I think you have a glitch (triple post?)
Anyway, I knew I didn’t want something all white — or anything close either. Ivory, chapagne, etc. No thanks. Too normal.
It had to be something with good movement, long, and with lots of DRAMA. It had to show off my tattoos. No tulle, nothing too ballgowny, because FH doesn’t like that stuff. It had to be really, really unique, something that would really turn heads and surprise people.
My first stop was offbeat bride’s vendors, specifically weddingdressfantasy.com (which is awesome by the way) but that stuff was too expensive.
I never searched for wedding dresses except to get shape ideas, really, because I knew I’d never find the right dress under the wedding label at a price I could afford.
So I began looking at dramatic prom dresses and got some image ideas on gothic lolita sites. I found something I liked that was a civil war inspired gown in blue, but it wasn’t in stock and the manufacturers kept giving me the brushoff
I was incredibly upset, thinking I’d never find a top and bottom both that I liked that much again that I knew FH would like too.
Conclusion: Get the top and bottom separately. I decided to get a corset and a skirt to match. Since white and black are an easy match, I searched for corsets and found one that was white with black stripes and trim and figured I’d do black, white, or black and white for a skirt.
Finding a period-style (in this case edwardian) skirt with lots of ruffles and drama was much easier than looking for a whole dress I liked in my price range and I found an etsy seller who customized the perfect thing for a great cost.
So that was my process:
-Determine requirements (Shape, length, vibe, price, etc.)
-Search using keywords for the most important things, with or without the word wedding. (Depending on your requirements, the word wedding might impede you more than it helps.)
-Look for designers in your price range that seem to agree with your image.
-Look for invididuals (etsy especially) who might be willing to tweak a design from good to perfect
-Narrow options by how much they correspond with the dream image. (For most people this is trying it on.)
Shortened: Figure out what you want to look like, then figure out who can make that happen for you.