Dreams of Lace

After my unexpected eureka moment at the Bridal Expo, I went home and did what any dress-crazed woman would do. I conducted a massive Google search. I expected the pages and pages of dresses. What I did not expect was to fall irrevocably in love with her:

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Hello, my lovely Monique Lhuillier Monet. Will you show us your moves?

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I love how the lace drapes! As if I weren't swooning enough:

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Pearl buttons! While I think a corset back is lovely, it doesn't match my personal style. This was perfect. This couldn't possibly get any better...could it?

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Homygawd. This dress just screams classic, timeless romance. The catch? This bridal n00b (a.k.a. newbie) had never heard of Monique Lhuillier before, and as such didn't know the price tag that comes with her ethereal creations.

Crap.

Crap, crap, crappity-crap.

What's a smitten girl to do? While a full-priced dress was completely out of the question on our budget, I was aware of the various websites that sell "once wed" wedding gowns (preownedweddingdresses.com and oncewed.com are my personal favorites). Unfortunately, I had a couple strikes against me: 1) Monet was from ML's Spring 2005 collection, and 2) I felt uncomfortable purchasing a dress I had never seen, much less tried on in person.

Determined, I tackled the latter problem and looked up bridal salons that carried Monique Lhuillier. What's that you say? There's one a mere 45 minutes away? I picked up the phone and dialed Roma Sposa, and found out that not only did they carry the Monet, but they had an upcoming ML trunk show. Would I like to make an appointment? Yes, please!

Did you have a bad case of sticker shock when it came to your dream dress? Did it deter you from pursuing her, or were you resolute on making it work?