After a lot of research and back and forth with my mom, I had settled on the gown “Opal” by Maggie Sottero. It had cap sleeves to appease Mom, the corset back I wanted, and a beautiful overlay of lace. I thought it was the perfect dress!
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| This one seemed to have everything we wanted. |
First, I looked for it online and found, much to my dismay, that the dress was $2000 dollars! Not to be put off though, I searched other sites and found it for as low as $150. These sites, however, were the kind that sell knock-off dresses and often seemed kinda shady. At one point, I stumbled across a manufacturer on the Chinese version of Ebay. I considered buying from him, but in the end decided not to. Not only did it seem unethical, I also was not comfortable purchasing a gown sight-unseen.
Thankfully, when we tried a very similar dress on in a local bridal shop, we found that the sweetheart neckline that looks so flattering in the pictures looked awful on me. I have a small chest, and the dip in the middle of the neckline really brought out how small I am – not very flattering! One of the most important things to remember is just because the dress looks stunning on the model does not mean it will look the same on you. I don’t say this to be cruel, but to save other brides a lot of frustration. That's why it's important to actually try on gowns first!
From there, we went to two bridal salons. One in a neighboring town called The Wedding Wearhouse and one very close to home called Gilda’s Bridal Touch. We visited The Wedding Wearhouse first. I was amazed by the good service! We were walk-ins on a Saturday afternoon, and yet, within minutes, we had our own dressing room and personalized attention by a young woman who was very enthusiastic about helping us find the right dress.
I tried on at least 16 gowns. I didn’t want a large amount of pouf, but we soon found that if the gown was too flowy, it looked like a nightdress.
We did find one that we liked very much. It was gorgeous with detachable cap sleeves and beautiful embroidery. Sadly, it was at the very top of our price range and about six sizes too big which meant we’d have to order it in my size – adding another $150 to the price tag even before alterations. Deciding to sleep on it, we thanked the girl and headed home.
A few weeks later, we went to Gilda’s and tried on more dresses. She and her uncle were amazingly helpful and it didn’t hurt that both my cousin and one of my close friends had bought their dresses there. I browsed the shop and picked out six dresses that I liked. After looking me up and down, the uncle carefully selected three more and added them to my stack and shooed me into the dressing rooms. In the end, it was one of his dresses that I fell in love with!
So, the Basic Mechanics of buying a wedding dress are:
Thankfully, when we tried a very similar dress on in a local bridal shop, we found that the sweetheart neckline that looks so flattering in the pictures looked awful on me. I have a small chest, and the dip in the middle of the neckline really brought out how small I am – not very flattering! One of the most important things to remember is just because the dress looks stunning on the model does not mean it will look the same on you. I don’t say this to be cruel, but to save other brides a lot of frustration. That's why it's important to actually try on gowns first!
From there, we went to two bridal salons. One in a neighboring town called The Wedding Wearhouse and one very close to home called Gilda’s Bridal Touch. We visited The Wedding Wearhouse first. I was amazed by the good service! We were walk-ins on a Saturday afternoon, and yet, within minutes, we had our own dressing room and personalized attention by a young woman who was very enthusiastic about helping us find the right dress.
I tried on at least 16 gowns. I didn’t want a large amount of pouf, but we soon found that if the gown was too flowy, it looked like a nightdress.
We did find one that we liked very much. It was gorgeous with detachable cap sleeves and beautiful embroidery. Sadly, it was at the very top of our price range and about six sizes too big which meant we’d have to order it in my size – adding another $150 to the price tag even before alterations. Deciding to sleep on it, we thanked the girl and headed home.
A few weeks later, we went to Gilda’s and tried on more dresses. She and her uncle were amazingly helpful and it didn’t hurt that both my cousin and one of my close friends had bought their dresses there. I browsed the shop and picked out six dresses that I liked. After looking me up and down, the uncle carefully selected three more and added them to my stack and shooed me into the dressing rooms. In the end, it was one of his dresses that I fell in love with!
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| I ended up buying this one. It only took some minor alterations to make it The Dream Dress! |
It fit perfectly off the rack with only a hem job needed to make it the right length. We didn’t buy it right away though. Remembering the gown at The Wedding Wearhouse, we asked Gilda to hold this gown for a few hours while we ran to look at it. She agreed and we were off!
As we drove down the freeway, I joked that if God meant for the dress at Gilda’s to be My Dress, the dress at this store would be sold. We both were laughing as we went in the door, but sure enough, the dress had been sold. We thanked the young lady (same woman who had helped us before) for her time and drove back to Gilda’s to buy The Dress.
So, the Basic Mechanics of buying a wedding dress are:
- Know what looks good on you. Are you tiny? You’ll probably get lost in a big poufy gown. Tall and willowy? A slender, floor-length gown might make you look taller and skinnier.
- Know gown terms. What’s the difference between a trumpet and a mermaid silhouette? Chapel train vs. a Cathedral train? I found http://www.bridepower.com/gown-glossary.aspx to be very helpful, but just typing in “Wedding Dress Terms” in Google brings up plenty of helpful resources.
- Be open to other dresses. We all have ideas of what we want or what we look good in, but be willing to explore – you’ll never know what you’ll find!
- Set a cap on how much you’ll spend. This keeps you from breaking the bank and also makes you examine the gowns you’re trying on more closely, instead of dismissing them out of hand.
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