Wedding Dress?

I want to wear a vintage dress at my wedding next year.  I intend to visit as many vintage clothing shops as I can.  I've already scoured the stores in Santa Cruz and those surrounding Cary, NC.  I'm sure a trip up to San Francisco is in order and perhaps a little jaunt over to Austin, TX, because I hear their vintage selection is pretty fabulous.

It's a crapshoot, I know, to go from rack to rack hoping that the perfect dress is hanging there without tears or stains.  I also have to hope that it fits or is a size or two too big, so that it can be altered.  I just don't want to get a cookie cutter dress from a bridal boutique, but I also realize that I may never find that one-of-a-kind dress, so I have a back-up plan:  I will make my dress.

I have checked on Etsy and other internet sites that specialize in vintage dress patterns.  I found some really fabulous ones, but they sell for big bucks.  Plus most of them have really tiny bust and waist measurements, which would mean that I would have to figure out how to re-size a pattern. (My brain hurts just thinking about that!) I don't think I want to spend $90.00 on just a pattern, so when I got a notice that some Vogue patterns were selling for $3.99 on their site, I went to the Vintage Vogue section and found my back-up dress:

It is an original 1955 pattern reprint.  If I actually end up making my dress, I think that I want to do the shorter version.  I love the long waist and the off-the-shoulder design of this pattern.  I'll have to find some fabulous fabric.  There's a discount fabric store not far from my home, so I'll probably have to start making frequent trips there, because their stock varies.  So what do you think?  Any thoughts or suggestions?  I'll probably do a dry-run of this dress pattern with some extra yardage I have just sitting around to make sure that it fits and that I can actually pull this off!  Wish me luck!