How Hard Can It Be To Get Dressed For Your Wedding?

OK. The question sets itself up for an answer.

I'm actually looking at venues, right now, and thinking about synagogues, and the virtues of Reform rabbis, and lots of other things that bring up eeeee-motions for me, but I drifted off into looking for wedding dresses.

Some women appear to have known what they were going to wear to their weddings from an early age. I am not one of them. I used to fantasize about BEING married, but the wedding itself was not something I ever thought about. And in college, I claimed I was going to marry in blue jeans, wearing the most perfect white shirt in the world. Which, come to think of it, does not seem now like such a bad idea.

Anyway, here are my requirements for a wedding outifit:

1. It should probably have sleeves, although spaghetti straps would be OK.

2. It should allow me to dance, walk around, hug relatives, etc.

3. It should not have such a big skirt that it proceeds me by more than a couple of minutes. (See Requirement 2)

4. It should not be hideously unflattering to my figure--that is, I would like more emphasis on my nice bustline, and less on my nonexistent waist.

5. It should basically be white. (Ivory, or with colored trim is basically white.)

6. It should not be so formal that the groom, wearing a suit, looks insanely outmatched.

7. It should not cost a fortune. This will be a budget wedding, and if I am gonna splash out on something, the ring seems more important than the dress, in terms of how long I will be wearing it, please God.

8. It does not have to be specifically a bridal outfit, but it should LOOK bridal.

9. It should not have giant white applique things on it, or tons of beads, or drippings of embroidered stuff.

The wedding dress designers of America do not seem to be on the same page with me. The high fashion style seems to currently be a narrow, strapless one which would make me look like the cutest fireplug in the world, and would not exactly work for a brunch reception, which is what I'm thinking in terms of. Then there's the hideous things with the applique gunk. Practically nothing has sleeves, particularly the three-quarters ones I was thinking might be nice.

Desperately looking for something with sleeves, it occurred to me to search specifically for tznius wedding clothes. After a few false starts involving things with padded shoulders and 1980s powerdressing necklines, I discovered something excellent: Mormon wedding dresses.

Yes, the Church of Latter-Day Saints and I seem to share a wedding dress aesthetic--don't ask me why, or how, since that's not important right now. But I'm surfing a number of LDS bridal sites, and seeing more dresses that seem attractive to me than I've seen anywhere else. Go figure. I mean, not the Temple styles, which I guess are what you wear to get married in the Temple--that seems to require a below-floor-length, below-fingertip-sleeved princess style--cute, and the models look adorable, but not what I need...

I'll post some pictures when I get a chance.