For my first wedding dress shopping experience, I invited my Nana, my Mom, my best friend, and my future Mother- In-Law. I figured my Nana would give me the classic advice, my Mom would give me the blunt advice, my best friend would keep me trendy, and my MIL would offer her opinion, but more importantly would get the experience of going dress shopping and enjoying girl time as she has two sons.
Wedding Dress Shopping Tip #1
Bring a small but good support system when wedding dress shopping so that when your experience doesn’t go as planned, you aren’t showing the world your breasts, butt, or tears!
I set up two appointments in one day and rallied the troops. I will not say where we went except that the places were in the southern part of the state. The night before my appointment, Casey asked me why I looked a little stressed and I told him that I just did not think I was going to have a great experience. He tried to say that I would have fun with the group I picked regardless. I headed to bed and filled my head full of ‘Say Yes to the Dress’ Success Stories!
The next day, we headed to the first place and waited for them to unlock the doors. We sat in a posh styled waiting room for my name to be called. They gave me a clipboard and asked me to fill in some details about my wedding and myself. I got to the last line and it said budget…I was stumped. First of all, because I am a frugal fanny and second of all, because I do not want to skip over a perfectly good lower cost dress because my consultant flies to the top of my budget. I ask for advice from my mom. I know this is a bad idea when she says, “Put down $100,000!” I say “What?!” She then replies with a chuckle, “I just want to see what they would bring you!” Instead I sheepishly wrote down half of my intended budget. Then they took us to our room.
Wedding Dress Shopping Tip #2
Remember that buying your dress does not include costs for alternations, accessories such as veils, petty coats, shoes, jewelry, etc.
We sat on a gorgeous couch and the girl who brought us to our room said that we were lucky because we got a bathroom in our dressing room. I think it is always nice to have that amenity and do not think anything of it. I end up realizing quite quickly that it is a good thing for that restroom or I would have had to get buck naked in front of my group to put on a bra and slip (for modesty)! I put the feminine version of Hugh Hefner’s robe on and sat to wait.
Wedding Dress Shopping Tip #3
Bring a good strapless bra if you have one and be prepared to show your underwear! Anyone from your consultant to your entourage could have the pleasure of seeing it!
My consultant came in. She seemed nice enough, but there was no true spark or connection between us. She did not ask me if my budget was firm but she did ask which styles I like. I mentioned that I am open to anything as I have never been wedding dress shopping before.
Fast forward 20 minutes and she brought back four dresses, one ball gown, one mermaid, one trumpet and one sheath. I was fairly certain they were the ugliest versions of their kind. Then I learned that I would be jumping, diving, shimmying and stuffing myself into these dresses in front of my group! Literally, there was no ‘big reveal’ or “What do you think of this?” as their faces let me know what they thought as soon as they saw the hanger come in, then as I squeezed myself into it and even as I stood in front them. Seriously?! I thought I would at least get a little tear-welling action from my Mom and Nana seeing me in a wedding dress for the first time…nope, nothing.
I narrowed it down to one maybe. The consultant left for another 20 minutes and came back with three more dresses. I narrowed these down to one maybe and the process was repeated. Luckily she found out that her next appointment had canceled and we had another hour and half. I was relieved because at this rate I knew we weren’t going to find anything.
As we sat there we could hear women in the other rooms…”Ooooohhh and aaaaaaaahh.” We started joking that we wanted that experience and we wondered how many visits that reaction had taken.
My consultant came in again and said that they usually do not do this, but would like to offer me the opportunity to come out back and look for options myself. Me, my Mom and my Bestie all started glowing. Of course we wanted to go out back. In the hallway my Mom gave me a pep talk. She said I was not allowed to look at price tags and that we needed to see what looked the best. I am pretty sure we pulled 20 dresses. I had about an hour left, so I started diving and jumping into them right away. Finally we narrowed it down to three. I knew we were in trouble when we started naming them. ‘The tablecloth’ was my favorite, but not a winner with the ladies. It was a thick, bold lace that weighed more than my black lab and had a fairly long train. “The Jersey Shore or Chiquita Banana Dress” had bling on the bust, a ruched bodice and a flowing organza mermaid bottom. “The Mature Bride” was a two layered sheath dress that everyone was raving about but I just couldn’t figure out why I wasn’t a huge fan.
We still had another store to go to, and still needed to eat. We headed to a nearby restaurant, and there I broke down. I started welling up, then crying. I was tired and hungry, but overall I knew I was overwhelmed and under satisfied with my first wedding dress shopping experience. Could it get better? Or would it be more of the same?
