I'm not much of a girly person and I have known that since I was little despite playing with Barbie dolls (though together with that, I also played with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Snoopy and X-Men figurines).  But when it comes to weddings, all the girlyness in me suddenly comes out as I think of ways on how I should look in this formal occasion---whether I'm just a guest or have a role in it. Since I don't have a lot of formal dresses, I make it a point to match my dress with the wedding's motif.  As a result, I really buy a new dress whenever I'm invited on a wedding of a relative or friend.

In the case of my Kalayaan College friends' wedding, Kharlo and Honey, I was asked by the bride to be an emcee in the dinner reception together with another KC friend, Dia.  Since I had a role, I wanted to make sure to get a great dress that would match the occasion. Dia and I set a day to shop for that and, after looking around SM Megamall, we both decided to get identical purple dresses from Forever 21.

But it never turned out that way because, after letting my Mom sew the armpits a bit and having it washed, I found out on the day itself that the dress loosened! Instead of the dress covering my chest as seen above, I suddenly had a very plunging neckline! :-/  I panicked that day; it took awhile for me to adjust and fix the dress until I finally had the result below:

Theory: It could be the cloth loosens when you hand-wash the dress. I think I should have had it dry-cleaned instead, but lack of time and money prevented it. 

What I did: When I tried the style on the first picture, the dress would fall off.  So I decided to do the style on the picture above and it kind of worked, at least. Fortunately, I had the long silver necklace to press the dress a bit tightly on my chest.  Then, I stood straight so my shoulders can support the sleeves to avoid them from falling off. :O Plus, I made sure to avoid bowing low.  If needed though, I used my placards to cover my chest :-)

Lesson Learned: Next time, I should try a dress again after washing it.  Better yet, I should just have it dry-cleaned to be sure that its form will stay the same.  If I knew this would happen, I should have bought a double-sided tape. :P

Conclusion: Nevertheless, I still loved the dress and it hugged me on the right curves.  Plus the color purple complimented my skin complexion and, hopefully, made me look good in the wedding and reception.  I still plan to use this in the future and, if I decide to, I'll just have it fixed with the seamstress.

Grade: 8/10

Will I recommend?: Yup, will do! :-) Forever 21 never fails to offer great dresses for all occasions.

All in all, the dress was not a total disaster for me though I know there were times I had to fix the sleeves to avoid it from falling off.  But at least I tried something new as I never dreamed of wearing a dress with a plunging neckline. :P Sometimes, you just have to be a bit daring and try something that you would not normally wear. Plus, I still had a good time emceeing on my friends' wedding with another friend and had a wonderful time in the whole celebration. 

I can't wait to attend another wedding so I can splurge on a wonderful dress again. But for sure, it will not be my own wedding...yet. :-)