I will gladly share pics

Yeah, thanks for your input Kiwibird. We are friends with a lot of designers, and none of them felt they could alter the dress due to the enormous amount of detail and stitching that would have to be undone and redone. It is a corset top that zips, so literally the hardest thing to alter... had to get a size bigger than I wear because it was all they had and I'm just a few months away from my wedding (oops).

Your wedding also sounds like it was wonderful. We are doing something small for our ceremony, but due to my mother's demands my reception has to be large. I am an only child and she is insisting that we invite EVERYONE and that everything will be perfect.

My partner and I are photographers, and we shot a few weddings together. Seeing how stressed out brides are, it made me never want a large wedding. If I wasn't an only child, my fiancé and I would have gotten married in Japan when we were there. Literally would have cost us $150. but she would have been very upset. It wasn't worth it to make her regretful.

Either way, we get what we want for our ceremony- in the park where our first kiss was- with just our wedding party and 6 family members.... the reception I've just given away to my mother to do as she wishes.

I hope this is the only wedding I ever have... and hope to photograph many others in the future. They really pay the bills compared to other photography gigs! Maybe I'll even pay for my own dress with one :P