It's all about the dress...

I don’t think that anyone truly realizes what it is like to shop for a wedding dress. I don’t consider myself an overly sentimental person or someone that has a hard time making a decision, but on this… I did waver… and still continue to waver. I definitely fell into the category of having an easier time saying yes to my fiancé then saying yes to my wedding dress. It probably was partially my fault..

I went out with my mom for the first time shortly after we got engaged and just went to one store to have fun and see what the dresses were like. The dress I fell in love with that day was a modified A-line with ribbing detailing at the waist and hem… and sparkles lots of them. It was that princess dress that even for someone who hasn’t been dreaming about the perfect dress since they were a little girl, seemed like what a bride should wear. Skip forward a few weeks to when we went to the wedding of one of my fiancé’s good friends… the bride walked down the aisle and he leaned over and said to me… look at all those sparkles… she is like glowing… don’t get a dress with sparkles… now while I know that he was only half serious… to a bride-to-be’s ears what I heard was “if you walk down the aisle with a sparkle on you, your husband to be won’t think you are beautiful”… not exactly what someone wants to hear on their wedding day. And while he has since retracted the statement and said what he knows I want to hear “whatever you wear will look amazing”… it doesn’t matter, sparkles are out and I am going nowhere near them.

Truth be told the dress wasn’t really me anyways, which I knew deep down inside.
Thus began the quest for the perfect dress.

The second time I went out, also with my mom, we went to three shops. At the first shop, nothing but sparkles and mermaid dresses. Mermaid dresses were recently added to the “NO” column after another tactful comment of my fiancé. And I quote “whatever you do don’t wear one of those mermaidy tight things”. Now while it may seem funny that he made this mistake not once, but twice, I also must take part of the blame on that one… if I hadn’t been making him watch Say Yes to the Dress, Platinum Weddings or whatever other wedding show was on WE TV, he wouldn’t have even known what kind of silhouette was a mermaid in the first place!

Anyways, back to the second round of visits. At the first two stores nothing seemed quite right, all of the dresses looked good and were very pretty, but nothing seemed like me. Finally we made it to our third and final stop of the day, I was already worn out and only found three dresses in the store to try on, and then the wonderful salesperson at The Saavy Bride (in Stonewood Village) pulled the perfect dress for me. On the hanger it didn’t look too special, simple A line, tucking at the waist and similar detail at the bottom, when I tried it on, I just felt like me and “comfortable”. I thought I was supposed to have an aha moment, double over or begin to float in front of the mirror… none of which happened. I did glance over at my mom though, who said “it is just so you” and proceeded to tear up, and I started to tear up… needless to say there were emotions…. But still no floating…. So we left the store.

In a moment of weakness or maybe WE TV got the best of me, I am not sure. But I decided it would be a good idea to go to Saks… and try on designer dresses… “just for fun”. Of course they were all over $4k and gorgeous and were closer to a size 2 then a size 16 so they actually worked better when I tried them on. Of course a dress looks better without those big bulky attractive clips in the back!!! So of course, I fell in love with a dress there… but it wasn’t perfect, it didn’t have buttons down the back (which the one at Saavy did) and it did have a bow on the back which would have to be taken off (my idea, not due to another perfect fiancé comment).

In the middle of all of this a family member made a comment about the dress at Saavy making me look short (due to the detailing at the bottom). Let’s face it, I am short, I am five feet tall! But that is NOT what I wanted to hear from someone so close to me! And not very helpful in me making my decision…

After tossing and turning and thinking about both dresses, I went out again, this time with my mom and a bridesmaid. First stop was another bridal shop, second shop was to most likely purchase at Saavy. Once again, more beautiful dresses, but nothing that felt like “me” when I tried it on. Finally, we made the trek to Saavy, as soon as I tried it in I felt relieved and when I saw the expressions on the faces of my mom and bridesmaid… I knew it was the one… even if it does make me look short :)