Right after getting engaged, I started looking online at dresses and quickly saw the style I thought I wanted. I anticipated dress shopping to be more difficult for me since dresses tend to be designed to look gorgeous while standing up saying vows. Sitting down all the time means that I’ll have to opt of the traditional Cinderella style and long heavy trains, which is one of the reasons I applied to get the expert advice of Lori on Say Yes to the Dress. Since, apparently, my family, future in-laws and I don’t yield enough drama for reality television, I had to go dress shopping based on my own judgments.
The first dress shopping trip was fun. My mom, future mother-in-law, sister, and two friends (Catherine and Shailee) joined in on the excitement. I was overwhelmed with the number of dress choices, but honed in on the style I’m looking for. I was nervous about the physical aspects of trying on wedding gowns. They are heavy and have so much material that I anticipated a struggle. The first dress (which was put on over my head) didn’t look right. The problem with wedding gowns is that the sample size is so large (or small, depending on the person). The dress comes in one size and you have to use clips to get it to fit your body. It was as if the dress was eating me. The second dress allowed us to get in the groove of the best way to change dresses. Over the head was out and stepping into the gown while one person lifts me up a bit and another pulls up the gown. It really turned out better than I envisioned and was comparably quick. Second dress looked more bridal, but was too poufy for my taste. The third dress was just what I was looking for. It had more crinoline than I want, which isn’t a big issue because it can be removed. They put the veil on and it looked gorgeous. I really liked this dress but I still wanted to try on more. Dresses four and five were ok; however I put on number three again. I really liked it, but wasn’t certain it was the one. It’s difficult to make that decision when the dress is too large and you have a hard time picturing it as it will be to fit you. For the time being, I did not say yes to that dress. I want to look at another shop and weigh my options so that I’m certain when I’ve found the next dress.
