Dress Shopping

(Disclaimer... lack of humbleness in this post)

Wow.

What a crazy experience.

So yesterday I went shopping for wedding gowns and bridesmaids dresses with all my bridesmaids, the moms, and my future sister-in-law. The very first dress I tried on, as soon as I saw myself in the mirror I got all choked up and teary-eyed. It finally started to seem as though this isn't all just a dream. What was I doing in this store? In this dress? Surrounded by all these people who love and support me and this man and this decision... It was an indescribable feeling. I had to get that under control because I did NOT want to spend the whole day blubbering like a... blubbering...sappy... person...

I tried on 7 different gowns. I had maybe 2 or 3 left in the dressing room but the last one I tried on I loved just as much as the first one I tried on. And I didn't want to end up with 5 dresses I loved equally because I am TERRIBLE at making decisions. As in I just really hate being forced to make decisions. I put on dress number 1 again because I thought it was THE ONE. I thought "None of the other dressed made me want to cry." Plus I just looked damn good in it. They let me wear it around the store while we looked at bridesmaids dresses and while my girls tried on dresses. So I was probably wearing it for 2 hours or something like that. My maids of awesome tried on these REALLY gorgeous dresses that complimented dress number 1. So we started looking for dresses for the rest of the bridesmaids that would go with all our dresses. As much as I loved the dress I was still wearing... I kept thinking about dress number 7 laying back in the dressing room. I thought "I'm 99% sure I want this dress... but I need to try that one on one more time so there are no doubts." So I put it on and I realized what was holding me back,

Dress number 1 was just that... the first wedding dress (aside from my moms) I've tried on. That's why it made me want to cry.... I would have cried no matter which dress I put on first... it just so happened that it was incredibly gorgeous and fit me like a glove. But it wasn't the right fit for my personality or the theme of my wedding.

Dress number 7 they only had in a size bigger than what I wear. So it was kind of falling down which made it feel like it wasn't a right fit, mentally as well as physically. But every time someone held it tight in the back for me so it was the right size I just though "WHOAH." I looked like a fairytale... and I had no doubt in my mind that even though, hell yeah, I would love to own dress number 1 as well... dress number 7 was actually the perfect fit.... or would be when it comes in in my size.

So I wore it for a while. My sister walked me around the store, she told me to close my eyes and imagine my wedding day, I was afraid of tripping so I kept my eyes open. But I did picture my wedding day... and I was dancing in dress number 7... and I looked fabulous. Luckily the maid of awesome and bridesmaids gowns looked good with this dress too because number 1 and number 7 had absolutely nothing in common and I didn't want to have to start from scratch.

A HUGE piece of advice I would give to anyone who doesn't know already what they want their gown to look like is this... Grab an ugly dress off the rack to try on first. Something that you would never really want to wear walking down the isle. Because I was dangerously close to buying the wrong dress. I would have looked great. None of the guests would have known otherwise. My fiance' would have thought I looked beautiful... But my mind would have been wandering back to that other dress that I now know was meant for me. Plus it's just fun to try on all sorts of dresses. Hopefully this will be my only wedding and I will never need to go wedding gown shopping for myself again. I wouldn't have done a thing differently.