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Even though I’m too superstitious to show you my actual dress (well, I guess I couldn’t even if I wanted to - I don’t have a picture of it!), I couldn’t not talk about that part of the wedding planning process - it’s one of the best parts!  The pictures I’m including here are from my first trip - there were three main contenders, all pictured below.  Which one do you think was my favorite?

The first one is from Melissa Sweet’s Reverie line.  The style is Eze.

A close up with a more “me” veil:

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Let me preface this by saying I am a researcher by nature and by profession….please don’t think I am crazy.

Back in March – just two months after I got engaged - I had already been to 7 bridal salons and tried on over 50 gowns. By April, my number had reached 100 but at that point I had also FOUND my dress - I just didn’t buy it.  Not only did I have to be SURE it was the One, I wanted to find it online or at a sample sale since I couldn’t bring myself to spend that much on a dress I was to wear once. I gave myself the summer, prime wedding season, and hoped brides would sell their gowns afterwards. Unfortunately, to this date, I still haven’t found MY dress at a discount. Along the journey however, I’ve been to a plethora of bridal salons, online sites, and sample sales - my most recent one being the Running of the Brides in Washington, DC.

It was a very busy week at work, and there was no way I would take the day off to sit in line at Filene’s all morning long. So I asked a couple of friends if they would like to join me for our weekly Friday happy hour at Filene’s instead of the local watering hole (which we ended up at afterwards anyway). Who knew that was the best choice? I walked in to a calm Filene’s showcasing a gazillion gorgeous gowns all hanging orderly on their respective racks.

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Recently I went dress shopping with a friend of mine who is also getting married in 2010. The owner of the store just happened to be there, and she said to us, “You girls spend HOURS on the Internet looking for the perfect dress and come in with all sorts of pictures you’ve found. And what good does it do? No girl ever comes in here buying the dress that they fell in love with on the Internet. I bet I’m right about you girls too, my theory never fails.”

Well smooth-talking shop owner, your theory failed with me! Bwahahahaha! Because I bought THE DRESS that I fell in love with on the Internet. More precisely, one of my favorite wedding blogs (right after EAD of course :)), Style Me Pretty. If it hadn’t been for my obsession with wedding blogs, I would have never even seen this dress in the first place.

[Brier Rose by Kitty Chen Couture]

I did not know who designed it when I saw the posting on Style Me Pretty, so I immediately left a comment, and then proceeded to post a call for help on my blog. I was that excited about it! Luckily because of the wonderful world of wedding blogs,  it didn’t take more than an hour for someone to reply that it was designed by Kitty Chen. Kitty Who? I had never heard of Kitty Chen, and none of the salons I had visited carried her line. The funny thing is that Kitty Chen is based in San Diego, just like me. Dream dress was just waiting in my backyard the entire time.

That weekend I went to go try it on.

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By the time I visited Nicole Miller, I had already memorized all of the dresses on the website. I could have told you if something was new or removed, same goes for the J.Crew Weddings site. Some might say this is obsessed or crazy, but I just like to think I’m thorough in my research. :)

I finally got to try on some of the dresses I had been ogling for months.

[Nicole Miller FD0002]

[Nicole Miller D10014]

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Last time we left off I was trying on dresses in the $2k-4k range. After that day, I promised myself–no more trying on dresses over $2k. Under $1k? Even better!

[Yes. That is me. Checking the price tag.]

My favorite dress during that trip was Silaba by Manuel Mota–barely under the 2k mark. But at least I was making progress! :)

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It took me about six months to buy a wedding dress, and in those six months I visited five different salons and probably tried on about forty dresses. Can you imagine? FORTY DRESSES. I remember going to my first appointment and asking “what’s a sweetheart neckline?” and by the end of round 2 of dress shopping I was a pro at all the terminology.

Some things that I learned while dress shopping:

1. Ballgowns swallow me whole (I am petite at 5′1″1/2).
2. Designer gowns can easily cost the same amount of money as my annual rent.
3. White is not ivory. Ivory is not white. And if you mention getting something not in the white family, (most) people give you a funny look.
4. I am able to watch more episodes of Say Yes to the Dress than I ever thought possible.

One of my first stops on the grand tour of wedding gowns was the incredibly delightful Bliss Bride in Del Mar, CA. They close the entire store while you try on dresses, and they let me take as many photos and twirl around the store. It truly was a princess experience. Everything about the place was so charming, and I’d highly recommend a visit if you live in the San Diego area.

[Totally cute, no? Photo from Bliss Bride]

They were having an Amy Kuschel trunk show, and I fell in love with Amy that day, along with Claire and Christos.

[Amy Kuschel's Parfait, that's my patient big sis with me!]

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If there is one “pretty thing” I love more than paper, it would have to be fashion, hands down.  So of course, the hunt for the perfect dress and the perfect wedding day style began as soon as I said “I will.”  While I had a general idea of what I wanted (well, more what I didn’t want: no beads, no beddazzle, no pouf), I still figured that I’d hit up several bridal shops before finding my dream dress.  Little did I know…

I can’t remember exactly where I first saw pictures of designer Lela Rose’s gowns, but it was love at first sight… her designs are so organic: the perfect mix of modern and vintage.  I had to give them a go!  At that time, there was only bridal salon in TX that carried Lela Rose - the oh so fabulous Warren Barron in Dallas. I had just begun a particularly difficult quarter in my last year of law school, but when I heard WB was having a Lela Rose trunk show, I rounded up my maid of honor, my mom and my aunt and we made the trek up to Dallas.

While Lela’s designs were truly gorgeous, it was hard to get a feel for how the dresses really look with a designer size 2 encasing me like the skin on an over-stuffed sausage. So the owners, Elle Warren and Ceclilia Barron (the two realest women you will ever find in a bridal salon) pulled some other dresses for me. There were many gorgeous options…

{from author’s personal collection}

and then, there was a Vera Wang… a wispy number with layers and layers of chiffon - it was soooo comfortable and so dreamy. I felt like a nymph in Midsummer Night’s Dream. And then they put the veil on my head…  I cried, the dress was so beautiful and modern and different.  It was the best I’d felt in weeks!

{from author’s personal collection}

Without a second thought, at my first bridal salon appointment, we signed on the dotted line.

And then… panic set in.

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