Exceptionally Chic : WW: THE Dress!

Happy Wedding Wednesday, all! Kristin and I are talking about how we chose our dresses today. Going shopping for your dress is probably one of THE most exciting parts of getting engaged. It's so fun to feel like a princess in all of the pretty dresses! We both know how hard it is to actually PICK the dress, so today we thought we would share how we chose ours!

Elyse's story:
I was over the moon excited when I got engaged July 4, 2011. It was perfect because it was summer so I had so much time to start plan, plan, planning! The first thing my mom and I did was make an appointment to try on dresses at Gina's Bridal Boutique.

First piece of advice: Make an appointment to try on dresses! You will want the attention of the workers at the salon, you aren't crowded by another person, and you can bring a couple people with you to help you decide.

Second piece of advice: Don't bring your whole wedding party with you to try on dresses! I only took my mom at first and then when I went back, I only took my MOH. As much as I'm sure you'd love to have everyone, I can almost promise you will not want everyone's opinion.

So, my mom and I went to try on dresses. I had created a binder with some ideas of styles I may like. After showing them to Gina, she had me walk through the store and just pick out dresses I thought I might like. At this point - go crazy! Pick out anything you MAY think you'll like. The worst that can happen? You don't like it and it's on to the next one. But if you don't try it, you'll never know! Gina also picked some dresses for me. As I tried on my dresses, I thought of ways that I could alter them (because of course I couldn't just keep them the way they were!) We added bows, belts, changed the hems... came up with all sorts of ideas. From here, I narrowed my dress selection down to three.

I knew my best friend/MOH, Jayne, was coming in to town in a week, so I left the top three in my mind and waited for her to get home to see them. I tried on the first dress, she liked it. I tried on the second dress, she liked it. I tried on the third dress ... she cried. And Jayne isn't one to just cry because. That sealed my decision! It was the dress that she saw me as a bride in. I loved that moment, it will be forever in my mind.

So, after choosing my dress, I decided I wanted the top layer of tulle to be removable so that I could take it off for the reception -- 2 dresses in 1! The seamstress from Gina's, Paulita, was amazing and rocked out my vision. I loooooved my dress! And here she is: (photos with tulle on and without! it just snapped underneath the flowers at the top ... how cool is that!)

Kristin's Story:

OMG....I was ENGAGED!!! It was so nice that we were out in the middle of nowhere when we got engaged, so we could just enjoy the feeling together (and our wonderful friends that we were on the trip with) and absorb the moment. Due to not having cell service, we couldn't let anyone know until the next day when we got back into the states. It was so nice to be "away" because knowing me, I would have started to plan that day :-)

Upon our arrival home, we had already had congratulation gifts, goodies and cards!!!! What an exciting time this past year has been!!!!! I, too, was engaged in the summer so let the planning begin!!!!

One of the first things I did was to start looking for THE dress. I saw one on Pinterest that I fell in LOVE with, so pinned it to my board and there it stayed in the back of my mind. My "first trying on experience" was with my mom and sis. We headed to David's Bridal and Demetrio's. I gave the woman a description of what I did/did not want and the fashion show began! Let me tell ya....what a fun experience! My mom and sis made me feel like a princess!! It was such a crazy feeling that it was MY turn for all of this :-)

Anyway....I tried on a million, loved a couple and just wanted to take some time thinking more about them. The next week one of my besties, Rebecca, flew in from Missouri SPECIFICALLY to try on dresses with me. She told me months, maybe years, before my engagement that she wanted to take me to Becker's Bridal in Fowler Michigan whenever I got engaged. There was a book written about it's "Magic Room" and we knew we had to go. What another great day!! I tried on a TON of dresses!!! We had an hour appointment and tried on many many styles, fabrics, shapes, etc. but we noticed a pattern. The ones I liked were all such a similar style-that they started to all look alike. Becky had the great idea to take a picture of me in each one, get the pics developed and then look at them later, to help make my final decision.

Third piece of advice:
Don't pigeon hole yourself into only one style, you never know what you may find. Let the experts bring you some suggestions that THEY think would look great on your body type. Don't be afraid to try them on...heck if you don't like them, oh well....this is YOUR day. It's ok to say, "nope, it is just not me". There were things that I knew I did NOT want tho....so I did stick to those.

Forth piece of advice:
If you are on a tight budget, like we were...DO NOT let them show you any dresses above your budget. There are plenty of dresses out there for you to choose from. The last thing you want to do is fall in love with a dress you just cannot afford!!!! There is a method to my madness with this piece of advice...it almost backfired on me, but I stuck to my budget and it all worked out!

I finally had narrowed it down to one at Demetrios, and one at David's Bridal but the Pinterest dress just kept calling my name...I had to research it, just to find out if it was possible for it to be MINE. The simplicity, yet uniqueness, I just could not stop thinking about. I found out the designer (Alvina Valenta) and went on a hunt. Come to find out Bridal Couture of Birmingham had it!!!!!!!! So, I made an appointment (before finding out the price). Tried it on, fell in LOVE, found out the price, got extremely depressed so went to retry on the dress from Demetrios (that I did love as well)....WELL, turns out that they were having a trunk sale, so the dress would be on sale!!!! It was meant to be!!!!! I did hmmm and haaa cuz it was a bit more moola... but like another bestie, Crystal said, "this dress is exactly you....I am not sure why you are pondering". She was absolutely right!! So, folks there ya have it...THE dress story. Everything works out in the end. What is meant to be will be :-)