A black wedding dress!
I've been all over Azazie and cocomelody since they allow you to try the dresses on (and I am NOT getting a dress I cant see in person first!) and are relatively inexpensive.
Well I fell in love with cocomelody's black/champagne Giulia dress the second I saw it. Off the shoulder? Check. A-line? Check. Dark, sexy, and classy all at once? Check!
Next step: get my mom on board.
I started off showing her all black dresses, which she didn't like, and then I hit her with this one and she figured it was pretty good compared to an all pitch-black gown (both of my parents now agree that this dress looks very "me").
So I ordered a sample. Two samples, actually.
I'm usually a size 6 in dresses, but they were out of all sizes except 12 for the black/champagne dress. After checking the measurements, I realized that a coco size 12 is actually pretty close to my actual size. I also ordered a blue/silver dress of the same style in a size 8 to compare the sizes.
So, I ordered the samples last Wednseday and they are meant to take about 3 days to process and then 7-10 days to ship.
I got my shipping notification yesterday, right on time, only to find out that it was shipping from the city a half hour away from me and would be arriving that day! It shipped at 9 am and arrived at 11am. As far as I can tell, Cocomelody is not at any of the bridal boutiques in that city so I'm not sure if they just have a distribution center there or what. I can't complain!
They came very well packaged, enclosed in a long plastic sleeve covering the entire dress, which is then folded and placed in another plastic bag, and then placed in the box. It came with a free book of swatches, a book of bridesmaid/mother of the bride dresses, measuring tape, and a cute heavy paper that they encourage you take pictures with on IG.
You can have the sample for three days, but must have it mailed on that third day (although you can contact them and ask for an extension if you either want to keep it longer for a "try-on" party or just because you need time to get it to a shipping facility). Luckily much local Walgreens takes fedex packages so I was able to drop off the dresses today to ship back.
Ok, to the good stuff.
My. God. These dresses are definitely wedding dresses. Trying to get myself in these darn things alone was a TASK!
There are seven layers on the bottom (I feel like theres a name for it...the poofy part.. I'm completely blanking).
One of the layers was a thick material that held shape really well, so I was able to get quite a bit of volume without a petticoat.
The detailing on the sleeves and bodice is very nice quality and looks amazing, in my opinion. I love the additional appliques on the...poofy bottom part (seriously, what's the word?). It had a thick strap on the inside, like what you have on a bra, to help keep the dress in place. It then zips up in the back, and the zipper is very well hidden.
The sizing is a bit weird. I generally have a pretty normal body type, but the size twelve fit my waist and nowhere else. The size eight fit me pretty perfectlly, but the strap that "holds" you into the dress was definitely way too small.
It's an additional $129 to do custom measurements/colors, but I think I'll be going that route (even though I'll have to take it to a seamstress for additional alterations either way) for a few reasons. 1. That big strap is definitely small in comparison to the rest of the dress, and I cant have something too small fixed. 2. The dress is waayyyy too long for me, but with how close the appliques are to the bottom I would worry about them interfering with any length adjustment (and I dont want the appliques to be absent). 3. The armholes were very large for me on the 12, and that's the size I would order if I was going without custom sizing. The sleeves seem like they would be a difficult thing to alter so I want to avoid that.
Overall, the quality is outstanding to me and I found the dress very comfortable (both sizes) despite the bra strap thing being small.
Unfortunately, it might be difficult to get a standard size to fit anyone who is much larger than me (and I'm not even large) without just doing custom sizing.
Availability of the try at home dresses can be a bit sparse on popular styles (like this one) and customer service isnt much help, although that's understandable since it depends on other customers as well as whether or not there are shipping delays.
I am super excited to officially order my dress from them, I just need to decide if I really do want to spend that extra money or if having a standard size altered won't cause any problems.
Anyway. I'm super excited about this dress and my mind is racing on ideas for shoes and headpieces. My only worry is that all the white decorations that the venue puts up might clash with my dress!
