Quest for the dress - Part 3: The Final Four...

I suppose this is a chickie version of March Madness. :)

Third runner-up

Since Kelsey liked it enough to put it on the final list, I'm just going to keep my comments brief: not my favorite. The Mother/Daughter Code calls for a certain amount of disagreement regarding dress styles. Otherwise we lose our M/D Code membership cards. It had a great price, though!

Second runner-up

It's hard to see in the picture, but the skirt has a iridescent shimmer to it. The bodice is covered in jewels, not sequins. And it doesn't hurt that the model's hair is very close to Kelsey's hairstyle. Kelsey doesn't have quite that much auburn in her hair, though.

First runner-up...

also known as 

"The Perfect Princess Prom Dress that took 12 weeks for delivery"

Yes, the Perfect Princess Prom Dress. Kelsey absolutely fell in love with this dress. We ordered it immediately. Within two days we discovered it would take our order 12 weeks for delivery. I called another formal wear website. Same story. I called another and another and another. I emailed even more. After a few days, I realized no one had ever carried it in stock. It was special order everywhere, and special order meant around 12 weeks to make and deliver.

Talk about prama. I had to tell my baby girl that the Perfect Princess Prom Dress she had posted on the Facebook group wall, the one everyone had told her would be the greatest dress ever for her, wasn't going to happen this year. Even her chemistry teacher pulled her aside to console her. We were all heartbroken.

But we hit the internet again. The second and third runners-up were ones Kelsey said would be fine instead of the Perfect Princess Prom Dress. And then she headed out the door to Wednesday night youth group.

I continued the quest and shortly discovered the "In-Stock" and "Ready-to-Ship" categories of prom dresses. As I scrolled through literally hundreds of dresses (truly, it was probably well over a thousand), trying to find something similar to the Perfect Princess Prom Dress, I found something that I LOVED, but I wasn't so sure Kelsey would love it quite as much as I did. For one thing, it wasn't remotely the solid color she'd set as a must-have. It looked almost as if it were tie-dyed. And it had appliques with beads and sequins. It was very different from anything she'd put on "the list" so far.

When she got home from church, I said, "OK, here's one that's not really like anything you've liked so far, but it's different and really pretty. It's not aqua/turquiose/light teal/powder blue, but I really like it."

"Oh my! That is gorgeous! It's perfect! It's a Perfect Princess Prom Dress! I love it! Can I get it?" was the response. *HUGE SMILE FROM MOM*

They had ONE dress left in that style. ONE. And it was Kelsey's size. And it was on sale... for a lot less that anywhere else on the internet. (YES!)

You know, there are times when I think that the Lord is so big that He really doesn't need to be bothered by anything as silly as a high school girl's prom dress, yet in the midst of the prama, my prayer was that the Lord would lead us to the perfect dress He had for Kelsey. The same God Who created all the beauty of this world, Who is Himself altogether lovely and more beautiful that we can fathom, cares about a princess dress for the Junior/Senior. And in a way characteristic of His ways, He totally blew me away -- beyond all I (or Kelsey) hoped or dreamed, asked or imagined.

Wow. Just... wow.

We ordered it on Wednesday, and it arrived on Monday.

So...

The new and improved Perfect Princess Prom Dress is...

...waiting for Prom Day - April 15th. 

:)