Yes, I had 2 wedding dresses. Only one of them was an actual "bridal gown" while the other one was just a cocktail dress, but they were both wedding dresses. I got the Singapore dress - a simple, flattering, red dress - from Spoil Yourself. On sale. Score! There are some photos of it in our Singapore gallery, here.

The more intense affair, however, was the bridal gown I wore for the Perth wedding. As you may know from my first post on the matter, I went to Pearls Bridal to get my dress off the rack. I got a fantastic deal on the price, which came well under budget. This is my review of my experience with them.

At absolutely no stage during our experience at Pearls did we feel judged or criticised for our choices or budget. We felt warmly welcome and, more importantly, reassured by the expertise of the ladies that work there. We were helped by Lynn on our first day and Denise on our second, and both had a really good idea of what we were after. In the end, it was Denise who helped us find the dress that ticked our two most important boxes: timing and cost.

The dress we chose was the Velea dress from a local designer - Q'nique - and was, well, super duper plain. Ivory in colour, it was strapless, made of satin, had a sweetheart neckline, very little flare in the skirt, a zip-up back, and a short train. With no embellishments of any kind, the entire affair is essentially a base dress to which you can add whatever you like (a tulle skirt, a lace jacket, a belt, etc) to customise it to suit you. While Q'nique also makes these modular additions, we veered sharply in another direction.

Because we wanted to add a touch of colour.

Denise was perhaps one of the most attentive and supportive ladies I've encountered in the biz. She consulted with Jade (my new SIL) and I on our intended alterations and offered great suggestions that didn't deviate far from our original ideas. At absolutely no stage was I told "no". To be fair, it definitely helped that we bought the dress off the rack and could start work on it ages ahead of time.

Pearls Bridal offers in-house alterations, which I actually think is a great idea because they know precisely what their dresses can and can't do. Their price for alterations was very competitive compared to other places I've seen, though I think they also actively discourage you from getting alterations done elsewhere. I didn't mind this at all, though - their shop was only 10 minutes up the road from me, so I felt very comfortable popping back in for changes. It also means that they don't just ignore you after you've bought the dress - it felt more personal because it was the same few faces that followed me along for the whole journey.

So, what'd we do to it? We altered the back from a zipper to a red lace-up and then added a red sash with a lace applique that we chose from another store. Everything was completed on time and as promised, with just about every detail seen to. The alterations did boost the price by a bit, but honestly I felt so at ease with the staff - Denise in particular - that I really didn't mind.

The seamstresses at Pearls also made the ties that were worn by Blake's 2 groomsmen. That material had been paired with the chiffon on my dress right when we first bought it and since we didn't end up using it, Denise suggested turning it into ties (for a fee, of course). It was a fantastic idea and they turned out looking great.

In the end, I loved the dress. I'm reasonably confident that there'll be no other dress exactly like it, which was about 85% of its appeal. My one complaint is that it kept slipping down during the reception, which wasn't all that flattering a look, but that's less to do with the dress and more to do with the fact that I'd already been out and about doing photos well before the actual wedding, so I should have had Jade re-lace me into it just before the ceremony started.

PRICE: A
SERVICE: A+
QUALITY: A

Would I recommend Pearls Bridal? Yes, abso-fucking-lutely.