If we were having a flower girl, she would wear something like this.
It’s a chic little look for the littlest member of the wedding party. And, the fact that the dress is a raw silk makes me swoon more. Maybe I’m just wishing they made this dress in adult size!
If you’re having a flower girl, will she wear a traditional dress or are you having her wear something more modern?
First off, can anyone say “slacker blogger?”
So this past weekend I decided to spend my Saturday morning by trying on gowns again. I made an appointment at a different shop than the two previous places. I mostly made this appointment, 1. to hit the shops by myself. Most people that know me know that I prefer to shop alone. I get more done and I can weed through the stuff that is not appealing to me. 2. It gave me a chance to try on some different designers, which I wanted to do. Considering the wedding is well over one year away, I have plenty of time to choose a dress. And, again, most people that know me know I am a planner.
Before I made this appointment, I only had two dresses on my favorites list (for the sake of keeping the dress a secret, I won’t be showing pictures until after the wedding, so those of you who are dying inside, I am sorry). I just have no had much luck finding more modern, contemporary gowns. Most of the shops, seeing as this is the midwest, carry fairly traditional gowns with heavy lace and beading. As I even mentioned in an earlier post, my dress consultant apologized for not having more modern gowns. AND after meeting with a wedding coordinator (more on that in a future post) last week, she even confirmed the above point, that this is the midwest and people still have fairly traditional wedding values.
Okay, back to my point. So I get to Town & Country Bridal Boutique (which I highly recommend), and am greeted by a super-friendly staff. My consultant, whom I loved, was so helpful and sweet. So much so in fact, that I made an appointment for her this Friday so my two best friends can join me on our dress shopping extravaganza (we’ll be visiting the two other shops that day as well). So, my consultant and I sat down to talk about budget, look & feel and the style I like. After she took some notes and got some personal information, we both browsed the gowns together. I was the first appointment of the day, so we managed to grab about 10 or so gowns for me to try one. After the first four (not kidding), I had given them all a “Yes” and she wrote them down on my file. I did manage to finally say “No” to a few.
So, in one dress shop visit, my list of favorites went from two to seven. Good thing the girls are coming in town this weekend to voice their opinions. The problem? All of the gowns just look so good on! It will be hard to choose. Very hard.
Any of you have a similar experience? Did you think you may have your gown narrowed down, only to find some more great options?!
And for those of you DYING to know what gowns I tried on, here are links to the designers websites. That’s all I’m giving you! And for the record, some of my “favorite” gowns are not listed on their sites.
So about a month ago I began my dress search. I know, you’re thinking, “But why, you have over a year until your wedding?” Well, for those of you out in blog world that don’t know me personally, I’m a planner. I like to take my time and make sure things are right. And most importantly, I like to get a head start.
Okay, back to the dresses. I started my search early in the hopes that I could find a great deal (I’m a sucker for a good deal) or just have the chance to really take my time with finding “The Dress” by going to several shops in town and trying on a million gowns. Who would have thought that after two dress shopping experiences, I would have found two top contenders.
My first visit was to the Demetrios salon in town. They have a HUGE selection and their shop is HUGE, so even if there are other brides there, it isn’t crowded. Before my appointment, I went online to search their gowns to get an idea of their inventory ahead of time. On the day of my appointment, I got there early (I hate being late) with my mom, thinking we could browse before my appointment slot, but my bridal consultant, who we’ll call “A” was ready to go. A took the time to hear me out on what I wanted in a dress (no lace or beading, modern/contemporary feel, something maybe a-line or mermaid and NOTHING poofy). For the most part she understood what I was looking for, but every so often A would pull out something that had characteristics I did not want (oh well). The bonus to Demetrios? You get to browse their gowns yourself and pull ones that look good to you and ignore the one’s you don’t like. Overall, I had a good first experience trying on gowns. A was very helpful (and very good and tightening/clipping the gowns, might I add). She wrote down my top two choices so I could bring my MOH and one of my BM in to look at a later time. I didn’t bother browsing through BM dresses…I want to figure mine out first (and I’ll save the BM dresses for another post)!
The second time around, mom, a friend and I went to The Ultimate Bride, which is touted as being one of the better salons in town. They have a large selection from many designers in a wide range of prices. Anyway, my consultant “B” was pretty easy going. We took a few minutes to go over what I was looking for in a gown, as I did with A at Demetrios. Then, B put me in a dressing room and off she went to pull dresses. This was one of the downer parts of gown shopping here. You could not go in back to browse the gowns yourself, so you had to rely on the expertise of your consultant to pull gowns she thinks you might like. She new I did not want lace or beading, and she did a good job of pulling dresses with little or none of both. She did happen to acknowledge that most of the gowns they carry have lace and beading and they have very few more modern/contemporary gowns. I guess that was another downside; they did not exactly cater to brides of all tastes. But, a plus was that they let you take photos in the gowns, which was great. And thanks to my good photographer friend, K, she took some “photographer-y” photos of me in the gowns!
There were two gowns I was hoping to try on while I was in The Ultimate Bride, but they did not have either in stock and I would have had to pay a fee to bring in a sample. Luckily, B was able to pull I dress that I really liked. It is nothing like the type of dress I thought I wanted, but it had so much character. It had a modern feel, with a bit of tasteful sex appeal. It was a great dress. So, I found my second contender at this dress shop.
For fear of revealing my possible dress choices, you all will have to wait for photos. And, for those of you who have seen them…keep those lips sealed! I want this one to be a secret!
My best friends are coming in town in about two weeks and I am having them tag along with me to two appointments, one at each shop so they can see both dresses, and hopefully I can try on a few others. And so the continual planning goes on in search of the perfect dress!
I really had an overall great time at both of my appointments and am looking forward to doing it again. Did any of you have a good dress shopping experience?
