Prior to being engaged, I had an obsession with wedding-related shows. I could sit and watch hours of Bridezillas, Four Weddings, Say Yes to the Dress, and My Fair Wedding on a Sunday afternoon with my mom. It's funny how now that I'm going through the whole wedding planning process, I will actively avoid watching most of those shows {except Bridezillas... that show is hilarious}. I feel like those kind of shows give you unrealistic expectations about weddings and the wedding planning process. David Tutera is not going to show up and magically increase my budget to $50K and make everything magazine-perfect, and Randy is not going to show up and find me the dress of my dreams that fits into my $6000 dress budget. Come on, now.
So it came time to start thinking about wedding dresses {timelines say you're supposed to purchase it 9-12 months before your wedding}. I had tried on a few before at a small kind of run down bridal store, but nothing serious. I have been getting some inspiration from bridal blogs like Green Wedding Shoes and Style Me Pretty and started paying particular attention to the wedding dresses the brides were wearing. There was one in particular I fell in love with, and noticed it pop up several times on different blogs. I started having wedding dreams and in them I was always wearing that same dress. I then decided to try and track down where the dress came from, hoping it wasn't from some ridiculously expensive boutique in England or something. It turns out it was from good ol' David's Bridal. I never really envisioned myself as a DB bride, since I usually tend to prefer to support smaller businesses, but the dress was so pretty I decided that I at least needed to go try it on.
I scheduled an appointment at David's Bridal this past week, so that my sister {who was visiting from Florida} could go with our mom and I. My sister is a lot older than me and we weren't raised together, and we just reconnected a few years ago after years of separation. I thought it would be a really great sister-bonding experience to have her come with me to try on wedding dresses, and I'm so happy she was able to come out to visit! I tried on multiple dresses, including the one I had my eyes on for months, but was encouraged to not put it on first. The first dress I tried on was my sister's pick, a poofy tulle ballgown, and the consultant told me it was the "largest dress we have in the store". Holy moly, was she right! I could barely make it out of the dressing room!
{From here on out I'm going to be deliberately vague in case a certain husband-to-be decides to read what I'm writing!} ;)
The second dress I tried on was absolutely lovely, and not something I would have expected that I would like. I felt really pretty in it and really liked it a lot. The third dress I tried on was the one I had set out to try on, and at first I was a little disappointed. The fabric was not something I had really seen before, and the dress was in ivory instead of white {they could order it in white, but only had ivory in the store to try on}. Ivory is a horrible color on me, so it just looked kind of blah. But the dress was very flattering and I was kind of confused about what I wanted at that point since dress #2 threw me off. I then tried on dresses #4 {okay}, #5 {a mermaid for fun, HORRIBLE! lol}, #6 and 7 {the styles were really close to #2 and 3} but still didn't really find anything I wanted.
The consultant encouraged me to try on my top two favorites again, so again I hopped into dress #2. As I was standing in front of the mirrors I was beginning to get overwhelmed. I hadn't expected to buy a dress that day, but I think the fact that none of them seemed to really scream out at me "THIS IS THE ONE" was kind of disappointing. The consultant told me to think of three things: does this dress make me feel beautiful, what would I change about it, and could I picture myself walking down the aisle in it? For #2 I answered the questions as: yes, nothing, and no. For some reason the dress was beautiful and I wouldn't change anything, but I just really couldn't see it as something I wanted to wear on my wedding day. So off it went.
My mom encouraged me to give dress #3 a shot again, and as I was putting it on in the dressing room I heard her say to my sister, "I think this is the one, she just doesn't know it yet." I was determined not to let my entourage's opinions make my decisions for me, since ultimately it's my dress that I'm paying for that I will wear on my wedding day, so I wasn't going to be talked into buying something I wasn't 100% sure about. But you know how the saying goes, "Mother always knows best."
I walked out of the dressing room and saw myself in the dress again, and I could swear it was a completely different dress than the first time I had tried it on. I felt so pretty and it was just wonderful. The consultant brought over another dress in the color white that it would come in, and when I held it up next to the ivory one I was wearing it really put me over the edge. I absolutely could see myself walking down the aisle to Douglas in that dress. I was in love. I started crying, my mom started crying, my sister was busy taking pictures of me crying. It was great. The consultant handed me a bell and asked if it was my dress, and had me ring the bell in front of the whole store, as they started applauding. What a thrilling moment!
After watching shows like Say Yes to the Dress, I went into my dress appointment not expecting to have the same kind of reactions that the brides on tv did. With a limited budget, I figured that I would just find something "good enough" and not anything "perfect" that caused me to cry like all the girls on the show. I never would have imagined that the dress of my dreams {literally, lol} would actually become a reality! But I think it just goes to show that you don't need an unlimited budget to find just what you were looking for, and that it's all about having the right attitude and supportive people around you!
...besides, I'd marry Douglas in jeans and a Tshirt if I had to! :)
<3 J
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