My sister is making our dresses (hopefully at this very second since time is kinda running out!) so we didn’t really need to go wedding dress shopping. I looked at pictures, told her what I want, and was ready to go, or so I thought.
The problem is that I’ve secretly always wanted to go try on dresses. A couple of times in college I even made semi-serious plans with various friends to go try them on while wearing fake rings and lying through our teeth. So I was a little bummed that I wouldn’t get the opportunity.
But my bridesmaid and best shopping buddy, Katie, understood the sad little piece of me that really wanted to go and play princess for a few hours, even though we both knew that I wasn’t actually shopping.
My sister, of course, was a little nonplussed. Last year she had offered to make her best friend a wedding dress only to have the girl go shopping a week later ‘just to look’ and buy a dress on the spot. Caroline was understandably afraid that I might do the same thing and her hours and hours of work would be wasted. She had nothing to worry about.
The first thing I noticed at the dress shop is how ALIKE everything was. Oh, sure, you can have puffy or not puffy, and you can have beaded or not beaded. But if you want sleeves, or a different waistline, or anything at all that isn’t popular at the moment your options are really limited.
Even so, I found a number of dresses that were fun to try on (the best–covered in crystals and ostrich feathers and including see-through panels on the sides–unfortunately got taken off before we got the cameras out). So for your entertainment, I present myself in a plethora of bridal gowns.
This first one doesn’t really do a whole lot for me, but it came the closest to having the neckline I’d like. As my father said when I made him look at my favorite wedding dress options in high school (I was a weird kid), it’s too plain.
The second one was better from the front, and had an interesting train that attaches to the collar instead of the skirt, which means you can take it off rather than having to bunch it up and drag it around all night. This is probably the one i would have bought if I were buying from everyone’s favorite bridal gown big box store.
Now I’ll be honest–I think I look totally hot in this one (see facial expression to confirm). The dress was built for my body shape, and I like the asymmetrical shoulder. It is not, however, something I’d want to be stuck in all night–it just felt like I had tons and tons of fabric around my feet and I didn’t even get down off the little pedestal because I felt like I would get my legs caught up in it and fall flat on my face. But it’s a gorgeous pile of fabric, for all that.
And then there was this one, which I thought was quite nice. I’d probably add a little piece of fabric to block out the overabundance of cleavage, but on the whole I thought it was a pretty dress.
Shopping was fun, and I’m glad I got the experience. One interesting thing about it was the HUGE difference between the boutique place and the chain store. At the boutique there was one saleswoman who chatted me up, told little jokes, and promised to knock some money off the price while she deftly handed me one expensive hair bauble after another. In the chain we had one salesperson for 3 brides and she basically dropped off dresses to the communal changing area for Katie to shuffle me into while she ran off to help someone else. We were in and out of there in less than half an hour.
Now I just can’t wait to see what my ACTUAL dress looks like!
Awww…. FUN! What a great idea! Good on ya for just giving yourself the opportunity to just enjoy an experience you’d always wanted. AND – you look beautiful! Can’t wait to see the pics of your actualy dress!
Fun! Glad you had a good time. (P.S. I also looked at wedding mags in HS)
I looked at wedding mags in high school too, though it was because my mom was getting married. I was so in love with Lazaro dresses back then.
I really like the last dress. I cannot wait to see what yoru actual dress looks like.