Wedding dress shopping, volume 2

Okay, you all said that you wanted photos from this weekend's wedding dress shopping experience, so I took you at your word. On Saturday, armed with my camera, I headed to North Carolina's bridal superstore with my mother and sister. I had already found a dress that I loved, but it was a bit out of my price range, so the hope was to find a dress that I liked as much at a fraction of the price.

The secondary goal was for me to try on lots of dresses that actually fit me to get a better idea of what suits me and what I like in a wedding gown. And oh my god, it was so amazing to get to try on dresses that actually fit me (some were even too big!) and see what I look like in a wedding gown. The oh-god moment came when I tried on a veil and dress at the same time--it was the first time that I actually felt bridal. It was a little scary. But mostly amazing. See?


The first dress that I tried on made happy because it made my waist look small. The satiny, a-line style definitely suited me. However, it was a bit too centered and princess-y, and I didn't like how round the neckline was.


The next one had this awful, straight neckline that was about two inches too high, and a weird ruffle thing in the skirt that I just did not like. It had this asymmetrical thing going on in the bodice that I liked, but it needed to be a couple inches further to the side--apparently it wasn't asymmetrical enough for the likes of me.


The third one was a halter style, which suits me very well in casual clothing, and it made me feel very tall, which I liked. But the halter thing doesn't seem to work as well on me when it comes to wedding gowns, and the rest of the gown felt very plain.


I found a couple of dresses I liked that were too small for me to try on, so my sister stepped in and modeled them for me. First, a dress that I absolutely loved and that looked totally beautiful on my sister--but it was very unforgiving, especially in the stomach, and I was pretty sure it wouldn't look nearly as good on me. Which is too bad, because it was an absolute steal at $150.


And another dress that looked great on her, making her waist look tiny, but somehow I couldn't quite wrap my head around the idea of it on me.


Just one left now, and while I liked it very much, it didn't call to me nearly as much as my front-runner did. The shopping experience was overall very useful for me and made me feel a lot happier and more excited about wearing a wedding gown. And this last dress was definitely pretty--great satin, a good cut, an interesting neckline, and it suited me--but it just didn't feel exactly, perfectly right the way the front-runner did. None of the dresses we saw this weekend did.

Still, it was a gorgeous dress and if for some reason I am unable to get my front-runner, this dress would be a suitable backup.


So this upcoming weekend, my sister and I are going back to the original bridal boutique to look at my front-runner again and make sure that we aren't hallucinating about how great it was. And if we weren't, and it is as perfect as we remember, then I will be ordering it. And it really should be perfect, because it incorporates all the elements that we liked about these other dresses--interesting neckline, asymmetrical bodice, a-line skirt, gorgeous satin material, lovely train, flattering on a pear shape. Like I said. Perfect.

So now I know. The third, and hopefully final, volume in this saga should be appearing next week.