It took until October, seven months before my wedding, until I was willing to attempt dress shopping again. At this point, I had no choice. I was up against a deadline.
This time around, I only went with my mother (shocking, I know). We headed to David’s Bridal where I tried on at least 10 more bridal dresses, but this time I was able to check out the bridesmaid dress I had been eyeing up online. My bridesmaids almost all live at least an hour away from me, so I wanted to make it as convenient as possible for everyone to order their dress. By choosing David’s, they could order it online or find the closest chain store and go in-person.
I found the dress I had liked from their website along with a few others and tried them on myself to see how they looked. Out of all of them, my mom and I still liked the one I originally spotted the most! To give you an idea of what it looked it, it this dress was floor length, had a criss-cross back, and v-neck front. I wanted the bridesmaids’ gowns to be black to contrast against the flowers I had in mind for the big day, and better yet, the style and color made the dress totally reusable for other weddings or formal events.
At the end of the day, I went home pretty happy. I may not have found my dress, but I could scratch another important task off my checklist. I sent out the information to my ladies and from there, it was on them to get their dresses ordered, fitted and ready to go.
The next time I went dress shopping was five days later with one of my good friends and local bridesmaid. I needed a break from shopping with my mom and still wasn’t really jiving with my sister at the time. Suz was so helpful and we had a good time together! She was simply the best and it was exactly the shopping experience I needed- relaxing, quick and easy. I also had found one dress I really liked, but we still took pictures of all of them. I knew I would have to come back with my mom to get her opinion.
I did in fact bring my mother to that store one night to show her the dress. She liked it, but she wasn’t in love with it. With her being such a dominating force in the wedding process, I knew we’d have to keep looking.
A few weeks later my mom and I decided to try again. This time we went to the store where my sister found her wedding dress ten years earlier. Of course we tried on many more dresses, but we also had them pull the same Morilee dress I had tried on months ago in the first store I visited. When I pulled that one on again, it still stood out more than the others. It felt right.
The wonderful woman who helped us at the store, Deb, was concerned about our deadline and ordering the dress. It would be tight for it to be made, shipped and fitted in time. We could buy the store model, which was in perfect condition and would be at a discounted rate, but it was still the store model. I didn’t know if I wanted that and my mom was insane about every decision, so we left the store with the dress on hold for two days.
We argued back and forth about who even remembers what. It was a big decision and my mother just couldn’t seem to get it together. When the hold period was over, my mom ended up calling and finally buying it (o.m.g.)! We got our discount and even better, the store happened to be celebrating a big anniversary so we also got vouchers for a 3-night stay in Las Vegas! My fiancé and I had been dying to go there, so that was borderline the best part of all. A double win!
We agreed to have the dress stored in their vault until it was time for the wedding. It would be safest there and the vault was hardcore and fireproofed. I also would be getting my fittings done there, so it made sense to keep it in one place rather than transport it back and forth. I was so happy that we FINALLY agreed on a dress and could scratch that off the wedding checklist!
(P.S. Flash forward to now and we literally went to Las Vegas 3 months ago and did not use our vouchers…)
HOLL 
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