Wedding Planning: The Dress Part II

I have been looking at wedding dresses online for a month now. Two weeks ago I decided to go for a first real-life look at these dresses, because I knew that there was no way I could pick a dress online, I needed to try it on first.

The first place I knew I was going to look at was David's Bridal, and while I didn't have great expectations I tried to go in with an open mind. I went with a friend and we both were a bit skeptic, but there is something about a huge space full of wedding dresses that makes you forget about your prejudices and lets the mind dream on.

Since the lady that was supposed to help me was not available yet, we started browsing around, and those were some very overwhelming 10 minutes!

Aisles and aisles of big white dresses, in all different sizes, most of them very beautiful. Funny thing is I was looking at price tags and not once I saw a $99 wedding gown! So I started looking for the $99 aisle, but again, no luck. These dresses were $699 and $1,299 and $899 and $1,099! I couldn't even find a $399 dress (Not that I was looking for one, but I've always heard about the $99 gowns from David's so I was just surprised that I couldn't find anything less than $500)!

I was finally put out of my misery and was directed to sit down and browse through the catalog and I was asked to pick anything that I wanted to try on. Oh yes, that I could do!

So with some help from my friend we picked out a few gowns based on what I thought would look good on me.

These are the dresses I first tried on:

I wanted to try this dress on because of the alter top. I had a feeling that there was no way I could pull a strapless top or that it was going to be uncomfortable, so I kept looking for straps of some kind. This dress was gorgeous! But it didn't feel right.  :(  I think one of the reasons why it didn't look good on me it was the color, not white, but ivory/beige. It seems that white is not the most wanted color as there are just as much if not more champagne and ivory dresses.

The sales person then wanted to prove to me that I could handle the strapless (every woman thinks she can't and then most women buy a strapless... he told me) so he brought me this dress:

And you know what? He was right! I could totally handle the strapless! The thing was so stiff and tight that it wouldn't budge! But, surprisingly so, it wasn't uncomfortable, and it was so beautiful the way it held up and made my waist look much smaller that it actually was. What I found uncomfortable, instead, was the skirt: it felt like I had a big queen-sized down comforter tied around my waist and now I was supposed to walk around in it!

So right away I learned two things: 1) I could do strapless  2) I didn't like big skirts

So the next dress was picked:

While this dress left everybody breathless, me included, there was still something missing. I was still looking for that dress that would feel just right, you know?

This one did feel great, but at the end we all decided that it was too much Hollywood for me (I felt like Marilyn Monroe!)  ;)

And finally, this is another big winner, at least because of the way it looked on me. It really looked nice! Which goes to prove the point that you have to try these dresses on, you can't just pick one based on what you "think" might look good on you. I would have not picked this one out of the catalog as a winner, but once I tried it on, it just made me shine!  :)

Of course, I didn't buy a dress on that day. I want to go for a second round of trying and I already have a list of dresses I want to try on. But I've learned a few things:

A) I can totally buy a David's Bridal dress. I thought I wasn't going to find anything I liked, but the exact opposite happened: I liked them all!

B) The money I want to spend on my dress is actually less than what I originally planned for: less than $600 would be ideal. And at this price range, David is the only one that can help me.  ;)

C) Big wedding gowns are a pain in the butt! I don't think I have the patience to drag a big dress around all day and pretend I'm comfortable.

D) I can go back and delete from my computer most of the "designer dresses" I've been bookmarking like this one from Pronovias because I would hate the skirt:

This one from Maggie Sotero because David's Bridal has one very similar to it:

And this Priscilla of Boston is being deleted because I am not going to spend $4,000 on this dress:

I also wanted to thank all the people that emailed me privately with suggestions on how to find a nice dress at a better price, and introduced me to the idea of consignment stores for wedding dresses, like www.encorebridal.com where you can buy used-only-once wedding dresses from all the big designer names. While this is a great idea on paper, a used dress from encorebridal on average still costs 3 times more than a new dress from David's Bridal.

So I decided that David's could be the right place for me. Their dresses are beautiful and they are affordable so everybody wins!

The only problem with frugality is that, sometimes, it can get out of hand... and so you try to spend less and less even when you are already spending so little.

What am I talking about? About me going on eBay to see if they have the David's Bridal dresses there for even less! And they do!

They have plenty of wedding dresses on eBay, and if you know the style and size you want, you could probably find something there at a bargain.

But since I think I'm getting some form of ADD (attention deficit disorder) or something even worse, like WMTO (wasting my time online), I now go to eBay to check on wedding dresses, but I mostly focus on the reason why these brides are selling their NEW dress (I guess I'm trying to learn from their mistakes)! These are some of the reasons:

* Plans changed on our wedding and I ended up purchasing a different dress that I wore instead (I'm not sure how plans changes affect the dress...)

* Never worn, new with tags from Neiman Marcus Paid $3100, will take $1200 or best offer. (No explanation on this one, it must have been painful!)

* This is my size 8 wedding dress, never worn. I bought it too small as a final sale and didn't quite make my goal! (How much weight do you think you can lose??? The groom won't recognize you!)

* This was my backup dress in case my other dress didn't fit, but it did. (This one lost the weight successfully)

* Never Worn-Cancelled Wedding (Brutal honesty)

There are a lot of cancelled plans  :(  but also a lot of women buying dresses two at a time! Nuts!

Anyway, I think eBay has a lot to offer to anybody looking for an affordable wedding dress, and there are many companies ready to custom make you a dress for less than $200!

Something to think about...