Wedding Dress Shopping - The First Time

Christina, Audrey and Christina's friend Annie took me wedding dress shopping on 8/22 to a giant wedding dress shop in OC.  It was an interesting, really fun and eye-opening experience.  When we first got there, we kind of wandered around the store and looked at various dresses.  There was a Ramona something trunk show at the location and one of the designers kissed me on the cheek.  EW!

Right at our appt time, our consultant met with us.  She took us to the dressing room where she asked me all sorts of questions - what's your dress size, what's your bra size, what's your height, and what kind of dress are you looking for?  I showed her all the different dresses that I tore out of magazines and she knew right away what my style was!  Amazing!  Anyway, she asked me to describe what I envisioned my dress to look like and most importantly, she asked what our budget was.  That's when she turned mean!  I don't know how anyone is supposed to know what their budget is when they haven't done the research, this is their first time wedding dress shopping, and they just don't know what the heck is going on!  *sigh*

I told her what the budget was and said something like, "I don't really know what my budget is yet b/c I haven't done the research.  This is a # that I picked out of thin air without knowing what an average wedding dress costs."  She then said, "But you have 200 guests.  You should spend the most $$ on your dress and photographer."  That's funny, b/c everyone else tells me that the most $$ I'll spend is on the location.  *sigh*  She then tells us that each of us are going to pick out a dress and she'll go to the back and pick out a few more.

So, she shows us to the dresses that's within our budget and leaves us alone.  We all pick out 1 or 2 dresses and hand them to her.  :)  She asks me which dress I would like to try on first.  I decided to go in order b/c it'll help me remember the dresses better.  Organization is key (in my mind).  haha.  I start trying on the dresses and I realize how difficult it is to get into a wedding dress!

I soon realized that maybe I'm not as chubby as I thought I was b/c I fit into most of the dresses, except for this one.  OMG!  I had to hold my breath while Christina and the consultant helped zipped it up.  During that time, I was making faces at Audrey and Annie b/c I honestly couldn't breathe.  haha.  Needless to say, that dress came off soon afterwards!  I tried on one dress that Audrey picked out and it happened to be way above the budget I said and the consultant said, "Who picked out this dress!  What are you trying to do to your friend!  Ugh!  Take it off now!"  I'm like, "huh???"  So, we take off that dress and she sort of yells at us for not staying in the budget!  See, I'm telling you, she was mean!

After trying on about 8 or 10 dresses, we narrowed it down to 3 that I really liked and everyone approved.  :)  Then she made me decide which was my favorite.  I don't know!  I just saw the damn dresses and tried them on for like 5 min each!  I was getting kind of cranky by this point b/c she was kind of blunt and mean all the time.  So, I picked out one dress to walk around the store in and we put it back on.  Then I pretended to walk down the aisle and stood in front of the mirror under "evening lighting" and checked out whether I liked the dress or not.  She was waiting for me to say the magical words.  I'm like, "what is that?"  She said, "I LOVE this dress."  Um, if she knew me, she would know that I'm not gushy like that at all!  I just don't think I'll have a moment where I'm like "I LOVE THIS DRESS!!!  THIS IS IT!!"  So, I said, "I really like this dress, but I can't decide b/t this one and the other 3."  hehe.

Anyway, we go back to the dressing room and take off the dress.  She writes down the style numbers and then she leaves.  Finally, some privacy!!!  :)

I think I'll go dress shopping some more.  It's hard to make a decision when I've only tried on 8 dresses.  Not sure if I'll have that magical moment, but I probably will get closer and closer to it after I try on more dresses and establish what I really like.  I'm hoping that's really soon though!  Apparently, it takes about 6 months for a dress to be made!  EEKS!!!!  Gotta step up the shopping expeditions!  Thank goodness I have a mom and BMs that are good shoppers!!  =)