Black Sparkly Evening Dress Leona with Front Slit

I wore this dress as my reception dress at my wedding and it was exactly what I was looking for! I searched and searched for months for the perfect dress to match the vision I had for my reception dress. I wanted Hollywood sparkle, but a sparkle that did not look cheap or tacky. I was about to give up on my search when I came across this dress on Olivia Bottega's website! It was comfortable, great for dancing, and the sparkle stood out on the dance floor. For reference, I am 5'3, 133 lbs, my chest is a 34C & I ordered a US size 10. It fit like a glove and I only needed a slight hem!

(Photos by @jbphotographyweddings)

I found Olivia Bottega on Instagram two years before my wedding. I love all of their dresses. I was afraid to buy my wedding dress online and my parents wanted to come with me to pick out a dress. I found a dress I loved, but I kept thinking about OB dresses. I decided to browse through the OB website to see if I could find a second dress that was within my budget. I love this dress because it's simple, sexy, elegant and timeless. I wore it for my wedding dinner.

OB offered free custom measurements. I did my best to get my measurements correct, but it wasn't perfect. I ended up getting the straps slightly resized because I have larger shoulders and a small cup size.

A few points about the fit:

-If you have to order online, I suggest ordering your general size, then have it altered. Generally, I like this dress shape because it's more forgiving around the stomach, not fully a bodycon style. But because of where the belt/waist sits, it's not as forgiving as I expected it to be. I had to lose a few pounds.

-For girls with a smaller cup size, the dress will come up high on the sides, as seen in my picture, and it may look a bit odd. I think this dress is more complimentary for women with a larger cup size. I wanted to do more alterations to fix the bust, but it was too close to my wedding date.

The material is beautiful and the dress sparkles like a diamond. Exactly as advertised. My wedding was in Italy, so I had to travel with it. I was worried about traveling and the dress losing glitter, but it was perfect, hardly any came off. Great quality all around.

It is a little "see-through," so if you want to wear shapewear, it may be tricky to find the right underwear. I ended up wearing seamless nude underwear.

5 stars because the dress is beautiful, quality material, and comfortable, despite the few alterations that I needed, which was my own doing. Also 5 stars because of their customer service and their great communication. I would 100% order another dress from OB!

What a rollercoaster has it been for me to find my wedding dress! I tried on literally hundreds of different silhouettes and designs to just find this very cute and simple minimalist dress, and I am very happy I did! Here's my pro tip: go to the nearest offline store and try on some different silhouettes, so you at least get an idea what you like more, and then order the one you like from this website, I'm sure you'll find something that you like! I was very surprised with the quality, it is really good, considering the price! I put on dresses that cost 2-3k$ more and they were done much much poorly. I also had to hit the gym harder and lose extra kgs for this very sexy and revealing almost every body part sheath dress, but it was so worth it! The fabric is super soft and nice to my body. I got a little short veil from this store too. Anyways, I really liked the service here and I didnt use any manager’s help, I chose the dress myself!