Weddingbee boards

Well, ordered anyway.  On my second dress shopping trip.  My first one (David's Bridal, which I do not love) was not good.  After telling me (at almost six months before the wedding) that I didn't have a moment to lose, they turned us loose to look through the racks ourselves, and reappeared to be semi-helpful while I was in the dressing room.  Although we had an appointment, I was sharing a saleswoman with another girl who was much more enthusiastic than either my mom or I.  The dresses were not great.  My mom was not thrilled.  I spent the rest of the afternoon in bed with a migraine.

Today we went to a small, local bridal salon.  I was not looking forward to it, but they were really nice on the phone, asked a lot of questions about what kind of dress I was thinking about, whether I could bring pictures from magazines, what my price range would be.  When we got there, they had several dresses lined up already.  After looking at the pictures, they pulled several more.  Every one was actually wonderful.  The saleswoman helped me on and off with every dress, chatted with my mom, and was really wonderful. 

The interesting thing is, the dress is and is not what I had thought I wanted.  It is actually a lot more "bridal" than I had envisioned, and is ivory - while I was thinking about grey or pink.  And I fell in love with and ordered a veil too, although I hadn't thought I wanted one. 

The good news is, for everybody still shopping, it really is true that when you find THE DRESS, you will absolutely know it.

Angel - I went to The Purple Parasol in Kennewick.  What a totally weird name - I had appointments lined up in Spokane and a trip planned to Seattle - but my mom talked me into at least looking locally first.  So glad that I did!  Pam (at The Purple Parasol - starting to sound like Dr. Seuss book) was soooo nice, and we had a lot of fun. 

It's Alfred Angelo.  I thought it was really reasonably priced for the quality of the fabric and the workmanship (the shop quoted me $700 with alterations).  Although it shouldn't need much in the way of alterations, as you actually order by your measurements rather than by dress size, and it laces up the back - just whatever is needed to bustle the train.  It is style 1148, if you want to look on their website.  And apparently it takes about 6 weeks from order to the store, so for all you brides panicking about order times, you could try Alfred Angelo and see if that helps.