While Say Yes to the Dress recently has been one of my favorite shows, mostly because I can’t believe how much people spend on their dresses, dress shopping was not one of the things I was really looking forward to. I’m not a fan of dresses, though now that I’ve lost weight I do find myself occasionally wearing more skirts and the such. Since we are having a very informal, casual wedding and it’s outside, I wasn’t looking a fancy dress. I was really trying to find something more in the line of a sun dress but after showing Tim a few ideas I had (linen/cotton flowy dresses from Old Navy or Gap), we decided to go a bit more formal than that. The problem is that there are very few options between casual day dress and formal wedding dress. I was debating waiting until stores started to get in their spring/summer dresses but by that point I was more on board with something a bit more traditional and I knew if I was going to go that route I had to get my dress soon!
So I went ahead and made an appointment at David’s Bridal. While I wanted to go a bit more traditional, I didn’t want to spend a lot of money on a dress I’ll wear once and figured after looking online that DB had some options in my price range. I had printed out a few I wanted to try, the more informal styles (no train, tea lenth, simple) and headed to the store solo. I wanted to go in by myself because I had no idea what I was looking for and first wanted to get some sort of idea before I asked others to join and I’m glad I did.
I got to the store a bit early and took that time to look through the catalog. The problem with many of the dresses I liked that I saw online was that the were only available online but I was hoping to either find something similar in the store or at least get an idea of size (since these dress run so darn small!) so I could order the right size online. I had only one other experience at David’s Bridal back when I was getting my bridesmaid dress for a friend’s wedding and it wasn’t that great but figured it was because I was only getting a bridesmaid dress and wasn’t part of a bridal party in the store. I was hoping this was going to be different but it didn’t seem like it was going to be in the beginning.
I guess watching too much Say Yes to the Dress sort of swayed me on how this was suppose to go down. I sort of expected to sit down with the consultant first and go over things like budget, type of wedding style. But when my consultant came to see me we sort of stood in a corner and I explained the little I did know about what I wanted but when she didn’t ask anything about my price point or the style of wedding, I offered that up to help her out. I was quickly whisked into one of the side dressing rooms (I still don’t know what you have to do to get one of the central rooms on the “stage”) and she grabbed me some undergarments and went off to find some dresses. I really hate how the dressing rooms don’t have any mirrors in them so you are forced to leave them in order to use the wall of mirrors everywhere else. What if there’s a dress that looks so bad, I don’t want others to see :-P The first few that I tried on were more of the flowy styled dresses. They didn’t look too bad and they didn’t look to nightgowny (which Tim’s not a fan of). Then she brought over some of the tea length gowns, which again weren’t bad and I definitely noted a few of them as possibilities. Now the one thing I seemed to be doing with each dress that had it was pointing out the little bit of sparkly that it might have, a beaded broach here or beaded embellishment there and my consultant definitely picked up on it. I guess I’m not hard to read when it comes to things I like. So we moved onto the last style I was interested in trying, the A-line. There was one simple, no trained a-line I liked that had a bit of ruching to it. I put it on and when I stepped in front of the mirrors I wasn’t hugely impressed. It wasn’t bad but it wasn’t great either. That’s when my consultant said she had brought a surprise and she pulled out a sash that had some beading to it. I at first thought she was crazy to suggest a sash with a dress with ruching but boy was I wrong. It completely made the dress and I had that moment. I felt and looked stunning. It was a tear filled moment, like I see on TV all the time but I definitely felt like out of all the dresses I’d tried on this was it and I didn’t want to try anything else on. The sash she had brought over was a cream color but I asked if it came in any colors which she said it came in any color I wanted. While waiting for her to get the dresses, I had been looking around the store and noticed some pursed that were dyed to match the bridesmaid dresses they carry and two colors (one a bright blue and one jewel toned green) really stood out to me. So I asked her if I could see the dress with a blue sash as I knew Tim would like that one more and it went more with our theme of bright colors. That colored sash sealed the deal. Or so I thought . . .
I gather all the info on that dress such as price and headed home totally in love. But as my brain tends to do, I started going over the figures. While the dress was pretty much in budget, the sash brought it over the number I was looking to spend and then there was the possibility of alterations. The dresses I had been trying on weren’t my size and she had just clamped them on to give me an idea so I had no idea how much alterations would be needed. So of course I began to worry about the cost and as the days passed and I began to forget the wonderful feelings the dress inspired, I decided to just check out another store to make sure this was indeed the dress.
In a town called Wahoo, there is a bridal outlet store. Why there is a bridal outlet store in this small town I have no idea but it’s only 40 minutes away and no dress in the entire places is out of my budget. So I didn’t even have to worry about looking at the price tag. Since I had a better idea of what I liked and wanted I decided to invite some friends along. Only one could make it but it was nice having someone there. The store was rather busy so I was glad Missy was along to help me into the dresses. There was a large selection to go through and boy can those dresses be a pain to move and sort through but I was able to find a couple to try. The last one that I tried on, I really liked. It was the style I wanted and it had some wonderful beading detail to it. Missy was smart enough to remember her camera and she took some pictures. I went home slightly confused as I really liked this dress but I wasn’t sure which I liked more.
I made another appointment for DB to see the other dress and invited Missy and Becca along. This time Becca could make it but Missy couldn’t. I was a bit disappointed that I didn’t have someone who would have seen both dresses but in the end it didn’t matter. The day before the appointment, Missy sent the pictures of the beaded dress and while it looked nice, I wasn’t thrilled with how I looked in the dress but then again I didn’t have the proper undergarments on. So I was confused and worried, I wouldn’t know what to do. I sent the pictures to my family and they all seemed to like it.
When I went to David’s Bridal, I slowly realized that my first consultation, where I had one on one personal service was the rarity at DB. My second appointment was not as great at first because it took a while for my consultant to bring me the one dress I was there to try on as she had other brides she was helping too. Again glad I had Becca to help me into the dress. Once I finally got it on again, I knew hands down that was the dress. It just made me feel stunning. So I have officially found the dress! It is ordered and should be here in April. The best part is this time I tried it on in the correct size and it looks like I won’t need any alterations as it fits so well. It might be a little hot for an outdoor wedding in July but that’s what fans are for!
You have to send us pictures!!!!
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