Note: This is the second part of the “Soon Series,” a series of blogs which should have been published in the countdown before my wedding 2 weeks ago. I originally wrote this blog last year and kept it on the side until after we survived the battle for the pre-marriage documents. When I wrote this, I was on my post-engagement high, naively thinking only of my wedding dress, shoes, makeup… What a difference a year-and-a-half can make, indeed!

I’m ashamed to admit that, from the first time Adam and I talked about marriage, I had already started creating my own Pinterest wedding board.

— Another one of those strange fixations which many a millennial woman has indulged in but rarely admitted to.

Well, I not only had one wedding board, I had separate ones for wedding rings, bridal shoes, and of course, wedding dresses.

Seeing as that Adam and I were going to have an inter-religious wedding, I also wanted to shed light on its multi-culturality by wearing a dress which would reflect my Asian heritage.

I vaguely remember a cherry blossom-themed dress which Zhang Ziyi wore to a red carpet event.

It made a lasting impression on me as a teenager, flipping through celebrity magazines while waiting for my turn at the salon.

When I Googled the dress years later as a bride-to-be, I deemed the sheer cloth and tube cut much too inappropriate for the conservative Muslim culture I would be marrying into.

Thanks to Pinterest, the latest trends of traditional Asian dresses were right at my fingertips.

The only problem was, I could not find the cheomsang, kimono, or hanbok right for me.

The designs, fabrics, and embroidery were all lovely, but the cheomsang’s slim cut and the kimono and hanbok’s bulk all emphasized my body’s imperfections.

It was on Pinterest where I first learn about ao dais, beautiful traditional Vietnamese dresses so versatile, they could be worn on an ordinary day out shopping.

Or to your very own special day.

Tradition dictates that wedding ao dais are the color red and printed with bold designs (dragons are especially auspicious).

I fell in love with the ao dai at first sight.

Unlike its more popular East Asian counterparts, the ao dai has a very flattering cut, which gives short girls like me the illusion of appearing taller and slimmer (at least, compared to what nature has bestowed).

I had originally wanted to incorporate cherry blossom embroidery into the design, but I did not want to risk ruining its simplicity and elegance.

Ultimately, I decided on a fail-proof, all-white design.

The next step was deciding on a dressmaker.

As early as October 2016, I started exchanging emails with the first website listed on Google for Vietnamese ao dai makers accepting international orders for customized designs.

Ao Dai Bella sent me an initial quote of USD 119.00 (including shipping) for my design and specifications.

I liked their quick responses to my emails and earmarked them to be my wedding dress godmother.

But when I was finally ready to make the order on February last year, I tried to contact Ao Dai Bella again, only to have my messages ignored for almost a week.

In the meantime, I also contacted several others like Ao Dai Vinh, Ceci Ao Dai, and Heaven Ao Dai.

Ao Dai Vinh was the first to get back to me with a tempting all-inclusive price of USD 90.00.

The only catch was that they would make it using chiffon.

Chiffon?!?

My school uniform top was made of chiffon, for heaven’s sake!

I had to wear an undershirt for four years to avoid getting in trouble with my Catholic high school’s anti-see-through campaign.

I wasn’t going to wear chiffon for my wedding!

Hands down the best website was Ceci Ao Dai’s.

They also came in highly recommended by Vietnamese brides who lived abroad and who chose to have genuine ao dais shipped, rather than have them made by their local area’s seamstresses.

But a price tag of USD 250.00 for one layer (which may be see-through) and an additional USD 50.00 for two layers was a little too extravagant considering my chosen design’s lack of embellishments.

While waiting for email replies, I visited 5-year-old forums (or older) to check reviews of the ao dai websites I had contacted.

Even though the brides were all able to receive their orders, they were not all happy with the results.

They complained about the quality of the cloth used, the poor stitching, and the often unrecognizable dupe designs of the photos advertised on the website.

Ao Dai Vinh was the most villainized.

Closely followed by Ao Dai Bella, because apparently, good customer service ended with the full payment transfer.

Heaven Ao Dai was mentioned once or twice with positive reviews from its customers.

I went with my gut feeling, choosing a relatively unknown ao dai website with good reviews over more famous websites with infamous reputations.

The owner, Ngoc Anh Vong, sent me an initial quote of USD 120.00, including the FedEx express shipping service.

She also accommodated all my inquiries and requests, like when I asked her to make my ao dai with 2 layers: silk on the outside and chiffon (or a similar cheaper material) on the inside.

She only charged me USD 10.00 for the additional layer.

Perhaps the only negative part about my experience was when Ngoc asked me to resend my measurements.

After I sent my payment via Western Union, I sent my measurements through her website’s measurement form, and I followed it up with an email asking her if she was able to receive it.

It took her 3 days after she emailed me the payment confirmation to ask me to resend my measurements again.

And the whole time I was asking her whether production had started already!

Initial confusion aside, communication was still not that big of an issue.

Sometimes I would ask her multiple questions in 1 email, and she would only answer one or two, which was annoying to say the least.

Nevertheless, when I finally received the ao dai, I was very pleased with the result.

My ao dai arrived right on schedule, just 18 days after I transferred my payment.

Because nobody in the office knew I was engaged at that point, I very discreetly brought the package home during lunch break and broke the age-old superstition of not wearing the wedding dress before the wedding.

Superstitions aside, I was lucky enough that the dress fitted nicely (if a little tight around the bust).

As for the floor-length trousers, I would either have to wear super high heels or get it altered by our friendly neighborhood tailor.

With the ring and and the dress in the bag, what’s left are the parents and bureaucracy.

And I am personally more terrified of the U.A.E. Courts than what my dad has to say about giving his only daughter away for marriage.