Take your mother with you.
Confessions of a bad bride…
I didn’t take my mom on the first dress shopping trip. I had just gotten back to Maryland and was feeling pressed for time. I had the intentions of finishing all our planning in the three months we had before we hopped on a plane to England. I felt incredibly pressed for time and since I could decide on a venue I decided to look for a dress.
My parents were on vacation in Florida and MOH MB and I were both unemployed; what better time to go dress shopping? So I enlisted MOH MB to go to David’s Bridal with me and trust me, there is no better time to go than a weekday afternoon. We had a great time and I was pretty matter of fact about everything. In the end it came down to 3 dresses, coincidentally the first 3 dresses I had tried on. One had a drop waist and made me look like Pamela Anderson, the second was pretty and $200, and the third was all vintagey and lacy and although my style I knew it didn’t make me look as saucy as dress # 1.
In my heart of hearts I knew that dress #3 was for me, and I began to feel guilty because I had “that look” on my face, “that feeling” in my chest about the dress. I really liked the first 3 dresses I had tried on, but obviously wanted to wait for my mother to be there for the final decision and purchase. I told her about our dress excursion when she returned and I could see she was pretty sad about not being able to be there.
My mother convinced me to go to other bridal salons and try on more dresses. I was very nervous because I’m a bridal size 12/14 and as we both know – those are not most sample sizes. She encouraged me to try on relatively poofy Maggie Sotteros and whatnot. I ended up getting kinda grouchy because I distinctly remember a dress that wouldn’t fit over my thighs or over my chest. So they just held it up to me – uhg! In retrospect I wish I had:
A. eaten before I went so I didn’t get grouchy with my mother
and
B. had tried on the biggest, poofiest dress in the store.
I knew from the beginning I didn’t want a large ballgown, I needed a dress I could boogie down in. I needed a dress that would allow me to be neurotic and run around doing things that I as the bride, am not supposed to be doing on my wedding day. So I didn’t really try many different styles of dresses on and I really wish I had. I also didn’t bring a camera with me which would have been beneficial for all of us. 
What dress shopping tips do you have?
January 11th, 2009 at 11:16 am
I bought my dress the first time I went looking. It was on sale. And my mom was not there.
I felt bad after. It was on sale – 20% off. Not a huge sale, but 20% off is something.
I apologized after, but she was very matter-of-fact: I was 300 km away from home, the dress was on sale, and the sale was ending in a week.
But I still feel bad.