I went back to the first salon I visited to ask about a dress I tried there but it was already sold. But then I spied a dress that looked really interesting, tried it on and it happened to tick all the boxes

Here are the pics: (sorry, the lighting isn't great)

Ignore the back flab, obviously it needs to be taken out a bit..



I'm not buying it, only renting and the price is about $700. I had set myself a budget of $500 at the beginning, but after seeing so many dresses I now know that was quite unrealistic. So this is actually a good price, considering it's a good quality designer dress (here it is on a model).
I won't get to see it again until about 2 weeks before the wedding when we do the fitting. I'm so glad I found it and it's one thing off the list. We're down to 99 days before the big date and the double-digits are making me panic a bit. So much work to do still! But I guess this is a good start.