Little Ms. Bossy: Bossy Wedding: The Clothes

I bought the first wedding dress I tried on. I didn't think that was how it was going to go down, honestly, because I wasn't sure that my perfect dress existed. I knew I wanted a short dress that looked like something I would wear normally, just prettier, and white. I didn't want anything too fussy that would make me feel uncomfortable at any point during the day, but it had to be elegant and beautiful. I made an appointment at Saja, who got bonus points right away for being the only bridal store that didn't hem and haw about whether it might already be too late for me to be dress shopping (it was February).

The Saja store in New York is tiny and adorable and filled with so many lovely things that I kind of wanted to take the whole store home with me. The saleswoman suggested that I try on a very simple dress to begin with, and as soon as it was on my body I didn't want to take it off. When the Wise Soprano arrived and saw it, she just sort of sighed "Ohhh" in a way that confirmed what I already knew. The sample size fit me pretty well, but just for fun I tried on one size down and it was perfect. No alterations needed—I was able to take it home that day! I had such a magical experience at Saja. We had the store all to ourselves for the hour, and it was the most calming environment, no pressure or aggressive sales techniques to be found. You can check them out and see lots of pictures of gorgeous brides on their Facebook page.

Now here's the crazy thing…a couple weeks before the wedding, when I was cleaning out all the wedding-related bookmarks from my browser, I found a link to the dress I bought. It was the first dress I ever bookmarked, and then I had forgotten all about it! How's that for meant to be?

I bought the sash in the store that day as well, and the brooch was my German grandmother's. My aunt gave it to me years ago, and I was so happy to have the right moment to wear it.

I love my birdcage veil so much. I look terrible in all hats (ALL HATS), but I am a big fan of fascinators and the like. My veil was made by my lovely friend Emily of Rohm Bridal (Emily and I went to college together many moons ago) who does the most beautiful work! The veil elevated a very simple look to something so special, and it's such high quality that I can picture passing it down to a daughter one day.

Oddly enough, while the dress ended up being easy to find, I had the hardest time finding the right shoes. The moral of the story is: don't go to Bergdorf's and try on Manolo Blahniks if you are not prepared to spend $700 on a pair of shoes. You will end up falling in love with a pair and then looking for a cheaper version, which will not exist. Sigh. Learn from my mistakes, people. It took me weeks of longing for the Manolos before I had to give myself a wake-up call and start fresh. After that, I found the perfect shoes right away. They are NOTHING like the ones I fell in love with originally.

They're Kate Spade, and I love them so. On CM's feet are Paul Smith socks given to me as an opening night gift by a director, and new shoes from Humanic.

My necklace was Swarovski (local to Austria—did you know that?), given to me by CM as a wedding day gift. Without particularly meaning to, I ended up with something old (the brooch), something new (most everything else), something borrowed (Legs McGee let me borrow her slip at the last minute), and something blue (my gorgeous necklace). It was the only piece of jewelry I wore besides my engagement ring.

I was incredibly lucky to have friends who knew what they were doing in the hair and makeup department, because I foolishly thought I would be able to do it all myself. I fell in love with this hairstyle, but when I tried to replicate it by myself a couple weeks before the wedding, it was a bit of a disaster. Thank goodness for Legs McGee and the Wise Soprano, who came to my hotel room along with the Best Friend and Polly Polyglot, armed with all manner of bobby pins, curling irons, hairdryers, and makeup, and proceeded to make me beautiful while I sat passively in my bathrobe. Heaven. We joked that they should open a salon, and it would be called We've Got Volume, Folks! It's always good to have a backup career.

I had bought some new makeup from Sephora, and Legs McGee brought lipstick for me (I never wear more than gloss, and I wouldn't know how to begin to find the right shade—somehow she found it without me even being there). I can highly recommend Make Up For Ever foundation, concealer, and powder (all in the palest colors they come in, obvs), because my makeup managed to stay put through an entire day of record heat and lots of happy crying. Also, Legs McGee made me look better than I had ever looked previously. It was a good day to have a professional photographer around. (For those of you interested in such things, I also wore Nars blush in Orgasm, Stila eyeshadow in Kitten and Americano (and a few other things LMcG threw in for good measure, I think), Cover Girl Liquiline Blast Eyeliner in black layered over violet, Cover Girl LashBlast Fusion Water Resistant Mascara in Very Black, Sephora Nano Lip Liner in Pure Pinky, and MAC lipstick in Crème Cup.)

CM wore a navy suit from Hugo Boss. Because he is male, he magically lost weight just from walking in Vienna (despite a somewhat increased beer intake, ahem), so this suit was the first thing that had fit him perfectly for several months. He looked super dashing and handsome.

We bought his tie at Peek & Cloppenburg and the boutonniere was just fresh lavender tied with white ribbon. The ribbon actually came unraveled before the wedding even began, so he ended up wearing the lavender in his pocket for the rest of the day.

I gave him cufflinks for a wedding day present. They were made by Sandy of PunkyJane on Etsy, who did an incredible job. One said "I Do" and the other had our wedding date on it. I also got him one of these with our wedding date for him to carry always (bonus: he'll never forget our anniversary).

Funny story: CM got ready at the ceremony venue, and by mistake he brought the wrong shirt, one without French cuffs. Luckily My Gay Husband was getting ready with him. "I need a pair of scissors and something sharp," he said, and lying on the table were scissors and a corkscrew. He cut the buttons off and made holes with the corkscrew, and voila! CM was able to wear the cufflinks. MGH has a new nickname: Gay MacGyver.

Incidentally, CM always finds the cutest, slightly funky but still professional glasses at SEE. This girl makes passes at boys who wear glasses.