So far, my biggest wedding stress (glossing over the job loss a week after getting engaged) has been finding a dress. Sure, I can find dresses I like and even love. It’s justifying the expense and then actually affording it that has gotten my insides all twisty.

I started out on Etsy. I love the artistry and handmade items on there, so it seemed like a great place to start. There was one shop in particular that I came back to again and again, and I had a hard time narrowing down between more than a few dresses, particularly:

And

I ruled out the bottom one because I’m built like a teapot (short and stout), and I didn’t want to tiptoe around in stilettos trying to pretend otherwise. It’s my wedding day, and I plan on being comfortable, dangit. I also really loved the old-fashioned sense of whimsy in the first one.

But it is roughly $400, and I’m finding it really hard to swallow spending that amount of money on a dress I will wear only once and for only a few hours, especially at a time when finances are in such a scary state due to my work suddenly closing.

So after much thought (and even ordering fabric samples to see what color I liked best), I gave this dress a lingering look and then clicked away.

I went to the massive and sometimes convoluted world of EBay, looking to expand my options. And I found two I really liked:

Untraditional, I know. But I love it, and we don’t concern ourselves too much with traditions around here.

I also loved the look of this dress, and thought it would really glow at our nighttime ceremony. It also has an accompanying jacket, which would be nice if it’s cool. It will be fall, you know.

Pretty, right? But even that one is almost $150. Not bad for a wedding dress, but every dollar counts for us.

Plus, we don’t want to focus so much on our ceremony so much as coming together and celebrating our life and our family. We want that to be the focus, not whether or not everything is perfect and whether we wow everyone with our formal wear, decorations, and food.

But that would be nice 😉

So with this focus in mind, I began researching how other brides have found their offbeat wedding dresses, and with some helpful tips I began the many, MANY google searches using different terms to find my dress.

And I FOUND IT.

It was a 70% off prom dress from an online retail store. $58. Talked it over with the future Mr. of mine and we agreed we didn’t want to miss out on this deal.

It may not be my dream dress, but it’s a good dress, a great price, and one I can definitely eat, drink, and be married in.