My lovely sister Amy orchestrated two cold January Saturdays of shopping-until-people-were-dropping, with great success. The first Saturday began with a trip to Rush's Bridal in downtown Minneapolis. We didn't have an appointment to try dresses on, because apparently everyone and their mom got engaged over Christmas and couldn't wait to try on dresses in January. Luckily, someone cancelled their appointment and we got into a giant fitting room.
It's really funny to try and pick out dresses to try on, because you have no idea what they will look like on your body based on their floppy hanger appearance. I had some ideas of what I wanted to avoid in a wedding dress, including sparkles, beads, lace, and other cutesy-overdecorative stuff. That really narrowed it down, actually - I was able to quickly turn my nose up at about 3/4 of the options before me. We had a pretty good system for trying the things on, picking 5 or 6 things off the racks, and the nice helper lady promptly refiled anything that elicited a kooky-faced response. Here are some highlights from Rush's:
This dress was pretty but heavy.
A lot of people liked this one, but it was spendy and I didn't like the way it hugged the ol' hips.
Rachel did a great job holding up the top picks.
Words cannot accurately describe trying on a wedding dress, and I'm not talking about sentimentality, but rather the sheer hilarity of it. Two to three ladies hold up the tons of fabric while one fishes their way through the top to find where the body is supposed to go. Then the person trying on the dress assumes a position similar to blast-off. One crouches with one's arms pointed upwards and then dives into the dress. It's a little reminiscent of finding one's way through the birth canal as one tries to find their way towards the light and shimmies their way into the dress. It was all quite tiring, so we gave our arms and bodies a rest and headed to lunch after the attendant took down styles that I liked for future reference.
The next stop was David's Bridal, which was a tad disappointing for me. It was a madhouse in the store, with half-naked women running all over the place impressing their 10-person entourage with different dresses. We thought that since this was a huge store we could try on things right away without an appointment, but instead they took my information and told me to come back at 4:00 p.m. We did go back later, but I only tried on two dresses and I didn't care for either, so we just walked out. *Disclaimer: if you bought your dress at David's Bridal, that is awesome that you found something you liked. I'm just SUPER picky, and the bulk of the David's Bridal selection consists of beaded embellished gowns, which I was trying to avoid.
We scooted over to a small boutique before heading to a distant suburb for our one scheduled appointment of the day. It was nice that the establishment was smaller, but it too was overrun with women. I found one dress I liked, but it had embroidery on the train, much to my chagrine.
Finally, a picture without my face! It's hard looking at photos of one's self.
The scheduled appointment of the day was in Savage, MN at a fancy wedding center complete with travel agent, bridesmaid store, and cake/reception decor display. Before I was allowed in the wedding dress store, I was told to take off my shoes (this is common and I think it makes sense with all of that white fabric everywhere). Dresses were hung up in giant open closets and I received a whole shower-curtained area just for trying things on. Someone offered me water, which was an accoutrement I was not used to, but was glad to have. Though the establishment was lovely and high-class, I couldn't help but feel a little Julia Roberts prostitute-y when I went in there. I thought the sales girls would surely ask me to leave and I would pin up my thigh-high boot and leave sniveling. I tried on a few dresses and we found one in my price range, but by this point I was getting pretty silly:
Here's my not-happy face as I try and figure out what the thing falling off my bosom is.
The first Saturday ended with a few prospects in hand and a definite idea of what my style, taste, and price range fell within. Thanks to Amy, Aunt Sally, Kerriann, and Rachel for their love, support, and strong arms!
The second Saturday's shopping ended almost as soon as it began. We headed back to downtown Minneapolis to Macy's Bridal, which was having a trunk show. I thought a trunk show just meant that there were a bunch of expensive dresses piled in trunks, but apparently it means that new dresses are shown from a certain designer and are on SALE (always a good thing). The featured designer was Watters, who also makes WToo, a brand made for we brides with smaller pocketbooks. I think it was the first dress I tried on at Macy's that I fell in love with. The rest of the day was spent shopping and looking at other things that paled in comparison to this dress that I loved so very much.
It's so pretty even though I'm holding up a size 5 to my size 12 body.
Please don't look at my silly face. Focus on the dress here, people.
Not only was it luck that my dress was reasonably price and 10% off as part of the trunk show, but there was also a jewelry designer at the trunk show displaying her wares. I was a huge fan of her headbands, made of flat chiclet-looking pearls on a, get this, COMFORTABLE metal band. All headpieces I tried on at other stores hurt like the Dickens when applied to heads, so I wasn't about to let a comfortable piece of jewelry escape my hands. I was never excited at the prospect of a veil, and I am extremely picky when it comes to jewelry - I don't care to look at a piece unless it is really interesting and unique. So I killed two lovebirds with one stone and bought my dress and headband in the same locale.
Ahem. . . Kevin, you should buy me the matching necklace.
Thus concludes the conquest for Wendy wedding attire. Thanks for reading!
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