The most important dress of your life?

I admit that I am a hopeless romantic. Even when reality proves me wrong, I hold on tightly to those images of flowers brought home for no reason, poems and songs written about me, and bended-knee declarations. So I am probably partly to blame for the events that unfolded following my truly romantic engagement. Still on a flowery, rosy high from the event, I plotted my first acts as a newly engaged woman. Of course, this involved the making of lists and the performing of research (okay so my methodical side is not very romantic). When I arrived at last at my most desired destination on the list: dress shopping, I faced nothing but disappointment. Let me first mention that I committed an apparent bridal faux-pas by wanting a gown that was (gasp) not strapless. Strapless gowns are not flattering on most people and I have seen too many wedding pictures with brides in beautiful dresses that are not suited to their body shape at all. Not wanting to be a beautiful girl in a beautiful dress where the combination was just average, I persisted. One store had only one dress for me to try on that was not strapless! Most other stores had rows and rows of dresses, hundreds in all, but only five to ten non-strapless ones for me to try. Finally I managed to find my dream dress in a magazine and have it special ordered by a family friend who owns a small bridal shop in a nearby town, where I could try it on before committing to buy. I still had my moment where my sister gasped and my mother cried and we knew that this was THE dress. But with all the drama leading up to that instant, it was a little less shiny than I had imagined. In the real world, the perfect strapless body shape is a minority and yet the dress selection does not reflect this. Why not? I can’t help but wonder… are the people who stock the stores with rows of “dream” dresses dreaming?