Thursday, August 19, 2010

Dress Shopping: Trip Three

So this trip was back to store #1...it was pretty much supposed to be me and  my bm, Amanda, going to check out the two dresses I liked from the first visit and get her opinion.  Oh and did I mention that Amanda had a super cool Iphone in which she may or may not have taken some discreet photos for yours truly! 
Unfortunately we did NOT get any pics of me in dress number one, which sucks b/c I can NOT commit to these flowers until I see a picture of them. I don't know why but it is super important to me to look at pictures of these dresses first.  To me photography is the MOST important part of a wedding, and I need to see what this dress is going to look like prior to paying a small fortune for it.
Dress #1 Revisited

So then I tried on Dress #2 again.  Remember this is the one my mom fell in lurrrve with, and I thought I did too!  So please tell me why I was so underwhelmed when I put this dress on?  I'll be honest, I'm wondering how much of my "tears of joy" the first time was more the feeling of being a bride, as opposed to the actual dress.

Front
Back
So I don't have a picture of the "mock" bustle, but it looks quite lovely bustled, which is super important b/c that's how you wear it a good majority of the time.  Honestly, I just feel like it's lacking something.  It is a very lovely dress, but I want it to be uh-mazing!  I want the boy to be astounded when he sees me, and I'm sure he'll love any dress I choose, but I want him to see me like he never has before, does that make sense?  

I suppose I should have mentioned this earlier, but the first time I went dress shopping I stuck to the under $650 range of dresses, I'm beginning to wonder if that's a pipe dream.  Why you ask??  Simply put, check out this beauty:

Wow, just wow.

It's a few sizes too small in case you didn't notice lol

I L-O-V-E this dress. I love the way I look, I love the way it makes me feel, simply put, it's uh-mazing!  So why oh why isn't this "THE" dress??  Because the mom doesn't love it.  She is hard-core set on dress #2.  Like to the point that she isn't even open to the idea of another dress.  So, at this point I guess I'll keep looking.

Even though I was over  the moon with above said dress, I still tried on this pretty lil'thing.


This one is obviously too big on me, but I love the top of it. Wanna see something incredible??



Yep.....these are the same freakin dress.  They look totally different to me, it took me forever to find the right dress on-line b/c they looked so frickin different!

So, this is where I am on the dress end of the wedding.  I have taken a hiatus of sort, b/c dress shopping should be fun, not stressful and I refuse to let it become a task or a chore. I've found some other amazing dresses and styles I like, but we shall save that for another day!

Dress Shopping: Trip Two

Dress Shopping trip number two took place shortly after the first one.  Unfortunately Mommy Dearest and I have 300+ miles between us, so we have to take advantage of  the time that we do have together, which meant two dress shopping trips inside of a week. It is very important for my mom to be a part of the dress picking process to me. (we'll get into that later)

This trip consisted of the same peeps from the first trip, and we went ahead and added My Aunt, and another bm, Michelle. I, of course, forgot to make an appointment again, but thankfully David's Bridal on a Thursday afternoon isn't exactly a hopping place.  

Ok, before we get into the dresses I would like to discuss another important aspect of wedding dress shopping: The Consultant.  He/She makes the experience.  For the first 10 minutes of appointment #1 I had a very pleasant consultant who was VERY hard to understand! For some reason that none of us understood  we ended up with a different consultant...and she made the appointment!  She was very sweet, not at all pushy, and damn it, she was honest!  She was also my consultant for my 3rd dress experience, but I'm getting ahead of myself. On to the consultant from experience #2, Can you say holy badness? She repeatedly told me dresses that looked horrible on me were the best ever.  It got to the point of being ridiculous.  I mean come on, I'm no idiot...I looked pretty hot in some of these babies, so no need to bald face lie! AND she was really pushy, at this point I was 15 months away, no way was I ready to buy, which in my defense I made VERY clear from the get go, so her pushiness totally got to me!

Let the overload of wedding dresses commence:

Dress 1 

Ok, I L-O-V-E the way the top of this dress looks, but holy tulle! Uhm yea, this dress is just a bit much.  My sis had a very similarish dress, but she's built very different, so she rocked it.  Def. Not the dress for me!

The front.
The back.

Can I get a big fat NO?  This was one of my top contenders, and uhm I dislike the pictures even more than I disliked it in person.  I think the pickups look odd, and the front is def. NOT flattering.  I was really disappointed in this dress.

Looooved the back!
I love the back of this dress and I liked the rouching on the front, but it just wasn't the one.

Dontcha just love the look on my face??
This dress. This dress is a conundrum. The more I look at the pictures, the more it grows on me.  It's like a simplified Cinderella dress.  It doesn't have a corset back, which the boy has been very vocal about his love of, but I'm sure it could be added.  I love the skirt, it's super light and flowy. But at the time it wasn't even a serious consideration...What do you guys think? Did I retire this dress prematurely??


I'll be so honest, I don't even remember trying this dress on. So that's an obvious no. It's not even worthy of showing you the back.  You aren't missing anything, I swear.  But what do you guys think of the gathering at the side??  I'm wondering if it would work on another dress?

Ok the next two dresses did nothing to me.  I love the beading on the first one, but I really just think the dress as a whole makes me look wider (code for fatter) than I really am.  And dress 2 doesn't have a train, which is a must for me.  Not sure why I even tried it on.  At this point I think the consultant was just throwing dresses at me. 




This next dress has always been what I've considered "my dress"  I love the color accents of this dress, and in the back of my head I always assumed I would pick this dress, so let's just say I was very underwhelmed.  Not the dress. 


Ok, last dress pic I promise.  Again, I really don't remember trying this dress on.  I've been examining the picture for a couple of minutes and it's nice. It's just not me. 



So what do you think ladies?  Do you see potential in any of these dresses?   Which one was your favorite?

Dress Shopping: Trip One

I NEVER thought the dress would be one of the hardest decisions to make (so far.) We've got a lot of catching up to do, so let me share with you my dress shopping experiences so far!!

DEAR FIANCE, GO AWAY!!!!!

Ok, now that we have that out of the way!

The first time I went shopping was with my dear mother, my niece and bridesmaid Katy, and my little mini-me.

Surprisingly enough, my first time was NOT at David's Bridal.  I say this b/c I was certain it would be.  But being the absolute procrastinator that I am I had not set any appointments up even though I knew my mom and bm would be in town. Turns out you kinda need to have appointments! Thankfully I was able to call and get a walk-in at a local bridal salon.  

Oh, another fun fact I didn't know was a lot of bridal salons don't allow pictures. How lame is that??? So I tried on severalish dresses on this visit....but have no pictures of said dress.  It's ok...only two dresses stuck out to me on this day!

Choice Numero One:
This lovely picture is courtesy of www.edenbridals.com



I love love the neckline b/c it lays flat...which means my girls will stay right where they are supposed too!  Now here's the thing about this dress I have my concerns about the flower thingies in the tulle....am I going to look back in 10 years and say WTF was I thinking??  Oh, and this was a close-out, which means you pay a discounted price up front.  This pretty ran $500 pre-tax.


Choice Numero Two!
Thank you to www.davincibridal.com for this lovely pic!

The second time I put this dress back on we did the whole shoes, veil, headband, the works...and I proceeded to Totally freak my mom out by crying like a little girl.  So those tears must mean this is it right??? This is MY dress!!  Not so fast......this is way too big of a decision to make in one trip.

My mom was completely sold on this dress, she Lurvesss it.  But I really wanted to make sure it was "the one."  What can I say?  I've been like this since I was old enough to enjoy shopping.  I have to look at everything before I commit to a purchase.

Well Alright Then.....


So After a lot of discussion we are definitely looking at an October wedding.  That is more than ok with me...I was kind of heading in that direction on my own, so it's nice to know the fiance agrees with me!  I apparently forgot how hot St. Louis is in September!


We sat down and discussed some issues concerning the budget etc....unfortunately everything is still very much in the planning stages for us, so I don't want to get in to too much detail until we have things finalized, but alas I can share my "inspirations" with you!

I have also decided that you lucky (albeit non-existent :P) ladies and gents will also get to partake in my learning to really bake adventure!!