Just call me wifey

It’s official, I am a wife! My title might have changed, but honestly not much else has. But I think that’s actually supposed to be the case, our love and our relationship is still the same. One thing that will never be the same…my idea of wedding dresses!!! On my last blog about my dress from Anomalie I was still really early in the process, but you can read about that here.

I wanted to take the time to show you everything that went into my dress to show you how easy and stress free it was and just how incredible the ladies of Anomalie are.

As mentioned in my previous post, I had my intro call where they go over the process and really get you familiar with them as a company. From there I uploaded my Inspiration photos to my lookbook. Below is a screenshot from my lookbook.

On my next call I talked with my stylist about every single photo I posted to see which part of that photo I was interested in incorporating into my dress. We talked about everything! After they have a better idea of what you want is when you will get a price quote. The majority of their dresses are in the $1,000-$2,000 range, which is hard to find anywhere, but this is a dress that is made to your body and made to all of your specific preferences.

Though your dress is only in your head at this point, and hopefully in the head of your stylist as well, Anomalie brings your dress to life with an illustration to start. It’s still not “real” yet,  but this part of the process is exciting for two reasons. One, I felt like I was in a movie and a world famous designer was creating a masterpiece just for me and they really quickly drew it out for me…that’s the way it goes right?! The second reason is that you finally get to see your vision to confirm it’s actually what you want. You can see my sketch below. And once I saw mine, I was happy but also, I wanted to talk to my Stylist to make sure that we tweaked the design a bit.

My biggest concern was I thought the dress looked too full and more like a ball gown. We then went into more detail about the gathering of material at the waist and how I really didn’t want that poof factor, that I wanted a flowy dress with less gathered material. And once we had this conversation, any worry I had melted away immediately. You can see in the notes section, we also discussed the placement of the beaded bands around the waist.

Normally Anomalie will send you options for your fabrics, I just so happened to be in San Fransisco for work (their HQ) so I was able to stop by the office and go through materials in person with my stylist. However it was a last minute situation, so they had already mailed my samples, so I got to see what that was like as well. They sent me multiple tulles, which we decided to stack (including a glitter tulle which was so subtle, but such an incredible touch) as well as the lining and a couple options for the color of the illusion panels. When you receive your package, you can communicate with your stylist to go over their suggestions if you are unsure, or tell them exactly what you want. While I was in the office, we also took my measurements. But if you aren’t in SF, you can go see the tailor that you plan to do your alterations or have a friend take your measurements for you. Anomalie includes a measuring tape with your swatches. And if you opt to have a friend take your measurements, they send you VERY detailed instructions on how to take them.

As your dress is being made, you will continue to get updates. But they will be minor updates because they have an entire production team, stylists and people working in the workshops who are all there to make sure all the details of your dress are what you worked out with your stylist. However if they do have any questions along the way, they are quick to reach out and confirm with you. I only had a couple things pop up while in production on my dress. I was given options as to which kind of beading I wanted for the bands around my waist. You can see the actual message from my stylist below. I decided on the shiny curved sequins.

And another thing that came up was that they could not source the glitter tulle that we originally picked for the layers of my dress. The funny thing is, I don’t know that I would have picked the one it was replaced with if given the option, but it actually turned out to be even prettier once it was layered. The one on the left had more evenly distributed glitter and the right was almost polkadot glitter, but the more defined spots of sparkle really made the dress pop. It just goes to show that you can truly trust your stylist! Another detail I trusted to my stylist was my illusion neck line. I could not decide where I wanted it placed, but she is so knowledgable and so experienced, that she had no problem jumping in with suggestions which made the decision so much easier.

And finally my dress was DONE!!!!!!! I was sent photos while still at the factory and I had little to no worries at all until this very moment. I really can’t even explain why, the only thing I could think of was that it was on a form and I began to worry that the way it looked on the form was the way it would look on me. Which is really a silly thought, but it looked big and like it wasn’t hugging the curves on the form the way I wanted it to on me. A little pep talk to myself and with a friend and I realized that I was worrying for no reason. But literally that was my ONLY moment of stress throughout the whole process. Anomalie is not only flipping the wedding industry on it’s head, but they truly care about their brides and they want all of them to have a stress free experience.

When I finally got to see my dress and put it on for the first time, I could not stop smiling! Literally beaming from ear to ear…my face hurt.

So now that Anomalie and their amazing team made me this incredible dress, I just needed to get my alterations and make that walk down the isle!!!

I went in for 3 appointments with my seamstress to try on and make minor changes to the alterations each time. But here is what the dress looked like at the final appointment.

Now for the really fun stuff!!!!! Here are some pictures from the actual day of my wedding!!!! Everything went so smoothly and I am so incredibly happy with my dress and the entire experience I had with Anomalie. Now when I find out someone has been engaged, I cannot stop talking about how great they are. I want everyone to have as an enjoyable experience as I did.You have nothing to lose, schedule a call with Anomalie if you have an upcoming wedding….you can do that HERE!!!

 

My wedding photos were taken by the talented Michelle Alexandra and you can look at more of her work HERE.