Weddingbee Blog

…continued from here.

Saks Fifth Avenue at Phipps Plaza was our first stop, and they were having an Amsale trunk show. I had spoken to the salesperson, Mary Munday (yes, that’s her first name) a few days earlier, and she was just lovely over the phone. I was glad to hear such a friendly voice to help ease me into the dress-buying process! Once we got to the store, my mom and I were both seriously overwhelmed. Nobody was in sight to help us just yet, and we weren’t sure where to begin.

Several minutes later, the Amsale rep appeared and offered to start helping me into gowns. This made me a little nervous, because I definitely wanted to try on gowns other than Amsale, Kenneth Pool, and Christos, but I wasn’t sure how receptive she would be to that. We pulled several into the dressing room, and so it began.

My earlier apprehension regarding sizing disappeared almost immediately. Even though the dresses were “straight off the runway” (or so the rep said…), I was able to get them on, and in most cases, zipped! Woo hoo!

I tried on various Amsale and Christos gowns (and we even snuck in a Monique Lhullier, much to the dismay of the Amsale rep!), and I really liked this one, from Christos:

It had almost all of my requirements – strapless, a-line, and lace…plus, a sash could be added very easily!

The dress cost a lot more than I intended to spend, particularly since it would need extra length (I’m 5’9”, by the way!). The 10% discount for purchase during a trunk show would immediately have to be added back in for the extra length charge, which was kind of disappointing. So we wrote down the dress information, got Mary Munday’s card, and moved on to Priscilla of Boston.

The Priscilla of Boston shop in Atlanta is amazing. When POB purchased the Melissa Sweet line about two years ago, they took over her flagship store on Peachtree Street, and it’s absolutely beautiful – very serene, not overwhelming, and the service is fantastic. In fact, I wish I remembered the name of the salesperson who helped us – she was just lovely, and not pushy at all (I love that!).

I tried on a bunch of POB and Melissa Sweet dresses, but this one was clearly the favorite:

(Melissa Sweet’s Paulina, as worn by the divine knottie gwinnettbride, at her wedding in June 2007)

I know what you’re thinking – ‘Miss Magnolia, what’s the deal? Where’s the lace? And the sash? This dress exhibits none of your previous requirements!’

Well, with this dress I learned the lesson that 95% (my rough estimation) of brides realize upon dress shopping – what you initially think you want is probably not what you end up liking/buying. This dress looked great on me, and I loved wearing it. Again, though…it was at the top of my price range.

So we took the card of the lovely POB salesgirl and departed. We had more shopping to do, more dresses to see. Two more shops to go!