finding the dress

Like most people, I've gone through phases with clothes I wear. The black phase, the skirt phase, the pink phase, the jeans phase (I'm still in this one).
I have a bit of a love hate thing with clothes shopping. I love the fabrics and patterns but generally dislike my pear shape and find it quite difficult to find things that fit me well. I'm a size bigger on the bottom than on the top so things that fit my hips tend to gape at my bust and vice versa, and because of this I tend not to buy clothes often.
I've been invited to 3 weddings this year and my jeans and floppy tops just won't cut it, so dress shopping has been thrust upon me. I never buy dresses - the last one I bought was my wedding dress - prior to that, I cannot actually remember buying a dress. I wasn't really looking forward to this  shopping experience so was pleasantly surprised when it wasn't actually as painful as I thought it would be:

1. Phase Eight, 2-3. Monsoon, 4-6. Kaliko

You can spot a bit of a theme here can't you. 50's style prom dress suits my shape and I love the bold floral prints.
I am now the proud owner of 2 of these dresses (1 and 2) which should sort me out for all 3 weddings. Thankfully no one from the first wedding will be going to wedding two or three so I can safely do some dress recycling. Now all I need to think about is shoes, bags, hair etc.