay wedding (mine)- dress advice/suggestions requested
We're both inbetweenies in the UK (between size 16-22) so feel free to skip if you can't help/are annoyed by inbetweenie posts. Wedding help needed within!
Our budget for our non-traditional, registry-office, July civil partnership ceremony is about £70 apiece on dresses and £40 apiece on shoes.
http://www.debenhams.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/prod_10001_10001_053010607112_-1?breadcrumb=Home~Women~Shoes+%26amp%3B+boots
These are my shoes (I got them on sale back in February). (They are the coral ones, not the nude ones.) I'm keeping them because I threw out the receipt and they go with everything in my wardrobe, so I'd like to find a dress that works with them, too. My current dress is a knee-length nude fitted sheath with a navy lace overlay and elbow-length sleeves.
I have a comparatively small waist but humongous hips and thighs, which usually lands me in a 16/18 top and 20/22 bottom. Very rarely I'll find a pencil skirt that works; recently I've been fitting into NEXT 18s and New Look 20s, but it varies pretty wildly. Marks and Spencer 18s fit like I would expect a 14 to fit, i.e. not at all. I prefer things that are fitted, but not clingy, because I can feel quite self-conscious about what I affectionately call my doughnut. My current dress is like this- fitted but not clingy. I am just not 100% on it because I think it looks good in the mirror but that doesn't always translate to pictures.
Other half is basically opposite proportions to me; she wears a solid 18 on top and a loose 18 on the bottom. Where I'm chubbiest around my thighs and hips she carries more around her middle/upper arms. She found a great maxi dress that is perfect for summer and appropriate for our wedding, but it was the best of a fairly awful bunch. (That isn't to say it's not nice, it just isn't striking the right chord with her.) She isn't comfortable showing her shoulders/arms a whole lot- sleeves aren't necessary, but straps are, because of the need to wear a good bra.
Unfortunately, we went shopping with her mother which... well. It was hell, to put it nicely. I think we needed to take more time and put a little less pressure on the whole process, which means looking at online ordering, too. Both of us love the other's dress as it is but neither of us is 100% happy with our choice.
So... can I ask for a little help? I'm finishing my MPhil dissertation and she's just handed in her third out of four final assignments, and we have had more stress than luck looking for nice dresses that aren't white/ivory wedding dresses. Some of you guys have such awesome and creative taste that I'm going to try to channel it because my inspiration is a guttering flame of doom at the moment.
This brings me to my final question. How have you found eShakti? Custom vs. stock sizing recommendation? I have read that their customer service is patchy at the best of times. But they're affordable for this type of occasion-wear so we're considering ordering and trying on.
Our budget for our non-traditional, registry-office, July civil partnership ceremony is about £70 apiece on dresses and £40 apiece on shoes.
http://www.debenhams.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/prod_10001_10001_053010607112_-1?breadcrumb=Home~Women~Shoes+%26amp%3B+boots
These are my shoes (I got them on sale back in February). (They are the coral ones, not the nude ones.) I'm keeping them because I threw out the receipt and they go with everything in my wardrobe, so I'd like to find a dress that works with them, too. My current dress is a knee-length nude fitted sheath with a navy lace overlay and elbow-length sleeves.
I have a comparatively small waist but humongous hips and thighs, which usually lands me in a 16/18 top and 20/22 bottom. Very rarely I'll find a pencil skirt that works; recently I've been fitting into NEXT 18s and New Look 20s, but it varies pretty wildly. Marks and Spencer 18s fit like I would expect a 14 to fit, i.e. not at all. I prefer things that are fitted, but not clingy, because I can feel quite self-conscious about what I affectionately call my doughnut. My current dress is like this- fitted but not clingy. I am just not 100% on it because I think it looks good in the mirror but that doesn't always translate to pictures.
Other half is basically opposite proportions to me; she wears a solid 18 on top and a loose 18 on the bottom. Where I'm chubbiest around my thighs and hips she carries more around her middle/upper arms. She found a great maxi dress that is perfect for summer and appropriate for our wedding, but it was the best of a fairly awful bunch. (That isn't to say it's not nice, it just isn't striking the right chord with her.) She isn't comfortable showing her shoulders/arms a whole lot- sleeves aren't necessary, but straps are, because of the need to wear a good bra.
Unfortunately, we went shopping with her mother which... well. It was hell, to put it nicely. I think we needed to take more time and put a little less pressure on the whole process, which means looking at online ordering, too. Both of us love the other's dress as it is but neither of us is 100% happy with our choice.
So... can I ask for a little help? I'm finishing my MPhil dissertation and she's just handed in her third out of four final assignments, and we have had more stress than luck looking for nice dresses that aren't white/ivory wedding dresses. Some of you guys have such awesome and creative taste that I'm going to try to channel it because my inspiration is a guttering flame of doom at the moment.
This brings me to my final question. How have you found eShakti? Custom vs. stock sizing recommendation? I have read that their customer service is patchy at the best of times. But they're affordable for this type of occasion-wear so we're considering ordering and trying on.