Wedding Blog

After I decided not to have my dress custom made, as I had originally planned, I dove into dress shopping head first. I started shopping in January, and I never would have thought that I was “cutting it close,” but apparently I was, or at least that is what most bridal boutiques told me. I still had about 7 months until the big day, but I learned that most dresses require that you order them at least 6 months in advance to get them in time. I guess it takes almost as long to make a wedding dress as it does a human baby. Who knew?

Of course, I had absolutely no idea what kind of a dress I wanted, as I am not regularly in the habit of wearing ball gowns. So while I was in Syracuse visiting my family this January, I went to a bridal salon there called A New York Bride and tried on just about every style of dress that they had.

Here are some of the highlights and lowlights (and don’t worry Mr. Radish if you are reading this… none of these pictures are THE dress):

This Paloma Blanca dress was my favorite for about 5 minutes. I loved it when I first tried it on and it’s made from a beautiful duchess satin. Later on I decided it wasn’t really the look I was going for, though, and it was over $2,500. I didn’t like it enough for that price.

There were a lot of things I liked about this Casablanca dress. I liked the lace, I liked the romantic feel of it, I liked how floaty the back was, and it was pretty flattering to my figure. But something about it just didn’t seem like it was “me.” There is a lot of blingy beadwork on it and that just isn’t my thing. Especially for a daytime wedding. This was my Mom and my Grandma’s favorite dress, though… and it was less than $800.

This was a Jasmine Bridal dress that was also under $800. I liked the cut of the dress and the detail on the front, but it was a little too low-cut in the back for me and I didn’t like how reflective the material was in photos. I think it was taffeta.

Despite my apathetic expression, I did actually like this dress. It was very light and airy and I liked the asymmetrical bow in the back. Unfortunately, I can’t remember the designer but I do remember that it was under $1,000.

I’m not exactly sure why but I hated this dress. It was very unflattering and looked “matronly,” as my sister put it. The fabric also felt a little cheap, and it did not photograph well.

This is the antithesis of what I am looking for in a dress. It’s soooo not my style. I felt like some kind of cupcake/woman hybrid mutant in it. “Too fussy,” as my mother would say.

Overall, this proved to be a very productive experience. I was able to start narrowing down what kinds of styles I liked and I started to get a feel for what kind of silhouettes looked good on me. If you are just starting to shop for your dress, I highly recommend finding a bridal shop that isn’t too pushy and that will let you try on as many dresses as you want. It’s nice if they will let you take pictures, too, so you can look back and see what was flattering, etc. Not all places will let you take pictures, but I found quite a few shops that did.

In the end, none of the dresses above really excited me all that much, so I continued searching. Stay tuned for the next installment of Miss Radish’s Search for the Perfect Dress.