When I asked for wedding blog post suggestions a couple of weeks ago, the topic that most people wanted to hear about–by far!–was my wedding dress. While you won’t be seeing any pictures until after the wedding, I’m happy to share that I do have a dress as of last week! Today I’ll share the story of how I found it.
A couple of years ago, before E and I were even seriously talking about marriage, an old classmate who I followed on Pinterest pinned the most gorgeous wedding dress to her wedding inspiration board. I fell in love with it, bookmarked the page, and promptly forgot about it as a wedding wasn’t in the works at all.
Fast forward to May when we became engaged and immediately that dress came to mind. Unfortunately, nowhere in the US stocked the dress. And I certainly wasn’t about to order it without trying on a single gown!
So, once we were in California and I had a bit more free time, I started researching bridal stores in Minnesota that carried similar dresses. I flipped through endless pages of online catalogs. However, I could only find two stores with a decent selection of dresses in my preferred style. And they didn’t even stock most of them in-store. According to the bridal shop assistants I spoke to over the phone, one particular detail of my preferred style is not fashionable right now in the wedding world.
Regardless, I booked appointments at those two stores for over Thanksgiving. I was pretty sure I’d end up ordering my dress without getting to try it on. However, I still wanted to have the experience of dress shopping with my mom and sister.
Last week, we were home for the holidays. The day after Thanksgiving, we headed out to St. Paul for our first appointment at The Wedding Shoppe.
The Wedding Shoppe isn’t your ordinary big, warehouse-y bridal store. It’s located in an old, beautiful house and has only a few dressing rooms. When you book an appointment, they schedule you with a personal consultant to pull dresses in your preferred style and price range. They also reserve a room with mirrors and seats for whoever you bring along, so that you can model in private. For someone like me–who’s not accustomed to modeling and dislikes a lot of attention–this was perfect. I couldn’t have felt more comfortable shopping there!
We walked in and immediately my sister said “Ooooh… dresses!” I think it started to feel a bit more real for everyone once we saw the satin and lace!
We browsed the floor a bit before my consultant arrived. Then, we were whisked off to a private room to talk about styles and price. She was good–it only took her a few minutes to procure a bunch of dresses that fit what I asked for.
Then it was time to model! I tried on a bunch of dresses that day. But really, my mind was made up the moment I put the second dress on.
The first thing I thought when I slipped it on? “Wow… this is SO comfortable.” We’re talking pajama-level comfortable, friends. And it was nearly a dead ringer for my dream dress.
My mom and sister loved it and agreed that it essentially was my dream dress, except for one small detail which I actually liked more. They asked, did I feel like a bride in it? Well, yes–but more importantly, I felt like myself. Everyone insisted that I try on the rest of the dresses, though, just to make sure!
I cycled through the rest, trying different shapes and necklines in the process. Nothing could match my dress, though! So I tried it on again, just to be sure. Yup. After admiring it from all sides, I turned to my mom and sister and said “This is it!” Everyone kind of squealed and my consultant asked, “Are you saying yes to the dress?!” It was pretty cheesy but also fun 😛
She took my measurements and we headed back downstairs to place the order! (Where I corrected the spelling of my last name for the thousandth time this year. Not a single vendor has managed to spell it right on a contract, ha!) We also found out it was discounted because of Black Friday, so that was a nice surprise.
Then we took some pictures by the “I said yes” wall and headed to a lunch out, to congratulate ourselves for a successful shopping trip!
But tell me, if you’re married, how did you find the dress? And if you’re not, what’s your dream dress? Full skirt, long train, sleek and modern, a nontraditional color?