Weddingbee Blog

Early on in my engagement, I must have tried on at least 30 dresses. Needless to say, there will be lots of dress shopping posts. I went to local bridal boutiques, Glamour Closet - a sample sale store in San Francisco, and shopped online at places like Bride Power, Pre-owned Weddings Dresses, Dream Bridal LA and Bella Rosa Bridal. If you haven’t noticed, I like a good bargain. Seriously, my next post should be “How to get the couture dress you want without taking out a loan.” Or you can just read Miss Haute Cocoa’s fabulous post here.

I wanted something timeless, simple and elegant. I knew I definitely wanted something strapless without too much detail, but I also love big princess ball gowns.

There is a bridal shop about a mile from my office, so one day during lunch I popped in to look around. I brought my camera with me, but it’s from the 1990’s and only some of the images ended up on my card. I’m getting a new one soon. I promise!

Anywho, here’s what I found:

From Anne Barge Le Fleur 2007
I love the rose detail on the train! So vintage! This gown was stunning, but as beautiful as it was, it was A) $4200 before alterations and out of my price range, and B) I wanted a strapless dress and the people over at Anne Barge said it would be another $800 to modify the design. NEXT!

Photo from Anne Barge

Next, I tried on this one from Jim Hjelm. By the way, that’s not me, it’s the pretty Jim Hjelm model. This was also a gorgeous dress, but I felt like the “cupping” around the booty area made my badunkadunk too “out there.” Dumplings need no help in that area!

Next, here is a photo (finally!) of me trying on a gorgeous Platinum for Priscilla of Boston dress. I loved it, but the lady behind me said it made me look wide. OhMiGosh yes she totally said that.

This one is from Pronovias. Trust me when I tell you that you should photograph yourself in a dress before you buy it. I thought this dress had such interesting detail. It’s also a 2-piece and the top layer comes off to reveal a plain A-line gown that could be worn for dancing at the reception. Well, the dress didn’t translate on camera as I would have liked. Washed me out completely! Sigh. I really heart Pronovias.

Head is cut off because I’m making a stink face.

Last, but NOT least- here is the gorgeous Vera Wang that I let slip away.

We’ll save that nightmare for another post.

How is everyone else’s dress shopping going? Did you try on about a million dresses like me?