#93 My [Wedding] Dress Journey

Oh my gosh ladies. It's amazing after 4 years, I still love my bridal gown. I went through at least 5 different appointments at David's Bridal trying to find the perfect dress. Seriously. It. was. awful. The worst part was I didn't know what I wanted. I was just going in blindly. Even when I did figure out 1 or 2 things I liked, the consultant would put me in dresses that didn't match my likes at all. At the end of the day, I made a list of things I did or did not like:

• Hate: trains, pick-ups, lace, any color other than white, lots of detail work, elbow/finger-tip veils, bubble veils, ball gowns
• Likes: white, simple, ruching, simple, cathedral-length veils
• Indifferent: straps vs. strapless, bird-cage veils 

That's about it. I finally had that figured out when I called my BFF E and mama P and told them to meet me at David's Bridal on a Tuesday in February 2012. I had exactly 3 dresses I wanted to try on. One they only had in a size 2 (2!). The other 2 I tried on. One I hated. One I loved and bought and is my dress (more on that later).

This is a pic I took from DavidsBridal.com however, I don't have the link anymore. This is the dress that only came in a size 2. I don't live my life with regrets, it's not worth it. However, I do wonder what would have happened if I had tried it on.

The first dress I tried on was at a private bridal studio that I couldn't take pictures at. They only had 1 dress in the entire shop that was over size 12. Ugh. It was beautiful, but NOT my style. So, then I went to David's Bridal and tried on dresses.

This is the first dress at David's I tried on. I absolutely loved it. However, being the very first dress I tried on (in 2011) I didn't think too much about it. Although, looking back, This was definitely the second best dress I tried on.

This is in the days before smart phones. I thought this dress was super cute. Not the most flattering dress I've ever tried on though it gave me a super tiny waste. It was cute, but too cutesy and not formal enough.

Did I mention I don't like hi-lo hemlines? You can add that to my list of dislikes. This dress was cute and had pockets! However, it was definitely not the dress I wanted to wear to my wedding.

Another super cute short dress, but why am I only trying on short dresses? I was not happy at the end of this session and left a bit dis-heartened. How is it that I can't find a dress that fits me properly and looks good too?!

So, inbetween dress trying on sessions, a year has passed (you can tell by my longer hair). I thought, hey, we're getting married this year! I should really go try on more wedding dresses! So, I did. That was a huge mistake. I tried on 10 dresses this time. Really. It was bad. I only like the first dress here. Plus, I was extremely sun-burnt so I wasn't feeling fantastic.

Here we go...

So, this dress I actually liked. I thought it was so adorable. I actually tried it on at 2 different times. I just couldn't get over how tiny my waist looked like in this dress. Plus all the ruching. My only problem was there just wasn't enough detail. It was just a little too simple and the neckline was a little too low.

Can you tell I was about to smack someone. This dress was NOT what I wanted. My consultant obviously wasn't looking for what I wanted. Plus that seem near the bottom comes right out at my *yoo-hoo* and looked really strange.

Now this was a pretty dress. The only problem was it only came in ivory. I could NOT get it in white. That is a huge problem. Anything that is ivory looks terrible on my skin tone. I went home after this. It was just really bad. I was a little slap-happy in this pic, can you tell?

This is the day I bought my wedding dress. This is NOT the dress. I am a woman, hear me roar! This dress was not able to stand on her own. Even with the super sparkly belt, it was only a 9 out of 10. Then she put that stupid head band on and a finger tip length veil. I'm just like: get me the hell outta this thing.

Then I tried on my dress. It was gorgeous. I loved it. I started laughing. Everyone was very confused. Why the hell was I laughing. I was laughing trying to cover up my tears of happiness. I had on my cathedral-length veil. I had a flower in my hair. I was with mama P and BFF E. It was perfect. Mama P paid for my dress as a gift for my wedding. I came home with my awesome wedding dress.

What was your reaction to your "the dress" moment? Did you say yes to the dress with laughter and tears? There is a video, somewhere, of me ringing a bell when I finally said yes to the dress. However, I can't post that until after the wedding because it shows me in my dress! 

So, before I go. I thought I'd leave you with this little bonus. I found a site called moncheribridals.com that gave me an entire list of bridal gown terms. Click here for the link.