This is a long one....
Both my mom and future mother in law flew in yesterday to go dress shopping with me today...I'm not sure how I feel about this...at first I was excited, but due to injury have not been able to work out for a week and am not feeling good about trying on dresses.
I imagine it to be similar to trying on swimsuits except some other stranger will be in the dressing room helping you get into it...awkward! Good thing I bought a new strapless bra & brought some spanks!
I created little goodie bags for the mom's and by good friend Eva who will also be coming with on our road trip to Roseville to the Alfred Angelo signature store (truth be told, I'm not even sure exactly where this city is). I'm more excited about giving them those than actually trying on dresses. Each bag contains some road trip food: chocolates, small popcorn bag, water bottle, Luna Bar, and a big diamond paper weight that I stuck a round laminated sticker to the bottom of, and a dry erase marker with an eraser cap. I'll use these for them to give each dress a grade. I'll also be bringing a notebook for someone to write down the dress name & item number and what grades it received.
Why are we headed there you might ask....in cutting out dresses that I liked from magazines,bookmarking them online and the multitude of pins on pinterest I found that there were two dresses, both by Alfred Angelo that I had marked multiple times from different platforms. I'm taking this as a calling that I
NEED to try these dresses on-hence the trip to Roseville who guaranteed me that they have the dresses in stock. Who knows maybe I'll hate them, but will have peace of mind that I at least tried them on.
I've also received much advice on dress shopping the last week:
- "Stop shopping when you've found "the one"--how are you supposed to know...I assume I'll have some sort of aha moment, but not being a shopper and NEVER wearing dresses I'm skepitical that will occur
- Don't buy a dress too early-you won't like it in a year. This one makes sense to me, but if you have to order your dress it takes about 6 months to be made a shipped, then you have alteration appointments and times...so how can you wait?
- Most brides are bigger when they finally get their dress. How the heck is that possible? Aren't we all working to loose weight over the next 12 months and be in the best shape possible?
- Don't bring too many people with you to an appointment. This also makes sense, but knowing my family they will just go with the flow "whatever you like", "whatever you're comfortable in", etc.and I need more people there who will point out my muffin top, or tell me it looks like a diaper or a table cloth (hence the two appointments in two different cities).
Can I just mention that our short 2 hour road trip turned into a 4.5 hour stuck in traffic car ride. I have never had knee pain from driving before....EVER until that trip. Thanks for being closed Bay Bridge! Even though we left SF an hour earlier than planned we still had to call and reschedule my appointment 2 times!
Us: "Hi we have an appointment at 2:00, but don't think we are going to make it by 2, could we move that to 2:45-3:00"
Attendant: "We have another appointment at 3:15"
Then an hour later
Us:"We have an appointment at 2:45, but aren't going to make it"
Attendant: "so 3:30? Where are you?"
Us: "Just passing Travis Airforce Base"
Attendant: "Yeah you are no where even close to here. Better put you down at 4:00 or 4:15"
It was wonderful when we finally arrived about 3:45 and checked into the shop to let them know we were there to find that I could try on dresses right then. After looking at my family I asked if it was OK for us to grab something to eat first since we didn't have breakfast (thanks fantasy football draft) and had been driving for HOURS. It was really great of them to let us take a break even though we had rescheduled so many times.
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| Poofy Princess Dress...found I pretty much hate tulle. |
My consultant was Inna. she was pretty amazing. Almost everything I tried on was right in the ballpark. I don't know how she did it with all those dresses, but she knew exactly which item numbers to pull for me ;D Being in the dressing room wasn't as weird as I thought it would be..the most awkward part was diving into the dress....She would hold it up and I would squat down a little look up through all the gazillion layers of fabric and see the little bit of light at the top then dive up for it....do they make wedding gowns like that on purpose....like a metaphor for your wedding/marriage?
Here are some photos of dresses that I tried today that are NOT The one...so I figure it's OK to post them:
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| Ummm...yeah...not feelin the rosettes. |
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Not so bad in the front except two different fabrics from top to bottom, 2 different colors and sooo much fabric.
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The next apt is in a few weeks in Spokane with an entourage of friends and family in an after hours take over of the store--that one should be fun even if I do have to be the center of attention & it's only a 10 min drive!
