Thursday 31 July 2014

Guest Post: My Wedding Dress by Paige Toon

Today I'm delighted to be part of the #13Dates blog tour for Paige Toon's latest novel Thirteen Weddings.

I had to write about so many weddings and wedding dresses in Thirteen Weddings that it brought back plenty of memories about shopping for my own wedding dress.

For someone who usually wears black, I never thought I would look good in white or cream. I remember worrying that I would never find a dress that I loved – but there was no way I was going to go for anything other than a traditional gown. 

I still clearly remember the first time I saw The Dress. My husband-to-be and I were flicking through a bridal magazine together and when we came to this shot of the dress, we both froze and then stared at each other. 

Okay, so I know your husband-to-be is not supposed to see your wedding dress before the big day, but eleven years later, it hasn’t done us any harm. I have always trusted his judgement, and he does, after all, have excellent taste (not least because he picked me, ha ha).

Weirdly, my mum also saw the same dress being advertised in another magazine and she cut out the small ad to give to me – it was the only time she had done this, so it must’ve been fate.

I had an appointment at Debenhams, and after an hour of trying on dress after dress with nothing taking my fancy, I managed to make a last-minute appointment to pop into Virgin Brides to try it on. I went with my mum and I knew the moment I saw it that I’d found it.

It’s designed by Sassi Holford and the structure of it is almost architectural, which is fitting, considering my husband is an architect. This is a picture of my dad and me arriving at the church. I had the jacket made especially because we got married in the middle of winter. The veil is my mum’s, although shortened because her train was about three metres long. And I nicked the idea for the orchid bouquet from another shot in the same magazine photoshoot. They’ve been my favourite flower ever since, to the point where my husband has in the past nicknamed me ‘the crazy orchid lady’. Yep, still going strong…

A few things didn’t go as planned on the big day (you can read about it on www.onemorepage.co.uk on 2 August), but the one thing I’ve always been completely happy about is my dress. Bummer I only got to wear it once…

A note from Paige: Sign up to my book club, ‘The Hidden Paige’, at www.paigetoon.com for free short stories, competitions and the chance to find out more about me and my characters and what we’re all up to. Follow me on Twitter @PaigeToonAuthor or visit me at www.Facebook.com/PaigeToonAuthor

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