Here's another one : www.joliebarbie.com

I wore a Reem Acra gown for my wedding - loved it, but it is the style "Gamine". Unfortunately, they are very difficult to copy - my seamstress makes wedding gowns and told me that it would be nearly impossible for her to copy a gown with that much detailing - Reem uses real antique gold thread, seed pearls, swarovski crystals, and handmade lace. They really are pieces of artwork - and they cost as much too! I got my dress through DBS, but it was still quite costly - saved $1,000, but after all was said and done it was still over $3000 - not really affordable, but I was going to get the dress anyway, so any savings is good. Unfortunately, DBS can no longer get Reem dresses - the supply was cut off right before my wedding. The best thing to do is call bridal stores that carry Reem and see when they have their sample gown sales (not the designer sample sales, which will only save you 10%). The store that I found the dress (in San Francisco) has an annual sale - I think it is early in the year - around January, and they discount gowns up to 50%. You may still want to try DBS, they might be able to hunt down a sample for a good price for you. My DBS dealer had to do this for one girl, because her dress was "stopped" by Reem Acra - my dress went through the week before the supply was cut off - thank goodness! If you want more information, let me know. Good luck! P.S. Know that the dress is important, but it isn't that important - I felt special and love my dress, but in the end I really wondered about the cost - I only wore it once. And, now that we are getting ready to move into our first house, I think about how it would be nice to have a great dining room table instead of a fancy, designer dress! ;-) But, that is just me...I have no regrets though. Got sooo many compliments on the dress and the photos are fantastic.

Lol, May. I never would have put a check fabric on a Victorian chair. Never ever. But...I put the sample on the chair while I was in my library, when I walked back into the room I had an oh my gosh reaction. The bright Aqua and linen color in the fabric just looked fabulous. It made my dowdy little chair look bright and new. Like a plain girl putting on a beautiful gown that transforms her from plain Jane to a beauty. Anele, it's great to see you too. The upholstery for these chairs was actually at the bottom of my to do list. I figured it would be a year or more until I was ready to do these, if ever. I adore velvet also but I didn't think a plain velvet would do anything for the chairs. They really aren't much to look at and if they weren't family pieces I may have never bothered to recover them. Maybe they would look great covered in an aqua velvet but I can't picture it. I would love to see a photo shopped pic of Aqua velvet and also the buffalo check but that is not one of my talents. i also remember someone (Roarah maybe?), who recovered an antique chair in a fabric that I thought was all wrong for the chair. It turned out beautifully. Of course this fabric could look absolutely horrendous on my chairs. I will keep looking but I have this in the back of mind.

OK.. so we gathered this morning with champagne, wine and spanx-- and tried on a total of 14 dresses all lovingly hand-picked for her. It started out with a bang with the number one pick being the first she tried on. That always makes it easier when the first one fits, right? There were only a few complete misses.. and quite a few wins. Whew! I admit that I had fears of nothing working. The super surprise is the number one pick broke all the rules. It was much shorter than she wanted (in the photo), a shape she was certain she couldn't wear (sheath) and it is a blush pink.. but it was perfect. She was smitten as soon as she saw it... Best of all, it fit her perfectly. No need for adjustments. Next favorite was this one though I need to order a size larger (or she needs to have a rib removed). It is proving tricky to find the right size.. but this also looked absolutely beautiful on her-- better and dressier than in the photo. This also fit her beautifully but the lace on the arms was scratchy. I think we are all in agreement that THIS is the color she needs for the fall wedding. We just need to find it in another dress. And while this one looked stunning (and very slimming) on her-- it's been 100% nixed because it looks like something my mother wore to one of my sister's weddings. It's a shame because it was very comfortable and really looked great on her.. but we also agreed that it's too much bling for a MOG. The hunt is now focused on that dark fuschia color. It really brought her face alive and looks stunning with the wedding colors. There are two other dresses that look great and would be perfectly fine-- but they are a tad "expected" for MOG. We're keeping one of those as a fallback. Thank you all for all of your time and your many suggestions! Oly, I know I balked at the florals but we all agree that it's perfect for the spring wedding.