Lima at a Blury Glance and the Sappy Wedding Dress Story

The blogs have been a little light lately as wedding plans and house renovating are really in full swing (another air conditioner is being installed as we speak). All of my wedding plans have been done thus far via the internet and via my mom and a few other special ladies. Thanks girls : ) But there are a few things that I wanted to take care of outside of cyberspace, and one of them was searching for a wedding dress. Although I will have a couple of months in California before the wedding that I could use to search for a wedding dress, I really wanted to take a look while I was in Peru. I had dreams of finding something I couldn’t find in the States and I was hoping for an awesome deal. So…..the weekend trip to Lima was basically Mission Wedding Dress. And in the end I found one that I loved, and it was an incredible deal.

I will unfold the wedding dress story in just a minute. But first I will sum up our trip to Lima. It was a complete blur.





Between all of the visiting of family/friends and the shopping we needed to accomplish, there were only a few moments to relax. The reason we shopped was because we are starting to get our house ready for living so when we return from the States we can actually come home to a “home” in Iquitos. Shopping needed to be done in Lima because the selection of household items to choose from in Iquitos is beyond slim, and reeeeally expensive as everything has to be imported. So we chose to go to Lima with empty suitcases and fill them up with stuff like sheets, silverware, cooking spices, a new rice cooker, a coffee maker, a better wheel for the moto, some décor items, and a few clothes. Lucky for us we traveled on a cargo plane and we were able to take a tv, a comforter, a huge bag of groceries (four bags of tortilla chips, salsa, grapes, coffee, corn tortillas), and Jorge’s bed frame and mattress. I love cargo planes. Because of them we can furnish the house.



Our time was spent in and out of stores, taxis, buses, more stores.



Amidst all of that shameful material consumption we did manage a brief trip to Downtown Lima in its night time splendor, we took in Avatar 3D (we really wanted to get in on the worldwide craze, just because we live in the jungle doesn’t mean we are totally removed), went to our favorite restaurant, ate ceviche, jorge made me try octupus (i didn't like it), drank Starbucks, checked on Panda, and took a little night stroll in Barranco. Whew! I feel tired again just blogging about it.
































On to the wedding dress story. Males who are reading this…feel free to tune out and go find something more interesting on the internet.

Girls, I know you will be able to identify so I am going to get a little personal.
We all know finding a wedding dress is a huge mountain to climb and it can feel like Mount Everest especially when you have a dreamy dress in mind on a shoe string budget.



So you can imagine my frustration in being stranded in the jungle without even one wedding dress shop to peruse. I always dreamed of combing stores for months with my mother in search of the perfect dress. Or something close. Well sometimes life doesn’t go as you planned, I never dreamed I would be getting married to a wonderful Peruvian man and living in the jungle…but God has an awesome way of rerouting us and I am continually thankful for that. So it is what is, and I knew I had to take the opportunity to find a dress made in Peru.

The plan was to find a dress in Lima, with mom in my heart, and in hopeful spirits. Plan B was to have a dress handmade in Iquitos…but that could be kind of a gamble. So I was supposed to go to Lima a couple of weeks ago. I was all packed and ready to go when I found out our plane was in Haiti providing relief efforts. Imagine how incredibly selfish I felt when I had my woe is me moment… “I am supposed to be shopping for a wedding dress!” followed by a meltdown due to frustrations about planning a wedding from South America with a bad internet connection. A few rational and calm words from Jorge and I got over it…and waited till the next weekend. Yay! We got on the plane! Who cares if it was a cargo plane and it was delayed 4 hours and my armpits were sweating profusely while we waited for take off….we got on the plane and we were going to Lima…there was a chance I could find a dress.




The women I had lined up to take me shopping ended up being all tied up. Doom! What now? Can’t go by myself…Spanish is still developing especially when it comes to wedding dress alteration terminology…plus where do I begin…it’s Lima…a huge city. Jorge again used his rational genius when he proposed the idea of taking me. What???? You’re the groom buddy….not a good idea. But I was desperate…and my one opportunity to find a dress was slipping through my fingers. So we went to Miraflores where we heard there was some bridal shops. First one we went to had a few models but really the owner was more of a tailor then a vendor. She offered to make the exact dress from a magazine picture I had chosen, but I needed to make the decision right then and there if I wanted her to make it because the first fitting needed to be done that day because we were leaving for Iquitos….Agh! Now I feel cornered and limited. What? One store? Make this decision right now? I have never even tried on a wedding dress. Tears!!!!!!! A meltdown. Guess who picked up the pieces? The groom who was sitting with his back to me acting as a translator who couldn’t see any of the designs we were discussing. The groom and I decided to move on.

The next couple stores had a few more models….but not many. My emotions still fragile…..tears!….wedding dress meltdown number 3 occurred in the hallway of mini mall. Poor Jorge. He said “You want to see a big selection of dresses and you want to be shopping with your mom, right?.” He read my mind. Then a breakthrough….a text message from Jorge’s sweet cousin Erika who said we needed to go to a place called “Palacio de las Novias” or “The Palace of Brides.” Hello! Yes please! Surely I can find something for me in this heavenly bridal ‘palace’. So we took a taxi to downtown Lima and entered the royal 3 story mini mall of all things wedding. Dresses, cakes, rings, shoes, hair salons, nail salons, more dresses. So Jorge stared at his shoes the whole time and stayed outside of shops while I combed through dresses that interested me. Occasionally the groom was summoned inside for a translation and then sent back outside. He was the only guy in the whole place. I tried on one dress because I liked the shape, but not the details, again a lady told me she could design a dress for me…but for a hefty price. I moved on.





After checking each store, which were each about the size of my bedroom, I found a dress on a disturbing looking manikin that looked like it was worth trying on. So I tried it on in behind a big curtain with Jorge standing right outside. Hm…this dress looks pretty great. I think I kind of like it. But it has a long tail, “Baby, ask them if they can cut the tail.” “Yes baby the say they can cut the tail.” Hm… “Ask them if they can add some material here and fix some details here.” “They say they can fix anything.” Hm…I asked how much it was…I definitely know how to say that in Spanish. “Well baby they said it’s a used dress and you can rent it or buy it.” Then he told me how much it was to buy…and it was cheeeeeeeeap. Way under my original budget. Oh my gosh! I officially love this dress. I want it. Now.



So after Jorge asked me about 10 times if I was “sure” we ended up buying the dress. I understand his disbelief at the fact that I had apparently chosen a dress after only trying on two and really only spending about 1.5 hours in the whole search….but I was sure I was sure. So, it was done. There are no pictures of course….you will have to wait for the wedding. But I will let you in on a secret, it’s white. Ha ha, what an unexpected joke. So that is the story of the dress. Special thanks to Erika for the text message, special thanks to the girl who wore the dress before me and saved me the time and trouble of designing it, and how about a round of applause for the groom who handled three meltdowns, did all the translating, and endured the strangeness of being the only groom in the “Palace.” I love you for that Coco, and I won’t forget it.

More blogs coming soon.

P.S. This is one of my neighbors. Found him a few nights ago. I think she/he might actually be bigger than the King of the Frogs we usually see.