Good morning! I’ve said all along that I don’t want this blog to become a wedding-focused blog, but I’m just too excited about finding “the dress” that I have to share my experience with you! I said to RM on Saturday that I wished I was still shopping for dresses because I had so much fun doing it… a little crazy considering the thought of going dress shopping kind of overwhelmed me initially. But, I am happy to say that it was literally one of the easiest shopping experiences I’ve ever had!

Let’s back up, though. When my parents decided to come to Boston for Thanksgiving, my mom suggested that I call some bridal stores to see if they had any open appointments for Black Friday. I had a feeling they would be booked and sure enough, most places I called were booked so I put myself on the wait list at Vows and Anthropologie. The next day both places called me back and I was able to get appointments for Black Friday- score!

As with most things wedding-related, I just didn’t want to make a big deal out of dress shopping and bring lots of people who would probably have different opinions. I wanted to keep it to just my mom and sister, but when my dad asked if he could come I couldn’t have been happier! It was so cute shopping for my dress as a family- they were all fantastic and my dad was cracking everyone up.

Anyway, we showed up to Vows right around 10 and had to wait a bit until they were officially.

My bridal consultant, Kristen, was absolutely fantastic. She listened to what I wanted (simple, not a lot of poof, low back, not a lot of lace, no sparkles, etc.) and grabbed a great selection of dresses for me to try on. She even set us up in a private room so that my whole family could be together (guys aren’t allowed in the normal fitting room area). I also loved that she was very professional- she didn’t give her opinion that would sway me one way or the other and she offered up lots of interesting tid bits of information regarding the style and designer of the dresses. I never once felt like she was just trying to make a sale.

I think I ultimately tried on maybe 8-10 dresses, but kind of knew from the first one that I had found “the one”. It wasn’t one I was crazy about off the rack, but once I put it on I absolutely loved it. It needs very little alterations and is different from most dresses I’ve seen. I thought all along I wanted more of the Bohemian, very simplistic look but when I tried those on, they almost looked too sexy for a wedding! They were so form-fitting that they showed everything- not really appropriate for a wedding!

Here are some pics of the dresses I tried on, of course, not including the one I bought 😉 That is going to stay secretive until I walk down the aisle!

This one was a fun one to try on just to make sure I indeed didn’t want a big poofy dress

This was a style I originally thought I wanted- no poof or boning- but when I tried on some dresses like this I realized they were a bit too, how to I say this, showy… and not really my idea of wedding appropriate!

We all really loved this dress but ultimately I wanted to change too many things about the neckline in the front and around my neck. And I feel like keyholes and lace like this are really standard these days and I wanted something a little different.

This was another close runner up, but I just didn’t love the way it looked on me as much as the one I picked.

Ultimately, I ended up cancelling my appointment at Beholden/Anthropologie because I realized all of the dresses that I loved from their selection were the ones that I decided were not wedding appropriate (for me, anyway). My mom and sister thought that I should’ve gone just to look, but I knew that I would’ve been thinking about the dress I ended up buying the whole time so we decided to just go for it. Walking home with my dress was the best feeling in the world and I can’t help but continuously look through the pictures my sister took of me in the dress. I cannot WAIT to wear it!

Now, it’s time to find shoes. I think I want something fun- maybe a fun color or sparkles or something like that. I’m not really doing “wedding colors” so I won’t need to worry about matching to that. I also think I want to wear my hair up, I’m just not sure the details on that yet. Also, I wasn’t sure I wanted a vail, but after trying one on with the dress, I think I do want one. It made me feel so pretty and so much like a bride!

Questions for you: Did you have an easy time finding your dress? Did you end up getting what you thought you wanted or did you change your mind when you tried it on? Did you wear a vail?