Dress Hunting Round: 3 ...4... 5....

For my third round of dress shopping I went with my cousin Anika and aunt Annette, Megan, Mom, and Kathi and Robyn.

We went to a store in Eugene and had one of the WORST consultants ever in all time. I thought that the last one had been bad. But this one was a sort of sad looking larger woman who wasn't very helpful. I walked in and told her what I wanted and didn't want and she immediately went and pulled dresses that were nothing like what I wanted at all! I had to keep telling her that it wasn't what I wanted! This store was interesting because it had a runway type thing which was kind of cool to see how the dress moved when I moved. I found one dress here that was sort of what I was looking for but not close enough to make my top 5 dresses. Some were nice but after being told you were too big to try on a dress you get a little upset... But then you get told that the dress that fit you great is also too small and you are like whaaaat. I feel like lay you don't know what you are talking about. She was pretty unhelpful and not really into making it a very fun experience... I did really like sparkly fabric veil that they had there though. So at least all was not lost and I learned more about what I didn't like!

Next for round 4 I went with Robyn, my aunt Kathi, Mom and Jean to look at a store in Salem. It wasn't a bad store at all and the helper lady wasn't bad but she also wasn't fabulous. I did find one that I really liked at the first store in Salem. They were rated higher than their competition who was literally across the street so we went there first. Robyn found one that I really liked! It had not the same skirt as I was looking for, but I thought it was very flattering. In the process we also found a bridesmaid’s dress that was the right color purple! I had her try it on to see what that color actually looks like on a person because I wasn't so sure about if that color would work well with her (she'll be the hardest when it comes to skin tone and hair tone colors). But it actually looked pretty dang good! The wedding dress was really pretty and I tried it on twice.  I liked it a lot and left the store thinking that it might be the one.

After shopping and maybe finding the one, we headed over across the street to see what they had for a round 5. We were told that we wouldn't be able to try anything on because we didn't have an appointment. I wasn’t so bothered because I was happy I had found something already and I just wanted to see if anything was really like "TRY ME ON!" to book an appointment with them. There wasn't but they did have a large selection of weird prom dresses! After that we left and decided to drive around Salem looking for more Bridal stores. This ended up being sort of a waste of time and not very productive. We did go into a very clearly Mexican quinceanera type store where they ha like 8 dresses in stock and you would order more out of catalogs. I was pretty unimpressed and could have passed for just driving by. But we stopped and mom chatted and flipped through the books for five minutes before we called it quits and left. So I guess that would technically be a round 5.5

When I got home and started looking at the pictures of the maybe it dress I learned that I didn't like the back... very much at all... I was glad that we didn't buy it, and I hadn't wanted us to because I was so unsure about the skirt being so NOT what I thought I wanted. So then I started to get flustered that I wouldn't ever find it... 

The Hunt Begins: Round 1 and 2

 

Because Thad reads this blog and doesn't want to know about the dresses that I try on, I made some details in a font that matches this background. You can read it by highlighting the text :-)

So before going dress shopping for the first time, Cassidy said she would probably be spending the night at my place the night before. I figured, hey might as well invite the whole girls squad! So I sent out an invite and Kristen and Robyn decided to come too! Megan unfortunately was down in California visiting family and going to Disneyland so she wasn't able to join in. We missed her :-( But there will be more fun girly occasions!

We spent the evening scrolling though Pinterest, looking through a bridal magazine, and watching all of the chick flick wedding movies. I had just gotten Bride Wars, 27 Dresses, and Bridesmaids. We had fun eating pizza and ice cream and having a general good slumber party time. We made a dollar tree run to find white boards so that they could provide feedback on the dresses on the boards during the dress trying on!

It was lots of fun to share my wedding plans and to get some other peoples thoughts on everything. We didn't stay up too late so we were well rested for the coming day! But it was nice to have some bonding time with the girls :-) I hadn't had a girl’s night in a long time!

So the next day we woke up and had some bagels and such before heading off to Tigard to try on some dresses! The whole process worked really well. We walked in and were greeted by Lindsey, a nice young woman who seemed to really know how to do her job. She had me pick out one gown from each different silhouette to see what kind of dress I thought worked well for my body type and what I felt good in. I hadn't done too much searching for what I wanted before going in because I didn't want to fall in love with a style and then be really disappointed when I walked in and it looked bad on me. Walking over to the racks I was pretty overwhelmed because I wasn't sure what I wanted or what was very "me". I was relieved when Cassidy and Robyn came over to help me pick out the trial silhouette dresses. I wasn't too concerned with what these looked like because I was just going for trying on one for the shape. I think they may have come over because they were scared when I pulled this very strange toga looking Grecian dress. ;-)

Trying on the different silhouettes was really a good place to start and I would recommend it to anyone because just thinking about my body type I had sort of thought that I would need to kick out some of the silhouettes automatically because I thought they would look bad on me. But when I tried them on I was surprised that some that I thought were going to be really bad, weren't bad at all. I was glad that I wasn't set on a particular style, but the styles that I ended up going with were the two that I thought that I would have liked. But it was good to see them all on first before making that decision.

So after I knew okay these are the two styles that I liked (Ball gown and A-Line), we went back and pulled ones that were in those styles to get a better grip on what I liked in dresses and what I didn't. I figured out pretty quickly what I didn't like (Lace and Flowers). And what I did like (Tulle and Sparkles). From there it became more about what the dresses actually looked like. I probably tried on about 20 dresses at the first store. I was really good about finding tops and bottoms of the dresses that I liked but I couldn't find one that had both elements that I liked. I did though through the process figure out exactly what I wanted! So now it is just a matter of finding it! It was fun to have all the girls and my moms there to tell me what they thought of the dresses and what they thought of them. Towards the end my mom pulled a couple that I liked that hadn't been in that specific style which I really appreciated because they had the things I wanted in a different silhouette which just showed me that it's got to be out there. And helped me reconsider something that I thought I didn't like that I actually did.  We didn’t find the dress at the first store but we left with the catalog numbers of the dresses that I did like and the information that I possible could take one of the skirt designs that I really liked and pair it with a different top by the same designer.

After the first store we decided to hit up some lunch in Bridgeport but it was pretty busy and I didn’t really want to be battling post-Christmas lunch crowds and the like for our party of 6 that we decided to carpool over to Sweet Tomatoes for lunch. It was good and some of the girls had never been there so it was fun to take them someplace new.

After that we decided to try our luck at a smaller store in Tigard. This store was more of a browse on your own and then try on the ones you picked sort of place. They don’t do appointments so we had to wait a few minutes for one of the attendant ladies to be able to help us out. I was excited because this store had a dress that I had really liked online that I was hoping to try on at some point.

The lady at this shop was not as helpful as the one at the last place and not as nice either. I recognize that we were coming in at a time when they were already working with two others but she seemed really unhelpful and really not a people person. I could tell pretty quickly by this point once I put a dress on if I liked it or not. So when I put on a dress I would have it on for maybe two minutes and then be ready for the next. Because she was helping the other women it was hard t just get in and out. I ended up not liking the one that I had seen online in person. The elements of the dress didn’t look the same as they had appeared in the pictures. Which makes me glad I saw it in person! It had a lot of iridescent sequins in the dress that only sparkled in the sun and having it be Oregon in the winter I wasn’t ready to take the chance. I tried on another dress that had everything that I was looking for. But I didn’t like it because it had a lot of flower detailing and having it be a winter wedding that wasn’t really the style I was looking for. And when the lady asked what I didn’t like about the dress because it seemingly had what I was looking for and I told her I didn’t like it because all of the lace had a lot of flowers on it she gave me a like “are you freaking kidding me” look and then just seemed to have an attitude the rest of the time. I didn’t try on as many dresses there, maybe about 5? Both because it was clear they didn’t have what I was looking for and because that lady was kind of bringing down my mood.

It was fun to be able to have this whole trying on dresses experience with my 2 moms and most of my bridesmaids before they went back to the east coast or off to Denmark or up to Tacoma. I wanted them to be a part of the process even if they couldn’t be there for when I actually find the dress. I have a few months to find what I’m looking for so I’m not too worried. But I am excited to find it!

The Girls of the Bride

So, now that I have asked and confirmed all of my bridesmaids I thought I would say who they are!

First off I will start with my Maid of Honor Kristen Perry! She and I have been friends since middle/high school.We both played flute in band together and just got to talking and became friends. She dabbled in drama at times and was guard captain in marching band so we were together a lot. I was bummed when she went off to Western for college a year before me. When I ended up at WOU she was an RA in the wing next to us on the same floor. It was nice having an RA stop in to say hi in the middle of the night on her round. She went off to Rhode Island for a year and I missed her terribly. And then when she got back I went to France so we sort of missed each other for a while. And then because she was so bent on furthering her life and making something of herself she decided to get her masters waaaaaaay off in Buffalo. So she'll be my support on the east coast for most of the wedding process.

Next up, is my sister-in-law Megan! She married my brother Spencer in 2013. She was my flute section leader when I got to high school and she had her eye on me and helped me through that awkward transition. I was excited when they started dating and at the prospect of her joining the fam. We were in Drama together for a year and I worked with her when she directed a children's theatre camp before she went off to college to study theatre! She went to Western Oregon and was a big help for me on the school transition I made to WOU as well! We even lived together in the Candlewood house for about a year before she got married. We have lots of fun together and she is a really awesome person. She started working as the drama teacher in Springfield so she isn't too far away which is great! She is super familiar with the wedding process so I look forward to all her help!

 Moving right along is my good friend Cassidy Jones! She was in the grade below Thad and me in school but that didnt stop us from being great friends. We were both in drama together and our personalities just clicked! We eventually were in the same french class and so it was a fun time 4th period! We especially bonded over the fact that we both wanted to go to Linfield, but she was quite happy to not have had the bad experience that I did when I went there first. Cassidy ended up going to Knox College in Illinois to study environmental science and sustainability. She's been a great friend because we never felt like we always had to keep in touch with each other to be friends, we could simply pick right up from where we left off! When I went to France, knowing french, she came and joined me for ten days! It was really exciting to show off my second home to someone, as well as show off Paris and the light festival in Lyon! It was really cool to travel with someone I really know so I am excited to travel with my husband in the future. :-) But Cassidy is awesome and really supportive of me and Thad and just life! So I am excited that while she is studying abroad in Copenhagen, Denmark this term she can stalk this blog and help support me while she's on the other side of the world!

Last but not least, is my lovely cousin Robyn! She has known me all her life as I am just a month older than her. We have been pretty good pals growing up even if we did use to fight every time we saw each other. She brings out the silliness in me! We have done some crazy things from burying her brothers toys in the yard to stopping at every McDonalds from St.Helens to Salem to get Neopet happy meal toys. She never hesitates to give Thad a hard time, but let's face it who doesn't enjoy doing that? Her family lives in Salem but she is currently going to school in Tacoma, WA at Puget Sound. She has played a mirage of instruments from stand up bass to recorder. And was on call for me when I needed some guitar cords for a song I recorded for Thad before he went to Israel/Jordan. She likes to tell us we are gross but is none the less supportive of helping me do whatever needs to be done for the wedding!

I'm excited to have the support of such lovely ladies! :-)

Here are some pictures of the boxes that I made to ask them to be my Bridesmaids. Included was a bag, nail polish in the colors, a color swatch of the wedding colors, and a poem with photos that I wrote for each one!