How I Found My Perfect Wedding Dress

*Carly Ostroff was planning her wedding for August 16, 2020. Since COVID-19 has other plans, she’s making new ones. Carly is now organizing a family ceremony in August and will reschedule her wedding whenever it’s safe to do so. Watch this space to follow along.  

Finding my wedding dress was kind of like finding the right guy. It took time, effort and my mother’s approval. I started at the Vera Wang store’s sample sale in Toronto back in January. At this point, I had an idea of the modern bridal vibe I wanted, but no clue exactly what that would look like. Everything about Vera Wang was amazing. The quality, the fabrics and the designs were all beautiful, but especially since it was my first time trying on dresses, I wasn’t sure if I found “the one.”

Onto the next dress store, right? Well, I checked out almost every store in Toronto and still didn’t come across something that felt like ‘me.’ I started thinking of going to New York for the weekend to look there too. After trying on so many dresses, I knew I wanted something contemporary and sleek, high-fashion but not overdone and feminine but not too girly. The question was where to find it.

They say sometimes when you’re not searching that’s when you find it, like when you least expect it. And to be honest, I definitely wasn’t expecting to find my dress designer during a workout, but that’s exactly what happened. I was describing what I was looking for to my trainer during a session, and she thought of something she had seen on Instagram. I told her to DM it to me. Post workout, I started browsing through Lee Petra Grebenau’s page, and immediately felt like this was it. Her dresses were detailed, statement-making and tailored to perfection.

Logistically, it was a bit complicated because Lee Petra Grebenau’s studio is based in Israel. Luckily, my future sister-in-law happened to be there, and was able to easily translate from English to Hebrew to make my dress dreams happen. According to the original plan, the dress would be ready by May, and I would get married in August. Not so fast though. Obviously, I don’t have to tell you that COVID hit. The timeline for the dress got pushed, which is fine. Our 200-person wedding in August is on hold anyways.

Right now, it feels like everything is out of my control. The wedding I wanted, the big celebration with family and friends that I always envisioned is off for the foreseeable future. Still, I know our day will come, and when it does, I’ll already be ready to go. I’ve already said “yes” the most amazing dress, and I can’t wait for you to see it.