Friday, July 10, 2009

dresses!

The dress is definitely the one thing I'm most excited about when it comes to the wedding. Isn't it everyones? This is why I LOVE the show "Say Yes to the Dress" - just some kind of joy watching girls try on wedding dresses. I could be one of those girls who works at the dress shop, watching happy people all day getting ready for their most exciting day, trying on beautiful gowns.
Okay...so my adventure trying on dresses started on our annual reunion trip to Seattle (here we are above). They say cardinal rule #1 for trying on wedding dresses is to NEVER try on dresses out of your price range, but I think that's bull. Here's why...

I tried on CRAZY expensive dresses (well, crazy expensive for me) at this beautiful boutique with my best friends (all my b.maids) which was so special for me. It was amazing wearing these designer dresses that made you look sooo good...which I could never afford. The positive thing in trying these dresses on was seeing what I liked - and having an idea in my head as to what I wanted for my own dress. Well, I fell in love with this Jenny Lee gown...couldn't stop thinking about it, didn't want to take it off, etc. I was convinced that was THE dress and I couldn't find anything like it.
When I started looking around at dresses actually in my price range, I started feeling really down. I was mad at myself for trying on this dress that was WAY too expensive for me. I started searching online to find a used dress (which apparently a lot of people do), even emailed the designer (no joke - I got a response from "Jenny") to try and buy a sample.

I talked to Trav and my mom and they talked some sense into me - that you wear a dress for ONE day, and it's not worth throwing all your savings away to wear this one great dress. They were RIGHT (and I don't like admitting that)!

I found a dress that I really liked, very similar to the Jenny Lee gown for a FRACTION of the price at a great boutique, Marry Me Bridal in Orange, CA. They were very helpful, and the gal there was wonderful. Here's the dress I thought was the one...Maggie

It's a beautiful dress, and compulsive me wanted to get it right away, but my mom convinced me to keep looking because there were a few things here and there that I didn't like.

Just the other day I went to another shop in Orange County, Mariposa Boutique in Anaheim, and found THE dress. It is JUST like the Jenny Lee gown, but literally a fifth the price. I'm not going to post pictures - I have to keep some secrets (especially if Travis reads this) but it is beautiful. I was even able to share the dress with Terissa, another b.maid and Travis' twin sister, and she approved :)

Moral of the story: try on the expensive ones! It may cause some heartache at first, but then you'll be SO excited to find one that's in your price range, and so similar! I'm now convinced nobody should ever pay tons and tons of money on a wedding gown. You don't need to!

1 comment:

  1. I've totally tried on that Maggie dress and one of my top 3 dresses is another similar Maggie. But I think I'm going to end up going with the San Patrick that I sent you the link to. I'm showing it to my mom this weekend, and then the game of trying to price compare at different stores will begin.

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