We Have A Winner!

I found IT!

You guessed it; wedding dress shopping was a huge success; not only did I find "the" dress but it was such a fun weekend with my mom and sister. Like I said I was nervous that I would not find anything and that the experience would be stressful, etc. (can you tell I am a worrier?), well let me assure you that at one point I found several that I liked and it was not in the least bit stressful. I loved it, loved it so much in fact that I am going to apologize in advance for the bridezilla-long post.

Saturday morning we were ready; coffee in hand, gathering of the troops and off to our first appointment bright and early at 10:00!

Store #1: This was almost too successful, I found two dresses that I really liked; both of them were in line with what I thought that I wanted and exactly what I described to Noelle, the wonderful "Wedding Consultant" helping us (more on her later, she was the bomb.com). The feeling was indescribable the first time she put me in a dress and I walked out of the dressing room to my group of smiling and eager faces. I was fairly quiet during this appointment as seeing myself in a wedding dress was almost surreal' Laura took charge and did an excellent job of articulating what I was feeling, "I think she [Mary] means its too much" or "I think this is too "old" for a young Spring bride"; seriously Laura was great and I was so thankful she was there. After lots of "ooohs" and "ahhhs" we were off to the next appointment after we decided to return the next day to revisit the dresses that caught our eye.

Store #2: A little bit of a different experience but highly entertaining; it was a "Bridal consignment Shop" recommended to us by several people in which they carried dresses that had never been worn for whatever reason or dresses that were discontinued. This meant that what you saw/tried on was the dress that you got. This is also the reason that we had to wear gloves in this store; that's right, little white gloves. Since the dresses in there were the ones that were meant for purchase the employees did not want the oils from your hands being transferred to every dress that you touched. While this makes complete sense, I really wish someone had snapped a picture of our faces when they told us we each had to put gloves on. You were also instructed to try on things in your "Size Range"; meaning if you were a size 2 you could try up to a size 6 because anything larger than that would mean extreme alterations to get to it fit you. This limited our options to some very interesting choices in which I would literally walk out, look at my mom/sister and just "No". Off. Out. Never. If I walked down the aisle in this Blair would be thoroughly confused. After we departed it was time for lunch, a few hours of rest and then off to our final stop...

Store #3: I almost said "Yes to the Dress". Yep, we went to store in Atlanta where the TLC series is filmed. No cameras, didn't even apply to be on the show as I am not interesting enough to warrant television time but this place is huge and very efficiently run. I probably tried on 7 seven dresses here [a lot] and if I could eliminate one then it was taken out of the dressing room, never to be seen again. When I came out in the last dress of the day I could tell by the looks on my mother, sister, and aunts faces that they thought it was "it". I was not so convinced and took a stroll around the store, veil and all. I did feel like a bride but I didn't feel like me as a bride and that's what I needed so, much to the dismay of the group we left empty handed with an appointment to return the next afternoon.

Yes, this post is now officially out of control. I promise to wrap it up soon...

After a lovely dinner of Mexican food (no wedding diet yet) and watching a stellar flick on TCM with Grandmother we were back at store #1 the next day and while Noelle was getting our room ready a completely different dress caught my eye, I asked to try it on and that was it. I knew it was the one right away and when I saw my mother's and sister's faces I was sold. I feel like myself and I feel like a bride; mission accomplished.

I cannot wait to wear it on April 21st and a huge thank-you to my mom, sister, Aunt Sue, Teri, and Noelle for making this experience unforgettable.

If you are actually still reading this than a big thank-you to you as well, hope you all had a great weekend!

Mary