Dress shopping, part ???

A while back, I posted about my dress quandry. A couple of days after shopping I still couldn't get the Henry Roth dress off my mind, so I started googling around for it. I stumbled across a listing at preownedweddingdresses.com- I was a little hesitant about this first, but I read the listing and the owner of the dress was selling it brand new with tags, in my size and the color I wanted. Not to mention she was selling it with a veil she'd selected for it for about $1,000 off the retail price. How lucky! I contacted the owner to let them know I was interested and to request some pictures, and about a week later heard back and got the pictures in perfect condition. We exchanged a couple emails, and I was both uneasy (is it the right dress?) and excited, and sent along an email asking about how, should I like to purchase this dress, I would go about paying for it.

I think I sent 3 emails to the owner over the course of three weeks, but heard nothing back. I was disappointed- had the seller changed their mind? Had someone else snatched it up? What to do about this?

It was around this time that I had my "bad" dress shopping-experience. To make a long story short, I went to a dress shop that had some brands I wanted to look at, tried on some dresses and actually found 3-4 dresses that I thought were great. Definitely final contenders. The kicker? The shop wouldn't let me take pictures of them. I was really disappointed- why would they even have some kind of dumb rule like that? - and asked the attendant if she could at least write the names down for me. The sales associate assured me she would, and I asked her several times if she would let me take the list with me. She didn't speak english well, and I was a little concerned about the communication barrier. The sales associate assured me that I could take the list with me and that she would even draw pictures of them on the paper, and I was relieved and felt at ease, knowing that I could just look up the dresses when I got home.

As I was leaving the shop, I asked for the list of dresses. The sales associate suddenly had a strange look on her face, and then burst out laughing, saying, "Of course you can't take the list with you!" and turned and walked away. I was completely furious. I had found four great dresses, and I didn't have many details at all about them. I knew one of them was a Maggie Sottero (they make hundreds of dresses- I literally sifted through all of them and still couldn't find this dress) and I was able to find one online as well, but I really have no clue about the other two.

The dress I was able to find was my favorite of the ones I had tried, fortunately:

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I really liked this dress. The corset style is very slimming on me, and I loved the back of the dress! But I was so angry at the shop that I didn't want to go back there and buy it.

Which dress did I choose? Stay tuned for the conclusion!

Stuck

Sorry about the recent lack of posts. I'm a little bit...stuck in terms of wedding planning and wasn't sure what to write about. I guess this is what happens when you plan a year out? There are these lull periods.

I realize I never gave resolution about the dresses, but that's because there really isn't any resolution yet. I had a frustrating experience at a dress shop last weekend that made me pretty upset and didn't exactly inspire a post of its own immediately after going. I'll blog about it soon...

I had been feeling like I needed to find something and blog about it. And, while that is true, I think it's also important to blog about being stuck, because it happens to a lot of people. I realize some people whole-heartedly throw themselves into planning without much regard to other stuff going on in their lives, but I tend not to be one of them. I inch forward, and sometimes find a rock in the path that I hadn't seen before.

Plus, on top of me just feeling slightly discouraged/unmotivated, my biggest source of inspiration and motivation, my MOH J, is moving 900 miles away at the end of the month. I don't want to trouble her because I know she's pretty busy trying to graduate and move in just a couple weeks, but it kind of has affected my planning. I realize I'll probably have to find some other form of motivation to sit down every week and check on the status of projects and move forward, but it's not quite there yet.

Have you ever gotten stuck or discouraged when planning something big, or moving forward with something?

Dress Shopping: Here Comes the Bride

The day after I went dress shopping with my mother, I decided to take my maids of honor, J & K, dress shopping with me to Here Comes the Bride. The shop is located conveniently about 10 minutes from where we live, so it was not a huge day trip. But it was still fun and interesting!

The saleswoman was friendly and helpful, and made sure I only tried on dresses in the price range that I gave her. She suggested that since I had so much luck the day before with a "modified mermaid" silhouette that we start there. I went through quite a few dresses, but none of them really caught my eye.

I thought this Pronovias was going to completely engulf me in its ruffles!


Despite my grin, I was not a fan of this tiered Bellissima gown.

There was a Bellissima trunk show at the store, so they were showcasing a lot of Bellissima gowns with the option of purchasing them for 10% off! This is pretty good because aside from scoping out sample sales or used gowns, it is difficult to purchase wedding gowns for less than retail price (as I was soon to learn).

I seriously thought about the 10% discount as I tried on two more Bellissima dresses.

The Bellissima Alisa, a very pretty gown!

The lovely Bellissima Delanna

I really liked the Bellissima Alisa, but it's just too ornate and over-the-top for our rustic Yosemite wedding. It would be fantastic for a 20's themed wedding though with all that beading! The Bellissima Delanna was a quick hit among J & K, and accentuated my body well. But I feel that I really want to like this dress more than I actually do, and if I did purchase it I would look at my wedding pictures and wish I had changed things about the dress or purchased a different one! Unfortunately, I cannot go back and try it on again, as it left with the traveling trunk show. Sad. I probably would if I had the option!

Lastly I'll show you my favorite dress from this session: the Henry Roth Ariana.

Front

Back

Chapel Train Detail

I really liked this dress, and now it's all I can think about! I knew as soon as I put it on it would be a top contender; I can move easily in it and it s comfortable, but it's very elegant and has a beautiful skirt! I really lucked out by trying this dress on, because Henry Roth only sells to a few boutiques in the world, and this is the only one on the west coast that carries his gowns!

So now's the part where I'm supposed to say that we all broke down crying and I called my mom and we bought the dress. However, that didn't happen. I took the dress off before I could cry about it and checked the price tag. This dress rings in at $2600, which is just a little bit more than I wanted to spend, despite the fact that it's within the budget I gave to the salesperson. If this dress had been 10% off I may just have purchased it! So what's a girl to do?

Dress Shopping: The Bliss(ful) Bride

I've spent the last two weeks going crazy trying to pick a photographer, feeling overwhelmed whenever someone mentions "flowers" and getting dizzy spells at the thought of picking a cake design. Engagement and wedding planning have literally started to take a toll on me physically, and the last couple of days I've been feeling really sick. I think I'm just becoming a walking ball of stress.

But recently, I had my first opportunity to try on wedding dresses, and it was actually more relaxing than any other wedding-related activity I have participated in, perhaps because I didn't like most of the dresses. But at least I did make steps toward finding something I do like! I took my mother and we headed to the Bliss Bride in La Jolla. It's a small store, with maybe four or five racks of dresses, and the owner closes down the entire store if you make an appointment to try on dresses so that you are the only one there. I have some pictures of the whole experience...but there was only one dress that really stayed on my mind after we left the shop. Reviewing the pictures has been interesting, because I've come up with different opinions than I initially had for a few dresses!

Without further ado...the dresses!

One


Two


Three


Four


Five


Six


Seven!

In the shop, my favorite of these was number one, by far. It's a Vera Wang (that I can't seem to find anywhere else in any other store...) and it just seemed to fit my body the best and feel the most "bridal" at the same time, and was not too overwhelming in terms of style. It's also at least $1,000 out of my price range. Retrospectively, I think dresses two and four look the best on me in the pictures, although I did not like two at all because I'm just not a big fan of lace, and my mother kept cracking jokes about the pockets on four and would probably not ever forgive me if I wore a dress with pockets to my wedding. ("Look, you can pack a granola bar in your dress for the wedding, in case you need a snack!") Dresses three and six were just fine, but not great for me for my wedding. And I really just did not care for five and seven at all- I could have told the saleswoman without trying them on that they were just not for me!

More to come on the dress front...did your dress search take many trials, or was your dress really easy to find?

The Tattooed Bride

I have been considering getting a tattoo for several years now. I was rasied with the notion that because tattoos are so permanent, it would be a bad idea to get one because a person's tastes change as they grow older and you may not like that same design you loved back when you were young. Not to mention that discoloration can tend to make the tattoos look unattractive as the years go by, and if skin stretches or sags the shape of your tattoo may become distorted.


I'm still contemplating whether or not I want a tattoo, but if I ever did get one, I would get a picture of a water lily in a bright pink or light purple, like in this picture:

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One thing that's holding me back from a tattoo is that I'm not quite sure where to get it. In the professional world, tattoos are generally frowned upon, and because I don't really want it to impact my job or my ability to interact with clients, it would have to be placed somewhere that is easy to obscure with clothing. I think it's too much trouble to hide a tattoo with makeup on any kind of regular basis. But then, if nobody is ever going to see my tattoo, what's the point of getting it? So the top contenders for tattoo location are:

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I think something like this can look really cute with an A-line haircut that's short in the back, or a pixie cut! (Pixie cuts are not for me though, so A-line it is...) This can be easily concealed with a collared shirt.

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Or on the foot, which is also easily concealed with a shoe that covers that area, but can be shown off easily as well with flip flops or strappy shoes!

One thing that I have also thought a lot about is whether or not I want to be a tattooed bride on my wedding day. There are some really amazing pictures out there brides showing off their tattoos! Am I going to be one among their number?

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Right now, I'm not so sure. I don't want my dress choice to be influenced by whether I want to show off or cover up a tattoo, so I'm not really planning on it. Plus, I think they're very bold and edgy, and I'm just not sure that's really who I am.

Do you think you'd ever be an inked bride?

Bedazzled

After reserving the fabulous Ahwahnee hotel in the lush Yosemite Valley, there was a moment that I can only really describe as "bedazzled". And no, I don't mean it like those commericals:

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And it's not quite the same feeling as looking at this guy, either:

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(He's still damn fine, though!)

No, what I'm talking about is the moment when the thought of "Wow, I'm getting married" finally hits you. I had been innocently sitting at my desk at work,* having just faxed over my contract to the park company and, just for fun, was filling out the guest list to send to them for my room block. I put my parents' name in the first slot, then his parents' name in the second slot. And then, I wrote our names in the third slot. Holy cow, that's really it! We're on the guest list. And we're not just going to the wedding, we ARE the wedding. Freaking awesome!

I was in a daze for the rest of the day. With stars in my eyes, I headed home to consider what wedding detail should be next on my list.

Have you ever had any type of starstruck moment, when some news really just hits you?

Location, Location, Location!

One of the first questions Fiance asked me, even before "Will you marry me?" was, "Where do you want get married?" I know that some people might think this is a little out of order, but this is how we roll. I was left speechless by this question, a little bit because I was thrilled that he was talking about his desire to marry me, but honestly the speechlessness was largely because I really had no idea where I would possibly want our wedding to be. I have only been to one wedding, and it was in a church. My parents were married in a church. Neither of us were really crazy about the idea of getting married in a church, because neither of us belong to a church and then we'd have to affiliate ourselves with one that we may not feel like devoting ourselves 100% to and...well, getting married in a church for the sake of getting married in a chuch just seemed a bit silly to us.

But where would we get married? I read up on fun destinations to get married, and as romantic as a wedding in Rome or London or Dublin sounds, I don't want to travel that far for it and plan something so elaborate from so far away. We limited our options to the West Coast, since we're both San Diegans but neither of us were fond of the idea of a local wedding (sorry, San Diego! We still love you...) There are some nice spots in San Diego, but neither of us really see San Diego as a permanent homestead or as a place where we both really gel with the culture.

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We both brainstormed about beautiful places that we have been to. My family never really traveled very much, and while we have been to some very interesting places around the west US I think the only place I really liked enough to consider having a wedding was Maui, and we had both ruled out the idea of a beach wedding. Ed then had a brilliant idea: he and his family used to vacation in Yosemite, which is always a place he has spoken very highly of. He mentioned a particular affinity for a certain hotel in the valley: the Ahwahnee. The Ahwahnee is reknown for its rustic beauty and luxury. Supposedly, the hotel was commissioned for a noblewoman who did not find any of the accomodations in the valley luxurious enough for her.

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From that day forward, I was completely sold on getting married on a mountaintop. I would love nothing more on my wedding day to be surrounded by people I love in a beautiful environment so full of nature and history!

Was your wedding venue an easy choice, or did you have to really think about it and search for it?