My dress. Guys...seriously, I was/am/will be in LOVE with my dress forever and ever! We went shopping in April and went to 3 stores. The plan was to go to a small, local boutique on Friday, with just me and my sisters and mom. Then go to a few places in OKC on Saturday with my posse.
My wants for a dress:
Tulle
Sleeves
Friday: The Bridal Boutique in Norman
So, lets just get this out there. I was scared about going to a small boutique because I thought they wouldn't have my size in anything. Whew. OK, now that I have spoken my truth, let us get on with it!
The only reason I even went to BB was because I saw these pictures on their facebook page:
This beautiful dress is made by Essence of Austrailia. It checked off everything from my list, except that it was an A-Line. Which turns out was way more flattering than the ball gown silhouette.
I had a wonderful experience at The Bridal Boutique. I worked with Sarah and shop owner Alex and both were so sweet when helping us! I tried on 3 dresses while there. The first two dresses were ball gowns, and as you can see they "poufed out" at an awkward spot.
Here is the dress! It was seriously such a pretty dress! Hil basically said: why even go anywhere tomorrow? Since I had bridesmaids coming from out of town, we still went, plus I'm the type of person who needs to sleep on big decisions like that.
On Saturday I had an appointment with David's Bridal right when they opened. Apparently, so did half of OKC. There was seriously a line of people waiting for them to open the doors. No sale going on, or anything. If you are able, I would suggest going during the week. When they are booked like that, you end up sharing your bridal consultant. It wasn't as big of an issue for us, anytime we were waiting on her, we would just talk about each dress and what we liked vs didn't like. Our consultant was seriously great. She listened to everything that I wanted, and would bring similar suggestions based on what I liked.
Here were my top picks from David's Bridal:
I thought that I would like this one a lot more than I did. The skirt was really pretty and the tulle was so soft (not the stiff, sticky fabric we typically think of). The top on it was a bit awkward though. I didn't think neckline was that big of a deal, but the sweetheart really just looks better.
I was the only one who liked this one. Hil obviously wasn't pleased by the look on her face. :) Looking back on it, it really didn't fit the feel of our wedding. Very pretty dress though.
So this dress was my #2 choice of all the dresses. It was very flattering and the price was on point. By on point, I mean over $1,000 less than my #1 pick. If it came down to it and I had to cut back on my budget, I could have easily picked this dress and been perfectly happy. It met nothing of my criteria. NOTHING! It was A-Line (which after the first 2 dresses, I started going for just A-line), taffeta and no sleeves.
After lunch we had an appointment at Alfred Angelo. Our experience here was...interesting. We arrived to our appointment about 10 minutes early and still had to wait about 40 minutes for a consultant. Our consultant was interesting as well.
What happens when you go to a bridal store and the sample dress you want to try on doesn't fit, the consultant will either pinch it with chip clip type thing or, if it's too small they'll add fabric to the back, just so you know what it would look like on you. Not only at my previous two appointments, but at any appointment I've gone to of friends, and even on tv shows. I feel like it's a common thing that happens. Our consultant was not having any of it. I only tried on two (terrible) dresses that our consultant chose. I seriously had pictures on my phone of 10 plus size dresses (it wasn't like I was trying to fit into a dress that didn't come in my size!) that I liked from their line and they either didn't have it in stock, or the sample size wasn't my exact size.
Another issue with AA is that they have about 12 dressing rooms, and 1 mirror for everyone to share. So again, if you choose to go there, I suggest going on a week day.
So no pictures worth sharing of dresses from here, but we did take a few group shots:
Molly said something really ridiculous after both Kortny and I were grabbing her butt.
My wonderful posse! Love all of these ladies!
Kortny had told me Bry was really upset that he couldn't go dress shopping because he thought that it was the day he was going to be our ring bearer. She asked him what kind of dress I should get and he said green. Obviously, he's got mad design skills!
After Alfred Angelos, we called The Bridal Boutique and asked if we could come back in and try on the dress for the rest of our group.
Everyone loved this dress as well. Pretty easy when you have such a great group of people around! I always find it interesting when watching shows like Say Yes to the Dress when everyone is so arguable. It makes for great TV, but is that what is seriously going on in your daily life? Pass!
Here are my favorite pictures of my wedding dress. All pictures by the wonderful Caroline Rentzel Photography.
Here is the dress! It was seriously such a pretty dress! Hil basically said: why even go anywhere tomorrow? Since I had bridesmaids coming from out of town, we still went, plus I'm the type of person who needs to sleep on big decisions like that.
On Saturday I had an appointment with David's Bridal right when they opened. Apparently, so did half of OKC. There was seriously a line of people waiting for them to open the doors. No sale going on, or anything. If you are able, I would suggest going during the week. When they are booked like that, you end up sharing your bridal consultant. It wasn't as big of an issue for us, anytime we were waiting on her, we would just talk about each dress and what we liked vs didn't like. Our consultant was seriously great. She listened to everything that I wanted, and would bring similar suggestions based on what I liked.
Here were my top picks from David's Bridal:
After lunch we had an appointment at Alfred Angelo. Our experience here was...interesting. We arrived to our appointment about 10 minutes early and still had to wait about 40 minutes for a consultant. Our consultant was interesting as well.
What happens when you go to a bridal store and the sample dress you want to try on doesn't fit, the consultant will either pinch it with chip clip type thing or, if it's too small they'll add fabric to the back, just so you know what it would look like on you. Not only at my previous two appointments, but at any appointment I've gone to of friends, and even on tv shows. I feel like it's a common thing that happens. Our consultant was not having any of it. I only tried on two (terrible) dresses that our consultant chose. I seriously had pictures on my phone of 10 plus size dresses (it wasn't like I was trying to fit into a dress that didn't come in my size!) that I liked from their line and they either didn't have it in stock, or the sample size wasn't my exact size.
Another issue with AA is that they have about 12 dressing rooms, and 1 mirror for everyone to share. So again, if you choose to go there, I suggest going on a week day.
So no pictures worth sharing of dresses from here, but we did take a few group shots:
Molly said something really ridiculous after both Kortny and I were grabbing her butt.
My wonderful posse! Love all of these ladies!
Kortny had told me Bry was really upset that he couldn't go dress shopping because he thought that it was the day he was going to be our ring bearer. She asked him what kind of dress I should get and he said green. Obviously, he's got mad design skills!
After Alfred Angelos, we called The Bridal Boutique and asked if we could come back in and try on the dress for the rest of our group.
Here are my favorite pictures of my wedding dress. All pictures by the wonderful Caroline Rentzel Photography.
Thanks for reading about my wedding vendors! Everyone is so sweet with all of their comments! More vendors to come soon!
Mal
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