say YES to the dress!

as much as i love to shop, i really thought choosing my wedding dress was going to be easy!  i'm usually really good at knowing what i like/don't like when it comes to clothes.  this was a little harder than i thought!

everyone's told me i watch too much "say yes to the dress."  it's one of my favorite shows.  jane, sarah, and i had a dream of taking a mini vacation to new york and visiting kleinfield's.  i wanted randy to find me the perfect dress!  jane was going to be the impatient mom who lets herself into the stock room and starts pulling dresses she "thinks" will be good choices!

when reality checked in, i decided to begin my search at david's bridal.  it's easy and they carried a dress i'd had my eye on in all the magazines.  my mom and i went one saturday.  i tried on several dresses including the dress i thought was the one.  i really liked it but it felt like it weighed 100 lbs. and i didn't feel like sweating all night!  although i liked it, something was still holding me back.

my next stop was victorian rose, a little boutique in downtown raleigh.

i highly recommend it to any brides in the raleigh area!  the girls were so nice and jane, sarah, and i had such a fun time picking dresses!  i didn't think i wanted bling on my dress but to my surprise, i found one i loved with some sparkle!  it fit like a glove.  jane and sarah loved it too.  i liked it so much that i took my mom back the next night to show her.  i really thought this was the dress.  i wasn't quite ready to commit because sarah, jane, and i had planned another dress outing later that week on our day off.  plus, i still felt like it was missing something.

on our day off, us 3 girls took a mini road trip to burlington, nc to bridal mart...which we have renamed "ghetto mart."

i can't count the number of people who said "i got my dress here!  it's great!"  i had really high hopes when we pulled in the parking lot.  my bubble was quickly burst when we saw what an unorganized and dirty bunch of dresses they had.  the best part may have been when sarah and i followed the sales girl into the dressing room and she said "we have an open dressing room here.  no doors, curtains, or mirrors."  sarah said my face was priceless.  so as i was stripping down between a lady covered in tattoos and a country girl wearing a bright yellow thong, i realized this probably wasn't the place for me!  not to mention when the zipper broke on a dress i was trying the lady's reaction was "oh!  that happens all the time!"  needless to say...it was an experience and i left empty handed.  we DID get some tasty mexican food for lunch and found a bridesmaid's dress.  watch for that in another posting!

my next stop was to smithfield to carolina bridal world.  nice store but nothing for me.  the dress at victorian rose was looking better and better.  a few weekends later, johnathan and i were having wedding planning weekend in emerald isle.  my future mom in law and i went to cameo bridal in swansboro.  very cute store and they were so nice to accomodate us.  i found one that i loved...mainly because it had POCKETS!  if you know me then you know i get really excited for anything that has pockets!  plus my bridesmaids are going to have pockets!  the price was unbelievable!  this one became a front runner too.  i still felt like there was something else out there.

sarah could see my stress.  being the super bridesmaid that she is...as she says "this ain't my first wedding rodeo", she made me a spreadsheet of all the possible wedding dress stores around our area.  we decided we were going to try our choices out and if there was nothing else out there, i was going with one of my top 2.

after going to several used dress stores and places that required us to sneak out the side door, we ended up at bridal gallery in cary.  i had really high hopes of finding something.  the ladies there were very nice and excited to help me find dresses.  they make you pay $20 to try on dresses (which you get back when you purchase a dress).  so sarah said i was going to get my $20 worth!  i had a room full of dresses to try.  there was 1 dress on a mannequin that i fell in love with and had to try.  it was the 1st one i put on and i just knew it was it.  none of the others stood up to this one.  it has a little bit of everything i wanted.  i took my mom back the next night and she loved it too.  after debating on if i should buy the sample or order it, i decided to order it. 

i'm so happy that i FINALLY got to