Really? The first dress???

So after the excitement of the wedding fair, Nicol and I decided that we had to start looking for wedding dresses right away. Nicol called me on Monday and let me know that we should go to the Wedding Shoppe on Wednesday. Usually on Wednesdays, I go over to her house after work so we can watch the repeat of last week’s “Lost” episode (in an effort to try to understand what happened the previous week) and then watch the new episode at 8:00. This particular week there was only going to be one episode at 8:00, so since we had so much extra time, wedding dress shopping seemed like the perfect time killer! I called and made a six o’clock appointment at the Wedding Shoppe, which is conveniently located a couple blocks from Nicol’s apartment.

We were both a little nervous about the Wedding Shoppe because we thought that it might be a little hoity toity and snotty. Boy, were we wrong!!! A woman named Cathy helped us and we pretty much loved her from point one! She brought us upstairs and asked what kind of dress I was thinking as well as what my general style preference was. I told her that I wanted something that was classic, not really “weddingy” or princessy,” that I didn’t want it to be to poofy, and that it had to look good with the necklace that I had already had made for the wedding. She decided that the side of the shop that we were in was not going to do and brought us to the other side. She explained how the dresses were arranged and told Nicol and I to choose about five that we liked and to bring them into the dressing room. We looked through over 100 dresses, some of them pretty, some of them SICK!!! We found about five or six that I liked and wanted to try on. Cathy did the same thing and I think she came back with about three. We met in the dressing room and Cathy looked through the dresses that Nicol and I picked out and asked me to try on one of the dresses that she brought first. She has been doing this for 10 years, so I trusted the dresses that she chose more than the ones that we chose. The dress that she wanted me to try on first was pretty on the hanger, but it was not one of the dresses that I would have picked out myself. However, I put it on and it looked AMAZING!!! Nicol and I both kind of fell in love with it!

Cathy came in to the dressing room and pinned the straps that were way too big and told me to go out into the main room so that I could see how I looked in the big mirror. There was a mom and a mother-in-law sitting and waiting for their daughter to come out of the dressing room, and they told me that they thought the dress looked amazing. Cathy asked what my thoughts were on a veil. I told her that I wasn’t necessarily thinking I would wear a veil, especially on the top of my head and covering my face, but I was open to trying one on. She grabbed one and put it beneath my makeshift updo and I couldn’t believe how much it added to the dress…I looked like a bride! Nicol got a little teary!

We went back into the dressing room and Nicol snuck a couple pictures of me in the dress so that we could look at it later and analyze. I then proceeded to try on about 15 more dresses. Some were very pretty, some were not pretty at all. Right after Jason and I got engaged, I saw a particular dress in a magazine and fell in love with it right away. The Wedding Shoppe didn’t have the exact dress, but they had a similar style. I tried it on and it was SICK! It looked absolutely awful! I thought it was kind of funny that I had this picture in my mind for almost a year and it got wiped out in a mere second.

Ultimately, I found one other dress that I liked. I didn’t love it the way that I loved the first dress, but it is closer to the idea of what I thought I would really like. Nicol took pictures of that one too for later analysis. Because it was our first time looking, and the dress that I loved was the first dress I tried on, I feel like I am supposed to continue to look. Although now anytime I picture the wedding, I see that dress. I have even started to think about the décor of the reception in relation to the dress. I also feel like I need my mom to see the dress in person. Not really for approval because I know that she will like whatever I choose, but more for the fact that shopping for a wedding dress as mother and daughter is sort of one of those milestones that Hallmark makes cards for.

I have heard from many of my friends that they also ended up buying the first dress they tried on, so maybe I am just supposed stop thinking about it and just buy it. I think that while there is an extremely good chance that will be the ultimate outcome, chances are good that I will spend a good chunk of time agonizing over it!