18/10/2025
The seamstress held up my wedding dress and asked if I was "absolutely certain" about all the flowers. This was the third person this week to question my choice, and I'm starting to wonder if I've completely lost my mind.
My best friend keeps texting me pictures of sleek, simple gowns with messages like "This would be so much more elegant on you." My own sister rolled her eyes when she saw it and said, "It looks like you're trying to be a Disney princess at thirty-two." Even the lady at the alterations shop seemed skeptical when I brought it in.
But here's the thing. When I found this dress through a small designer on the Tedooo app, something inside me just lit up. All those cascading roses, the way the vines seem to dance across the tulle - it felt like wearing a garden, like stepping into a poem. The designer sent me the sweetest message about how each flower tells part of a love story.
Everyone thinks it's ridiculous. Too fancy, too dramatic, too... much. My future mother-in-law actually suggested I might want to "tone it down" so I don't upstage the venue. Whatever that means.
Last night I tried the dress on one more time, standing in front of my bedroom mirror, and started crying. Not because it was wrong, but because it felt so incredibly right. When my fiancé knocked on the door and asked what was happening, I opened it still wearing the gown.
He just stood there staring. Then he said quietly, "You look exactly like the woman I fell in love with. Beautiful and bold and completely yourself."
That's when I knew. I don't care if everyone thinks it's too much. I don't care if it doesn't match their vision of what a bride should look like. This dress makes me feel like magic, and that's worth more than a thousand opinions.
I'm even ordering matching floral hair pins from the same designer's Tedooo shop, because if I'm going to bloom, I might as well bloom completely. Some of us were just meant to be gardens, not blank walls.
