So I thought I would share my story of hunting for my wedding dress! You see, most people that I talk to about wedding dress shopping say that "their dress" was the first, fourth, seventh (aka. insert any number under 10) dress that they tried on, and my story is a bit unique in that way.
Ok we will start with a little preview as to give you a bit of a glimpse of the kind of day I was having! This story is told in a bit of a dramatic fashion, but I tried to be accurate and not exaggerate. Sorry, it's super long, so I understand if you don't read it :P
Friday, right after lunch, I headed into the city with my Mom and my Maid of Honor, C.
I had decided that we were going to sew the bridesmaid dresses, and a few days prior I found some amazing fabric! But...the store only had enough for 1.5 dresses, and I have 3 girls! So, I tried calling a few of the stores in a near by city to see if they had some of the same fabric that I could snatch up! After being hung up on once, then put on hold for over 15 min and then hung up on again, and then no answer, I gave up, very frustrated! So, my amazing Mom called the next day and we thought we had it all sorted out! She even got them to hold the fabric longer then they usually do, because we were from out of town. She's my hero!
We decide to stop in at the fabric store first thing on Friday, seeing as they've been so wonderful to hold it for us! We arrive and Mom gets in the line to talk to someone about getting the fabric. So I decide to browse around to see if they have any other amazing fabric! Well, I find the exact fabric that was supposed to be put on hold, out on the rack. So, a bit frustrated that it wasn't on hold, but yet slightly relieved that they have some, we set out to measure it to see if there's enough! Well, to make a long story short (or shorter) we were there for almost 1/2 an hr trying to get the lady to measure it, and they were talking and I was getting more and more agitated! So it turns out there wasn't enough fabric :( So at this point, I say "Scrap this, we're wasting good wedding dress shopping time on this and I'm getting sad!"
So, trying to be happy about the exciting dress hunt, we started at a place that I have heard some good reports about. When we arrived the sales lady was super friendly and helpful! I showed her examples of dresses I liked and so she started pulling ones she thought I'd like and we started browsing and pulling ones too. C was such a huge help and blessing. I would pull one out and she would grab it from me and bring it to the fitting room! She would hold my stuff when I needed my hands, she simply waited on my hand and foot! I tried to say thanks a lot so that she didn't feel like she was being taken advantage of. She's an amazing friend! My mom was also super, she totally understood my style, or should I say "styles" because there were many!
I tried on about 30 at the first store. I had 6 or 7 favourites that we put aside, and then once we went through them again there were 2 that I really liked. One C picked out, it was gorgeous, but $1,500 :( The other one I think my mom picked but I can't remember, and it was also around $1,500 :( We got a real sense of the necklines that I liked, and ones that looked horrible. Also an idea of the shade of dress I wanted. The sales lady was also gave her honest opinion, which in this case was welcomed, and we confirmed the waistline that looked best on me, and it happened to be what I thought it would be before we even got to shopping.
So then we went to the 2nd bridal shop, where one of my best friends found her wedding dress, also a well known store. I was pleased to find that the store had barely any customers in it, which was great! The sales ladies were also very friendly and helpful. So we pulled dresses, and C ran back and forth, forth and back. So once I filled up a rack and a changing room I decided I should probably start trying some on! So "the battle" began again. In and out, in and out, in and out! I am rather speedy in the changing room I'll have you know! I tried on another 20 or 25 dresses there. This sales lady told me I could only have 3 set aside as "favourites" though. I got her up to 5 ;) So then I narrowed them down to 1 dress, 1 dress that cost $2,200 (big shock face, sad face, frustrated face)! So, the belief that my mom has and that I have come to embrace a few years ago still remains true, I HAVE EXPENSIVE TASTE! Bahhh! See, that wouldn't be a bad thing if it weren't for the fact that we are really really really trying to keep costs super low for this wedding, because we simply are kind of poor! So, by this time, the stores were going to be closing in a matter of minutes so we decided it was time to check into our hotel and get some supper!
Oh, I forgot to mention, I managed to whack my baby toe against a step or door or something and that broke my baby toe nail right down the center and it was bleeding, quite a lot for a baby toe nail, and I noticed this while I was in the changing room with about 4 WHITE wedding dresses! I don't think my blood made it onto any of them, although I will admit I was a bit scared to look! I also managed to scrape myself with a needle, so there's a small "gash" about 9 inches long on my leg! It's been a week and a half and it is still healing! Boy oh boy, it was starting to get painful not only psychologically but also physically!
Ev and I had Bible study to go to in the evening, so we went to that, exhausted and discouraged, but we had a great time! Then he brought me back to the hotel for the night where I had a horrible sleep. I don't think I can even call it sleep, because it felt like I was lying awake the entire night. Now in actuality I know I did manage to acquire some sleep, but it was so minimal I'm wanting to call it a nap. Although when I do nap, it's usually for long periods of time, like 2 hrs, so maybe this wasn't even a nap, maybe it should have been called a cat nap!
Needless to say I was a bit of a grouch, but I was trying to keep a positive attitude. Since most bridal salons only open at 10:00 am we decided to head to a fabric store in search of some bridesmaid dress fabric at 9:00am. My older sister joined us, which was great! She has a great eye for fashion and my style! We browsed the massive store, probably my favourite fabric store! It is one of my happy places, and I definitely don't spend enough time there! So we found some amazing fabric! And, it was even cheaper then the other fabric! Hallelujah! So, we bought the fabric, and zippers for all 3 girls and it came to $28.00!!!! Gasp! But we still needed to buy lining, thread and the patterns! But still, I was stoked!!
So then we headed to the dress salons, determined to not try on 30, since we had a much better idea of what I liked etc and we didn't want to waste time! So at the first store, I didn't even find one that I loved, but my sister found one she wanted to see me in, so I humoured her! It was pretty, but definitely not my dress. So then off to a store down the street that had a dress that I saw in a magazine and liked! On the way, we saw another store, with a huge "Up to 75% off" sign in the window! Well...let me tell you, we weren't going to walk by that!
We walked in the door and started looking! I was told that I have very expensive taste, again, but the sales lady said she had a dress very similar, if not exactly the same as one that I liked! So we started pulling, about 12 dresses or so! In and out, in and out, in...oh this one is quite nice, and it's only $800, but I don't LOVE it, so put it on the maybe pile, in and out, in and out, in and out, ooooh this one has pockets and it's pretty, put it on the pile, in and out, in and out, in and out! I was starting to think that I would have to just settle for the $800 dress, because it was pretty and I could afford it, even though I didn't love it, because I had given up on that "this is the one" feeling! Then she put another dress in my room, and I thought to myself, this one looks promising. So I put it on, and said out loud, "Ooh I really like this one!" while I was still in the changing room! So I came out, and it was gorgeous and I loved it, and I didn't want to shop for any other dresses and risk this one being taken, since I had to buy off the rack! But, it was still more money then I wanted to spend. So I stood there in the dress, humming and hawing, and the sales lady eventually said she could give me 20% OFF! So that made it more reasonable, and then my Mom said that she wanted to pay for part of the dress, so it made it down to a cost I felt OK with spending! Praise the Lord! I found my dress!!! What I relief, and I LOVE IT!!!
After that we found the lining, patterns and thread for the bridesmaid dresses and we were able to use our 50% off coupons! Then we went to Michaels to look at invitation paper, stamps, decorations, flowers etc! We found invitations that I really liked so I took pictures with my phone and sent them to Ev! He liked them too! We had coupons for those too, so we got a bit of a discount on those! Everything was coming together! Thanks be to God! He is always faithful!
So that, is my very long story of my wedding dress shopping experience! :)
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