Dress Shopping

As soon as we got engaged I started snapping up bridal magazines trying to figure out what I liked and what I wanted. Everything looked the same to me--white, strapless, poof--and nothing jumped out. Except one. Unfortunately for me it was couture which meant waayyyyy too much money. It was an Anne Barge dress that screamed vintage...which was the look we were going for (but not at that price!).

Similar to a designer's "idea" folder I began collecting photos of what I liked. Four months later Jeremy's Mom suggested a shopping trip to Costa Mesa to visit one of the largest bridal salon's on the west coast--coincidentally in the town where Jeremy grew up and where his family still lives. When my Mom and I made the trek down there I wasn't expecting much beyond a bonding trip amongst the ladies.

Mon Amie was huge with dresses for miles. I was immediately overwhelmed. The tiny girl that fainted 5 steps away didn't put me at ease either. She had apparently decided to starve herself for the dress shopping experience. Between the lights and dresses it all became too much for her and she passed out cold and sweaty in her dress. It was traumatic. Fortunately for me I had just come from a very un-bridelike meal of a beer and a taco. I would be fine.

After saturating the poor sales person with my collection of photos and and an even longer list of no-no's we went out and pulled about 10 dresses off the rack to start. I tried those on and then a few more--maybe about 15 to 20 dresses total. To satisfy my curiosity I did try on the couture dress I had loved so much. Thankfully it was ill fitting and could easily be forgotten. The second dress I tried on was the closest thing I could find to the Anne Barge dress and ultimately the one I fell in love with. I added some slight modifications to make it all mine and we were set. We then celebrated our two hour shopping success over an amazing dinner with the family.

I never imagined it could be so easy.