Dress Shopping

So I need a wedding dress. Out of everything, I was dreading this the most. I do not remember liking dress shopping for high school formals, so this seemed like it would be a similar experience. Aaron even suggested I take a day and go before we went back to school - more so that I would be gone and out of his hair. Unfortunately there is not a whole lot of options for looking here in Culpeper or even anywhere near here. I decided I should go to a big place like David's Bridal because after poking around online I realized that I had NO IDEA what I was even looking for regarding a wedding dress. David's Bridal is a big place and should have lots of dresses so I could try on a variety and figure out what I liked. Turns out the closest two are either Northern Virginia or Richmond... and really that's where I needed to go to see or try anything.

Turns out the opportunity presented itself. Dad had been visiting my uncle and visited on his way through. He was also moving a mattress and sort of at a loss of how he was going to get it in his house by himself. So I sort of invited myself over and asked Dad if he would go dress shopping with me. This should not have been a complete surprise to him as I asked/warned him earlier in the summer. I am not sure what he thought about it except, "You just don't pass up opportunities like this." I called on the way to Richmond and set up an appointment for that evening with no difficulties.

After a dinner of pancakes, we arrived, I signed in and gave them all the details they wanted, and they turned us loose in the racks. Dad flipped through the book while I flipped through the hanging dresses. It is very overwhelming at first because there are so many choices. It was easy for me to flip past some of them because they were so lacy or so jeweled or sequinned, but some of them are difficult to figure out on a hanger or you're not sure how they will look. Cherese met us in the racks and asked if we needed any help. Of course we thought we did, but turns out we were doing alright. She took a dozen or so dresses that I had shown an interest in over to the dressing room and I proceeded to try them on. Cherese pretty much left us to our own devices piping in her opinion of how great I looked, but was otherwise occupied by a busty snotty bridezilla who could not zip her own dresses.

The changing room was a bit small for the poofiness of some of the dresses, but I developed a system. Get the dress out of the plastic bag. Unzip the dress, leave it on the hanger and crawl into it from the bottom. Once emerging mostly from the dress, slip off the hanger loops, and slip the dress over my head. Hilarious. I spent a lot of time giggling. After getting the dress on I stepped out onto my personal pedestal and looked in the mirror. There were no mirrors in the dressing room so you had to come out if you wanted any idea of what you looked like. Few dresses look good looking down your front. Dad would offer his opinions as would everyone else in the vicinity whether they worked there or not. We weighed each dress against the last until I tried all of the ones on I originally picked. We also looked through the rack again, but tried few others.

Turns out the one Dad liked the best was also the one he picked out of the catalog and also the favorite of someone else's mother (on me). It also has fared well in the ratings through photos to the rest of my family.

The next day Dad fixed me a signature "Tom-lette" and then we went to go pick up a sink for one of his jobs. After dropping it off, we decided to try another bridal shop we had seen the day before despite not having an appointment. Most of the dresses in this shop were covered in lace, sequins, and beads, so initially I wasn't sure what I would find and wasn't sure if they would be within my price range. The people here were ok, but in my opinion not as nice and I did not have as good of a time. I do not think they liked that I did not have an appointment and said I only had an hour with the consultant because she had an appointment coming in. I only tried on half a dozen dresses and only liked one, but I just didn't like the people as much. It was one of those places where the girl helps you dress and then you have to make a lot of small talk, on top of the fact that when she went to get more dresses I was trapped in the little room by myself twiddling my thumbs.

Despite a less positive experience we decided to try one more place we had passed that morning that was close before having lunch. We didn't have an appointment for this place either, but these ladies didn't appear to mind and were very nice. They had trees decorated with photos of happy brides, wedding parties, and thank you notes. I tried another dozen dresses at this shop and was having a very difficult time picking just the top two. Somehow we managed and Dad snapped a photo of them.

So I have been 3 places, picked the top two at each place, and thrown one out. So I have five I am considering. It was a lot more fun than I thought it was going to be and Dad will tell you that I really do look beautiful in all of them - even some of the ones I do not like. I am not sure how true that is, but I do agree that I look great in a lot of them and that is why the decision will be a lot more difficult. So I am going one more place tomorrow by myself that's closer to home and then try to make a decision. I imagine this will involve going to try some of them on again...

One thing I find really amusing is how much other people like to look at the dresses and pick one out. After going to two shops, even with the photos, it was difficult to remember what the ones I had liked before looked like, so I printed the photos Dad took to sort of look at them all at once and be able to compare them. Plus what I see in the mirror isn't really the same thing I see in the photos so its nice to have a different perspective. Dad did an excellent job of capturing the front and the back and sometimes I didn't even look at the backs! I do not know how I will choose... but at least I know I will look good. :)

And sorry I haven't posted any photos but I can't have Aaron seeing them! (But here is a link for one with potential)