Review: J Crew Metallic Rose Madison Wedding Gown (a tale of two dresses)

Adam and I were married well over a year ago, but I never told the story of the other dress.

Once upon a time, a long time ago, the blogosphere wasn't what it is today. Furthermore, J Crew's wedding section wasn't nearly as developed as it is now. When I was dress shopping there was the Sophie gown, but Sophie wasn't for me. As some of you may know, I ended up wearing a dress by Nicole miller:

Nicole Miller- FA006

The dress on a real person (me)

I'm going to start by saying I was happy with my dress. Really. When we started planning the wedding we were going for an Asian feel. Writing that makes me feel silly. The wedding was held under a tent on my parents farm! I don't know how/why we started thinking Asian- but the dress sort of inspired it. Luckily, we decided against the "Lets get Asian on the farm!!!" theme and went for something much simpler.

Back to the story- when I bought the Nicole Miller dress I did not purchase it from a bridal store. That would have been too easy. I received my dress at a 60% savings from ebay and guess what? It was the wrong size. I ordered a dress that was a little too small. I could zip it, but I was pretty much stuffed in it. It was not pleasant.

A few weeks before the wedding my mom brought me to a seamstress who claimed it could not be fixed, the lady was shaving a bad day (before me another bride through the worst tantrum I have ever witnessed) and I ended up in tears after the fitting. Moments later I collected myself and realized I had to look into a second dress. Immediately I knew who to turn to- J. Crew.

By this point it was a week and a half before the wedding. I emailed Ashley the wedding specialist and asked how long it would take to ship a dress. She was so nice and gave me the exact dates. I placed my order for the Metallic Rose Madison gown that was a brand spankin' new style on their website:

Metallic Rose Madison Gown- $1000 (When I purchaed this dress it was 1500!)

I fell in love with this dress the minute it was released. I found it to be simple, yet still interesting and different. At the time the dress was priced at $1500 which was a little hard to swallow, but I ordered it anyway.

When the package arrived I was so excited. I opened the box and there she was. Packaged to perfection. When I pulled her out I was a little surprised. The fabric was very very thin, and if I remember correctly it wasn't lined with more than a thin piece of muslin/polyester/silk. The lurex in the fabric was gorgeous though, and the roses to die for. Something that you can't see in the photos is that the gown has pockets at the hip which are sewn shut- I'm guessing you have to released the stitching since there was only one small stich holding fabric to fabric. Madison was very beautiful, but she didn't feel like a $1500 dollar dress.

When I tried on the dress, it fit like a glove. The photo is very true to the fit. Sometimes you see dresses in pictures and they look one way and fit another- not Madison. My mom's expression was priceless- she loved it. Well, she loved it until she looked at the price tag and felt the fabric. Even she couldn't believe how much it cost. The fabric just wasn't worth $1500.

In the end, she had to go back. The seamstress somehow managed a miracle and fixed the Nicole Miller gown and though Madison was beautiful, she just wasn't worth her hefty price tag.