I Won My Wedding Dress!! #Modeca Bride -

I am absolutely delighted to announce that I won my dream wedding dress! That means a designer wedding dress, all paid for that I got to choose! I am obviously so unbelievably excited by this and even now, 2 months later since finding out I still scream a little inside! You are probably thinking, what undignified task did I have to do to win such an amazing prize….Sing a song, write a sob story, answer some difficult questions? Nope, I just filled in a form online that took less than a minute! The competition was on a site for the fabulous wedding magazine called Love Our Wedding. I got to choose a dress of my choice from the well known Dutch wedding dress designer, Modeca.

Once my man proposed to me the first thing I did was sign myself up to wedding magazines online and an obvious one was Love Our Wedding. It was my first stop for wedding inspiration online and when I spotted the competition, I didn’t think twice about entering. I also had already heard of Modeca and knew how gorgeous there dresses were, so this competition really was a dream come true. I couldn’t believe when I received an email saying my name has been drawn at random and that I had won! I remember having to read the email a good few times before I could finally take it in. I jumped around in the living room with my toddler and did a dance, I think he thought I had gone mad!

The first person I told when I won the competition was my mum because she was the one who was going to buy me a wedding dress. I was about to save her a huge amount of money and I couldn’t wait to tell her. I knew she would understand my excitement at winning and she screamed even louder than I did! When I told my hubby-to-be he was over the moon for me but also a little jealous as he would love to win a designer suit! Then of course I told the world and anyone who would listen whenever I could! I immediately booked in an appointment with a local bridal dress boutique and assembled the bridesmaids and my mother for a day of wedding dress shopping! We made a full day of it and booked in champagne afternoon tea also at my favourite place, which luckily wasn’t too far from the boutique.

When I got to Destiny Bridal in Middlesbrough I was actually really nervous and quite worried about trying the dresses on. I had gained a bit of weight and wasn’t feeling my best so had this fear that I would feel fat and hate everything. My mum was feeling a little nervous for me too but we were all very excited. I will be honest and say that whilst I adored the Modeca dresses, my mum did come armed with her cheque book just in case. She said to me that whilst I had won a dress she would never want me to be restricted with what I could have and she fully intended to still pay for a dress for me. I didn’t want my mum paying for a dress when I had won one and especially since Modeca is such an amazing wedding dress designer.

My mum told me to just pick up as many dresses as I could that I liked and to not look at the designer at all. I saw some lovely ones on the hanger and had them put in the changing rooms to try on but there was one in particular that caught my eye. It was on a mannequin and it was totally different to what I was thinking I would go for but it just looked so special. We added it to the collection and I couldn’t wait to try them all on. I prayed that as many of the dresses as possible were from Modeca but I decided not to find out until after I tried them on. I tried about 8 different dresses on and each one I really liked and we had lots of mixed opinions from my crew. We all agreed they all looked nice but there never was a time where we all said YES to the dress! A lot of the dresses I tried on I would find out afterwards that most were Modeca. I must have just been naturally drawn to those dresses anyway! I didn’t recognise any that I had seen online as they always look so different in real life, so it’s not like I knew when I was choosing them.

The second last dress I tried was the one on the mannequin that had caught my eye and, well, it was THE dress! Everyone just knew and I made sure I didn’t say anything until seeing all their faces. My mum started crying, everyone was shouting ‘that’s the one’ and all were in agreement for the first time. I felt the most beautiful in this dress and didn’t want to take it off, ever! I remember it was like something off a reality show, where we all nervously stood round and said to the lady in the shop….is this a Modeca dress and she paused before answering. Oh My God it actually was one of their dresses! We were all jumping up and down and I remember I was slightly in shock. It was like it was meant to be and I couldn’t believe how perfect the whole experience was. I had found my dress, even when not feeling my best but I felt so beautiful.

You may be thinking, why would I admit to trying on other designers when I had won a free Modeca wedding dress. Well the reason why I felt the need to say is because it just shows that without even knowing which were Modeca dresses, they were the ones I naturally went with anyway. They shone above all the other dresses and the detail and quality was just amazing. I haven’t shown any photos of the dress that I went for obviously as I would love to keep it a surprise from everyone. However I have shared the photos that I don’t feel give anything away! As you can see from the photos the boutique was beautiful and the ladies really made the experience amazing. I had the best time trying on my dresses and myself and my girls all agreed that it was actually surreal just how perfectly the day had gone.

I honestly can’t even begin to thank all who were involved in the competition and those who helped me find my dream dress. Whilst my name was selected at random by Love Our Wedding, the people I have spoken to from the mag have been so lovely. They have been so excited for me and I have really enjoyed chatting to them and talking about all things wedding! Modeca really are amazing for offering such a brilliant prize up for a competition and together with Love Our Wedding they really are making dreams come true. Destiny bridal made me feel so special even though I had won my dress and they were also over the moon for me and we all celebrated in the store. So if you can get to their boutique then I would highly recommend a visit! This competition has really helped me with my wedding. Whilst my mum was willing to buy me a dress we were going to have to cut down on some details due to budget but saving on a wedding dress meant we could put the money to use elsewhere which really helped!

I actually featured in the latest edition of Love Our Wedding Magazine which was very exciting. If you would like to read the article in the magazine you can do so online for free Here. You can also read the blog post written by Modeca on their website too Here.