the one that wasn't "the one"

In another life, with a different budget, this would have been "the dress" for me...

Also, I love these handmade garters from The Garter Girl on Etsy!

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ordered my dress!

Last night was my turn to play dress-up at David's Bridal.  I must say, the consultant who was helping me was fabulous - which leads me to believe that Erin's consultant last week was just bad at her job.

Tip #1: Research online before your appointment, and bring photos or magazine pages with you.

I arrived with Erin, and my parents came a few minutes later.  We started the process by having me fill out a little form with my information and the groom's information, which they need because David's is affiliated with Men's Wearhouse.  Right from the start my consultant was with us helping me pick out dresses.  She asked me what I had in mind and I explained, as well as showed her pictures I had printed out from the David's website.  I highly recommend doing this, since it seemed to make it easier for her to see what I was looking for, and she had style numbers right on the printouts to help her find exactly what I wanted.  She let me pick out so many dresses to start with that we had to put most of them in a second dressing room!  With two people in the room, only about three dresses can comfortably fit in there at once.

Tip #2: Try on dresses and accessories that you think you won't like, just to see.
Tip #3: Don't let the first dress you try on be the one that you think will be your favorite.
Tip #4: Only bring along people whose judgment you completely trust.

For a girl who doesn't like to shop, and really doesn't like to try on clothes, I have to admit that this was a lot of fun.  Erin made me try on a bunch of dresses that she had picked out before letting me try on the dress that I loved from the magazine.  I'm a good sport, so I just did whatever she told me to - of course, I trust her judgement.  This turned out to be a great idea, because it made me appreciate the dresses that I knew I would like more than I maybe would have if I had started out with those.  I also tried on a veil just for the heck of it, even though I knew I didn't want one.  I even put on a fairy tale dress just for fun, and I actually loved it and didn't want to take it off - even though it was way too long for our venue, and even though it was four times the price of what I could afford.  If I could have stolen it to play dress-up at home with, believe me I would have.

Tip #5: If you like a dress, bring it over to a window where you can see it in natural light.

It took me about an hour, I narrowed it down to three, then to two dresses, and my consultant was by my side the entire time.  When I was trying to decide between the two (both Galina), she took me out into a naturally lit area, brought me different sashes to try with them, let me try on a bunch of different shoes, and mess with my hair for what felt like forever to me, but was probably not that much time.  All of this really helped me, and the deciding factor was when I saw the dresses in the natural light.  One sparkled much more in sunlight and that sold me on it.

Once I had made up my mind, our consultant continued to stay with us and help my mom try on dresses, even though she had to help another bride at that point as well, and she was just as helpful with my mom as she was with me.  I wish that they'd had more plus size mothers' dresses for her to try on, but I am happy to say that we were able to find a nice dress relatively quickly, in a color that she likes, and they were willing to order it in her size for her (she bought it in "light mocha" and I don't know why it says "online only" on the website, because it's not).

In the end, I am totally pleased with my dress (but I will not show it on here until the ceremony, because I want it to be a surprise).  I think that, even though many people have bad-mouthed David's Bridal, if you are a bride on a budget it is worth looking at with these tips in mind: browse one day on your own and observe the consultants to try to get a feel for which ones seem attentive and helpful, try to go during a weekday when there are less brides there, and make an appointment.  Even if you don't find what you're looking for, it's an experience worth having.

Post-script: When we checked out they gave us a ton of coupons!

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a unique perspective

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Yesterday evening I went with a friend, Erin, to try on wedding dresses at David's Bridal - she is getting married in August 2011.  Even though my own appointment for dress shopping isn't until next week, I think it's important to share my experience as a neutral friend (I'm less biased since I am not related to the bride, nor am I a member of the wedding party), and I'm sure it will be a very different experience when I am the bride.


Her appointment was at 6:00 PM, but we all arrived around 5:30 PM.  The staff allowed Erin to begin trying on dresses early, and ultimately I feel that this may have been a poor decision - but I'm getting ahead of myself.

I don't know if it was because David's is in the midst of the famous "$99 sale" or if the store is always like this, but when I first walked in I was completely overwhelmed.  There were racks and racks of bridal gowns to my right, 20 or more mirrors straight ahead of me, and tons of racks of bridesmaid dresses to my left.  People were moving and bustling about everywhere.  I saw Erin, her mother, and her sister and when I approached them she explained that the consultant helping her told her to go through the racks and pull 3 or so dresses that she wanted to begin with.  At first we couldn't figure out where the sale racks were, we couldn't figure out where her size was, and it is extremely difficult to decide if you want to try on a dress when it is covered in a thick plastic garment bag.  After we had been aimlessly milling around for a few minutes, a different consultant finally helped us find where we needed to be looking, and after several more minutes the four of us had found 6 or so dresses to begin with.

The next step was to stand at the end of the racks holding ridiculously heavy dresses and wait to be helped again.  This time a third different consultant helped us get Erin into a changing room - where her own consultant finally began to help her.  It turns out that her consultant was in the middle of helping another girl with dresses at the same time.  I suspect that this may have been the result of allowing Erin to begin trying on her dresses before her actual appointment.  I wish that she could have had the devoted attention of her consultant right from the beginning.

As time went on and more women left the store, Erin was given more attention, which significantly improved the experience.  My favorite part was when Erin's consultant went on break and we had a different girl working with us for awhile.  I can't even describe how much better she was than the first woman.  At one point during the first consultant's break - when Erin, her mother, and her sister were all in dressing rooms and I was waiting for them to come out - the substitute consultant sat down next to me as I flipped though the catalog and discussed the dresses that I want to try on next week.  It wasn't even my appointment right then and she took the time to talk to me while I was waiting alone.  Now that is going above and beyond!

In the end, Erin found a beautiful dress in the David's Bridal collection and actually purchased it.  None of us were sure if it was the right thing to do - buying a dress during the very first shopping trip - but it was clear that Erin was in love with the dress and she looked absolutely beautiful wearing it, so I don't really see how she could go wrong buying it.  One more negative comment about Erin's consultant and that's it:  She told Erin that this particular dress was being discontinued, and also that it used to cost twice the price that was currently on the tag - which put a lot of pressure on Erin to make a decision about buying it right then versus waiting a month and trying on more dresses.  I did a little searching on the David's Bridal website afterward and found out that the consultant was full of baloney.  The dress is marked "NEW!" in big red letters on the website, and she was right about it being on sale - but it's only on sale by $50, not half the price.  I feel that was kind of a used-car-salesman action and I'm not too impressed by that move.

My final words...
While the disparity of skills between consultants at David's Bridal was glaringly obvious - almost to the point of being humorous - I can say that all of the dresses there were well made, excellent quality, and mostly affordable (if you stick with the David's Bridal collection and stay away from the major designers).  I would recommend the store to brides at least in the beginning - for the experience of a big gown retailer, if nothing else - and I am looking forward to my own appointment next week.

Post-script...
To the random bridezilla who asked one of her bridesmaids, "Could you not wear that color nail polish on the day of the wedding?" - chill out!

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