Wednesday, January 18

Wedding Wednesday :: Dress Shopping . Part 1


Ohh, the dress. 
No matter how hard you try, or how little you may care leading up to it, 
that damn dress will get to you. 
As I'm sure you've gathered by now, 
I am not the type of gal who had her wedding dreamed up, planned and bindered.
So naturally, I had not given any thought to wedding dresses.
Holy moly, there are a ton of wedding dress styles! 
And colours? Who knew there were so many shades of white!? 
I mean, obviously, I’m not a hermit, 
I know you can paint your house a million shades of white; 
I just never knew this rang true with wedding dresses.
It’s nuts. I’m beginning to wish I was one of those girls 
with the binder and the sticky notes!
But I digress; I’m beginning to get ahead of myself. 
The point is – I didn’t realize, I wasn’t prepared.

I tried on each of these dresses, or at least a similar style

Back in July when Jack I first became engaged, 
I decided to wait to go wedding dress shopping until the Christmas Holidays, 
when my sister would be home. 
I loved the idea of going dress shopping with 
my mom, my soon-to-be sister and my two sisters. 
So I waited; didn’t think twice about it, really. 
I barely even pinned anything.

…except one dress. One vera wang dress. 
Big mistake. 
Her style? It’s my style.
Her price point? It ate my price point for breakfast... 
then it was still hungry, so it ate a chocolate croissant. 
Yeah, I know - full time fancy, right?
In any case, I put that thought aside and embraced dress shopping.


It was amazing! I loved every minute. 
It was fun to have my mom and three sisters there, 
helping me navigate a six versus a seven, or an eight versus a ten. 
Trying on beautiful gowns, one after the other was awesome.
It was also exhausting. 
There were so many dresses.
I even tried on a whole slew of dresses just because 
the sales woman hadn’t seen them on anyone yet.
Not that I minded - who am I to turn down an old fashioned game of dress up?
Seriously though, after 4 hours of climbing in and out of dresses I was tuckered.
I had not been able to find anything similar to the vera but had found a couple of strong contenders. 


Strong contenders, that made me giddy (and slightly embarrassing) when I wore them. 
I was starting to make short list of my favourites when the sales woman’s’ daughter 
said something that stopped me in my tracks.
She said “all that matters, is that in 40 years, when you’re looking at your wedding photos,
you will love your dress as much as you did the day you bought it”.
Now, aside from the obvious questions: 
“Why would I be staring at these photos? How long have I been staring at them? 
Am I nostalgic for my youth, or am I trying to remember my own name?" 
this statement snapped me into focus.
All I could picture was that first dress that ever made an impression on me- the elusive vera.


So, now I'm in a state of  flux.
I know that it's ridiculous to dream an unattainable dream,
but I've got another month before I've got to nail this down so I'm going to
wait it out and test my fate.
See what I can do - what magic I can manage.
I'll keep you all posted.

Now for ONE photo of me actually in a dress... it's a charmer.
Please excuse the iphone photoness of it all.

$10 to whoever can guess what this pose is! Okay, probably not, but I'll think you're super cool.

27 comments:

  1. I can't wait to see what you actually pick out! I would have no idea where to start in the whole wedding dress area (good thing I'm the furthest thing from being engaged ever). I always say that I don't want to spend very much on my wedding dress... which means I will fall in love with a $20,000 dress.

    Melissa

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  2. Excellent Bridesmaid pose :) Very classy. 

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  3. If your heart is set on that ONE dress, have you looked into handmade? It's cheaper than one might think, two years ago I travelled four hours across country through ice and snow with my friend, her bridesmaid and her mom to a seamstress that was cheaper than all the others, lol! My friend designed her dress herself and had it made there, and I have to say it looked fab! I'm not entirely sure why we had to go across the country for it, but it sure did ;-)

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  4. Oh. My. God. These are all so unbelievably gorgeous!!!

    Are there any secondhand dress stores near you? I know there's one here in Columbus that sells dresses that were worn at weddings and consigned, as well as sample dresses that were never worn. They carry some Vera. 

    Or just get that top dress. Or either of the next two. They're beautiful.

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  5. Soooooo pretty!  Bridesmaids.  In the street.  

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  6. I went wedding dress shopping last Saturday and I. HEAR.  YOU.  There are a million dresses, styles, sizes, lace, ruffles, beads, sequins, white, eggshell, off white, etc.  Wowza and there is a lot of pressure put on "the dress".  But I ended up buying the one and I am really stoked.  I now believe for sure that "when you know, you just know". On a matrimonial front, if you are down for a really funny kick ass bride video, please visit my post from today and scroll down to the end.  I promise you will laugh your face off. 

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  7. Haha, the food poisoning Bridesmaids pose! Classic. I love it. 

    I am getting married in June and bought my dress months ago. Sadly enough, my sister is in Germany, my mom is in California (along with my best friends), and I'm in Florida... so I brought my fiance with me. Thankfully I think he already forgot what the dress looks like. I like what the woman told you about liking the dress years from now, and I think going with something classic and that feels very "you" will be perfect. You will look lovely in anything!! Good luck choosing :) 

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  8. Love them all! good luck!  I bougth mine my first time shopping. We decided to push our date back due to my new job and now I'm so terrified that I'll find a dress I love more! 

    I swear that last dress is almost just like one of the first ones I tried on!! hahaha! My mom saw it and had to see it on me.

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  9. I'm sure you'll find the 'right' dress. But OMG 4 hours? I would not be able to handle that, and I certainly don't think my mother would be able to handle that. Kudos to your peeps for putting up with it. You'll look beautiful no matter what I'm sure.

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  10. So I skimmed and I don't think anyone's mentioned this yet but if they have ignore me. There is a super inexpensive bridal place in the US called David's Bridal that carries a Vera Wang line of dress that range from about $700 to $2500. I know it won't be your dress but they are still very Vera. 

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  11. that vera wang dress you pinned is absolutely amazing!  

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  12. Hey Soren, congrats on your wedding!  You seem really organized, and in case you need to build out your guest list, budget, etc, check out http://wedding-guest-list.com/ - you can add all your addresses in here, print it, send it, and it adds up your guest count for you etc.

    and also http://www-wedding-budget.com/ - helps you create an itemized budget and it comes with a reception site comparison chart for all your venues as well.

    One big draw of these is no need to sign up for a website service, so no login and the sheets keep all your information private.  Also no recurring fees which is nice.

    Good luck!!
    Katie

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  13. THANK YOU! It is actually my true love. I cannot even help it. I'd say my second love is the first one, at the top of the post.

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  14. ahhh I love you! Thank you for telling me this! I'm totally going to look into what David's can offer. 

    How is your dress shopping / wedding planning going?? I totally miss you

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  15. oh my goodness, it was EXHAUSTING! I think we only powered through because one of my sisters was leaving the next day. I would not recommend it!

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  16. Oh crazy! It would be amazing to not have it on my mind anymore - keep your blinders on and do not look at wedding dress magazines.

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  17. haha thanks! I couldn't help myself.

    don't worry about it! I totally would have brought Jack if mine were scattered. Boys are great for forgetting dresses and fashion.

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  18. Nutty! Was it your first time out?? I'm really excited that you found the perfect one! That's how I feel about the vera one, only I can't put it on... We'll see how it goes.

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  19. I'll have to check into the second hand stores, I haven't heard of any but they must exist somewhere!

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  20. That's amazing!! I actually put a call into a dress maker in the valley (1 hour away) and I'm going to meet with her soon! I'm really hoping that it will work out...

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  21. hahah that's exactly how it goes! Initially I was thinking 1,000 was a good amount but then I realized just how cheap I could probably get it for so now I'm aiming for $500, if not lower...

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  22. I had one super horrible dress experience and decided to put off trying more for a while. We aren't able to get married until next Spring anyway so we've got some time. I miss you too! Well for me it isn't as bad because at least you're still blogging. I was having a hard time motivating myself when it's always dark when I leave for work and get home. Maybe I'll get back into it when the weather improves.

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  23. Ohh good call! I would put it off if there was time for me to do so too... it's such a hassle and it's also intimidating depending on the store.

    I totally get it on the motivation thing. Winters are tough and definitely take a toll on the blogging. If you're not up for blogging, you best start tweeting more, that way I can stalk you back! :)

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