This weekend, my bridal party, Mom and I went shopping for a wedding dress. Some thought it was too early to look for a dress, others thought it was too late. But I know that this was the part of wedding planning I was looking forward to the most, so the 5 of us set out on Saturday.
First stop was J.Majors, a truly lovely bridal salon in midtown Charlotte. Everyone there was so nice and helpful. They brought sodas to my mom, and let us be loud and obnoxious (and take pictures). It was hard at first because every dress looked great. Everyone told me, “when you find the right dress, you’ll KNOW”. But, they all looked right.
Then we found some ones that just weren’t right. And it became easier to say no. At the end of the appointment, we found a great dress that looked wonderful, was very affordable, and just seemed like it could be the one. We were all very happy and almost crying.
After a quick lunch, we went to Mecklenburg Bridal Gallery. I wasn’t really up to going – I thought I found THE DRESS already. And it didn’t help that the service at Mecklenburg Bridal Gallery was nothing compared to J. Majors. While we waited for service, we flipped through a 20 year old wedding book with goodies such as how to have a wedding inspired by the Rennaissance Fair. We were finally helped, and grabbed about 6 gowns to try on.
The first 5 took no time at all – as soon as I put them on, we nixed them and were getting the next one ready. The last gown… took a little longer. I stayed in that gown for about an hour, because I did not want to take it off. Without giving away details, it’s a GOWN, not a dress. I felt completely different in it, and when the salesperson put a veil on me, we started crying. And everyone was right – I did know it was the right gown. My fingers were tingling, I got really quiet, and I began to picture the wedding in a way I hadn’t been able to before.
We ordered the gown but we’re not taking measurements yet. I’ll be going back in April when I’ve had a bit more time to be on my diet and exercise plan. Then, it will take 4-5 months to make, then I begin my fittings.
What I learned from the experience:
* I’m going to have to start doing yoga or something because putting those gowns on is hard work. While trying to step in to them and work with the skirts or corsets or hooks or straps or whatever, I fell over more times than I could count because I couldn’t lift my knee that high or balance myself like that.
*Don’t be surprised if I wear sneakers or something to the wedding, because a lot of the wedding shoes I saw were not right or too ugly or too uncomfortable.
*Wedding gowns hide a lot of body flaws – and expose new ones you did not even know you had.
*Why are veils so expensive?
* I wish the wedding was NOW because I can’t wait to wear this gown.
