well, that was easy! my sister and i went to two total places today, and ended up really finding The One. and exactly a month after my fiancé proposed!
but first, we went to my off-the-rack bridal appointment i mentioned yesterday. however, to my dismay, the dresses they had me try on were mostly made-to-order; only one was truly off-the-rack. this was despite them having an explicitly "off-the-rack" option when booking, that's an entirely separate type of appointment on the booking page, and despite me explicitly making sure on the phone that that's what i would be trying on.
alas. they had preselected a few gowns for me around my size and inspired by the photos i had sent in of gowns i like. they were nice, but none felt like anything special. as mentioned in my previous post, i've been cognizant of proportions lately, especially my bust in comparison to everything else—for several of these dresses, that was precisely the problem: very bust-heavy in an unbalanced sort of way. i mentioned this to the stylist, but i think she thought i was being self-deprecating, as she responded with a compliment that my proportions looked great in all the dresses! she also assured me that sometimes it isn't like they show on tv, with a big dramatic moment and tears and the whole shebang. sometimes you just find a nice dress and that's that! sure...but the ones i tried on were both not The One and would be logistic nightmares—because again, i had specifically wanted something off-the-rack, not that i'd have to wait months for!
in the end, i left the appointment ready to check out our next place: an outlet store. we arrived and it was much more my style. no pressure, lots of options i could browse myself, lower prices, and most importantly, entirely off-the-rack. i expected basically a thrift store sort of vibe, but to my delight, the employee in the store was quite helpful and was the ideal amount of involved. she let us browse, but offered to help us put clips on the ones that were a bit too big (to show how they might fit i got them altered), unsheathed the covered gowns for us, and suggested accessories to try. we arrived an hour before close, and at first there was one other group inside (looking for non-wedding gowns), then pretty quickly it became just us in the store.
the gowns were organized by (european) size, which sounds very helpful, except that i have no idea what my size is. that ended up being neither here nor there, because the sizes fit me wildly different anyway. one that i liked was a size 40 and fit almost perfectly, and the dress i ended up getting was a size 34 and also fit perfectly! i just picked whatever gown caught my fancy in terms of both style and price and tried them on.
after about five, i was starting to prepare for the scenario in which i had to settle for a decent dress, because at this point i wasn't having any particularly strong feelings about any of the dresses; they all just felt "fine." i pictured myself a month out from the wedding, still searching, and making a choice on a time-crunched whim. then i tried on one that was an "almost," and started envisioning getting married in that one. i still didn't love it, even though it looked great.
next was a gown that i had liked on the rack, but wasn't anything special on me, even though it seemed like it fit well enough. as i looked at it on me in the mirror, the saleswoman mentioned that they had the same gown in a size below, if i wanted to try that one instead. sure, why not!
i pushed aside the curtain and emerged from the mirrorless little dressing room wearing the dress in the smaller size. my sister caught sight of me at the same time that i caught my own reflection in the mirror. my jaw dropped, and so did hers. tears sprang to both of our eyes. it was the infamous moment! this was the dress, this was the one. it really did happen like it does on tv! it fit incredibly perfectly. so perfectly that i'll likely only need to get it hemmed, no other alterations. and it was significantly below my budget! "ok, i'll take it!"
thinking about it now, i'm recalling the phone consultation i had for the bridal appointment, where the stylist recommended i stay open to different styles. i had joked to my sister that open to different styles is my middle name. and indeed i was! i don't think the dress i chose is something i would have pinned to my wedding dress inspo pinterest board, but on me, it was simply something special.
i only wish i could show my fiancé already!
p.s. i forgot to mention; as i was trying on the too-big version of The Dress, which i didn't find to be anything special at the time, i noticed a family outside the store was looking inside and making "wow!" facial expressions to me in that dress. my sister said, "that was a sign!"
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