My inner princess... I have one?

So I'm getting married this year, and apparently you're supposed to get dressed up for this kind of thing...

Last week a friend and I ventured forth into the land of bridal and not-so-bridal gowns looking for something that might be appropriate. Now, in case the list of links at the sidebar here hasn't given this away, I'm probably more of a "crunchy-granola" type than "fashonista-chic".

So I totally didn't expect to fall in love with a $1200 dress at an uppity bridal store. But I did.

So aside from the basic fact that this was just a teeny bit outside my original budget, I'm having real trouble with the idea of spending that much money on a pile of fabric I'll wear for one day.

Especially when, according to Unicef, each of those dollars (OK, well, if they were US dollars, but let's not get picky here) could immunize a child against polio for life... or looking at it another way, that dress is worth eight small wells to provide clean water in eight villages!

Of course, $1200 is actually well within the realm of "normal" wedding-dress prices. What does this say about us as a society? I'm quite sure of what the logical part of my brain thinks. So, surely, I can fall in love with another, more reasonably-priced dress.

But damn it, I can't stop thinking about that first one. How did this happen to me?