Day 117 - Found it!.for real this time!

I went in today to try on dresses with two of my bridesmaids and a friend. I wedged in between the girls and thought to myself, "when I finish losing this weight I wonder if I'll fit nicely between you two!"
First we took the girls off to get their photos taken before returning them home to my man so we could have a child free trip to the bridal salon. Once we snuck out we picked up another bridesmaid and headed off to shop for dresses.
We stopped at the store we hadn't gone to last time to try on dresses and were told that without an appointment we could not be served.

There was no one but us in the store, it was as quiet as a dried up lake in the Sahara but still we could not be seen. Well, isn't that just wonderful? In the other store we could walk in, fill out a form and when someone became available you were served. So it was clear we would not be shopping at this store. However, why not look at bridesmaids dresses. You do not need assistance to try on bridesmaids dresses we were told so although we weren't likely to purchase from this store we could at least look. We found a few cute ones that resembled the dress I had picked out before and snapped a few shots.
But we weren't here to look for bridesmaids dresses we were here to look at wedding dresses, time to leave.
Gathering our bubbly girly selves we ran back uptown a bit to the original store. Once there we were each given a ring. You take the ring and if you find a dress and you like it you should put a ring on it ;). Once given the rings we were set loose. Among the selections was the dress from the original selection. I wanted to compare it to the others. I knew that you can sometimes get caught up in the moment and fall in love with a dress just because it's a beautiful dress or a dress at all. So I wanted to give this dress a real run for it's money.
So each girl made their selection and I made two. Then we went and looked around upstairs at bridesmaids dresses while we waited for a consultant to become available. This is when I met Michelle a dream consultant. We gathered up the dresses and I explained to her that I had been here before and tried on a dress but that we wanted to be sure it was the one and not just "first dress syndrom". Of course she was aware of this common bridal ailment and was willing to play dress up.
First up was the Jasmine. A dress from the disney princess collection. It was a dress we were all pretty sure would be a no but we had all gone to it at some point and said, "Wow, what a pretty dress." So why not at least put it on before we ruled it out. This dress was 5 sizes too big for me so obviously didn't get it's full potential on me. You can see how much it's swimming on me. When I struck a pose the dress moved away from my body. I'm sure were you to stand close to me you'd have saw straight down to my toes. Regardless, this dress was never going to be the dress for me. Pretty dress but a little too much for me.  I mean just look at it, I look just a tad...HUGE in it :p

 Next up was one of my friends picks. The first words out of my mouth were, "This is a LOT of bling!"  This dress was also way too big for me which was exciting considering I thought it was the right size. Although it definitely fit way better than the first one This one was beautiful and very princess but that's what made it not for me. I am no princess. I am a hippie.
The girls were annoyed that I was not wearing a veil. I explained that I would not be wearing a veil on my wedding day. I would be wearing my hair in two braids that met in the middle and had flowers weaved into them. The girls begged and bothered until I at least tried. I agreed that were I to wear this particular dress I would have to wear a veil. All the more reason it was not the dress for me. I needed something a little more simple.

More simple say you? More simple, that is completely possible. The next selection was way more simple. A beautiful ivory number which I instantly fell in love with! This dress still makes me tear up. For when we set out this time around I requested that not one of us look at a price tag. If the dress was too expensive the consultant might know of one similar for a lesser price. So no tags were touched and thus leaving room for heartbreak later. But I am getting ahead of myself.

I slipped into my next dress. A beautiful simple ivory dress. It had it all. It was beautiful. I turned to the girls and said, "this is the dress!" we all swooned. I then turned to my consultant and said, "And ... how much is this dress?" As you can see by my expression the result was not a good one. This beautiful one of a kind dress that I had just fallen head over heels for was double my budget before tax and alterations. This dress, although a great price as far as dresses go, was out of my league. I remember the feeling of my heart hitting the floor when I thought to myself, "Why did I bother coming in? I knew I couldn't afford a nice dress! I should just go to a second hand store and settle for a once loved dress left over from a divorce." For a moment the little girl inside me was pounding on my chest screaming, "No! You can make it work! Just elope in this dress! You can afford it if you don't book a venue or feed anyone. Maybe instead of a dj you can have people over to your place and blast some music! you can make it work!" but I told her to shut up because it wasn't happening!
So what was I to do?
Try on more dresses of course. While looking for a dress I had spotted the dress that had stayed with me all along. When planning my wedding for years I had this dress saved in my inspiration folder. The style was no longer what I wanted but because it had always been in my folder and there it was in front of me I had to at least give it a try. Who knows, maybe it was meant to be. Well the answer is no. Although it was very cool and fun to try on a dress you'd stared at since you were 16 years old, it just wasn't what I wanted in a dress anymore. It was very cathedral or church wedding in style and I am even more of a hippie than I was then. This was not the dress.
Just when I was about to give up the consultant assessed what I had tried on combined with my personality and what she had heard me say I was looking for. She asked, "What's your budget?" I told her $600 to which she said, "it's my turn to pick one!" She disappeared among the Maggie Sottero which, if you remember from a previous post, was a designer I had already previously stated I loved.

I had found the dress from the bridal magazine and although it looks gorgeous in the magazine and would probably look wonderful on me there was just something missing from it. It had a lot more lace than I had expected in person and kind of lost it's wedding feel, even for me. Still a beautiful dress and had I budgeted for two dresses, one for the wedding and one for the reception I would definitely have bought it for the reception. As it is the dress was out of my budget and not perfect. So I had moved on. Although I remained in love with Maggie Sottero!
The bridal consultant returned and hurried her selected dress into the changing room and ushered me in. I was still staring at the ivory number with tears building up in my heart that I couldn't have the dress I had just been wearing. But trusting her I picked up the dress from the hanger and as I slid into it I saw the different features she had picked up on and my heart warmed. Was it possible? Had she just found ...the dress!
I walked out of the changing room and everyone gasped, "Oh Gena! That's the dress!" I smiled, I fondled it, we examined it head to toe for any reasons why it wasn't the dress and once we were most assured that it was the dress I turned and asked my consultant the dangerous question, "What's the damage?" She was standing back and watching the whole thing. Very casually but with a huge grin coming to her face she proudly said, "$700 but I think we can figure something out." The little girl climbing the walls of my chest stopped what she was doing and squealed with joy along with all the girls around me. We'd done it, together with the help of this wonderful consultant we had found the dress that not only suited everything I wanted but also was within my budget! The girls wanted me to put a veil on and I shook my head, "No veil, no veil for me." they insisted, "you have to have a veil." I looked at my consultant and said, "Well.. there was one veil idea I used to love. Instead of a conservative musquito net on your face I thought if I were to wear a veil it'd be something with color in it. She asked what my wedding colors were again. Reds and pinks. Her face lit up. She left only momentarily and came back with a veil that matched my description perfectly.

I said to the girls, "If I was going to wear a veil it'd be one like this." Knowing that veils can run anywhere from $70-$200 I didn't even want to ask the price. I had already tried on one very simple veil and it was $75! Preparing to take it off the consultant said, "And you can't argue with the price. $5.75!" I squinted, "$575?"
"No, $5 and 75 cents!" My eyes widened, that was amazing. The veil was on clearance to move. I said, "Even if I don't wear it at the wedding I could certainly wear it for the bachelorette or something. $5.75 is a steal for a quality veil!" And so it was decided.
But...I hadn't yet tried on the original selection. Would I be swayed? I had to try it just to make sure. So one last dress it was...and was it the one?
 No doubt about it this was not the dress for me!  As much as it was a nice dress but just not the  dress and there is nothing wrong with that. At least now I knew and I had been wise enough to question my "first dress syndrom" and thank goodness. By going back I got a dress for less than half the price of this one.
Besides the material on this one wasn't very flattering to my new trim figure.
The dress I had selected would be bought off the rack and thus save me $200 dollars of the ticketed price. She was going to have it cleaned before we returned to make our final decision. We assessed the stains and stitches and anything that needed to be cleaned up on it and made notes after notes to ensure it was all decided.

I will be returning with all my girls to see what they think of the dress in person!

So aside from a maybe veil I walked away with nothing today but the possibility of something tomorrow. Going to step aside and wait a few weeks to make sure this is the dress before I buy it. Now to lose another 20lbs.