Weddingbee Blog

… About wedding dresses! Yup, it’s time to talk about the dress.

First and foremost, my dress is not pictured in this post. Awwwww, you’re disappointed? Understandable and I promise to show it soon but I want to get a picture of me in the dress after it’s been fitted so you’re just gonna have to sit tight and look at how my decision-process unfolded. And drool over pretty dresses. Hey, it’s a tough job but someone’s gotta do it…

The dress was high on my list of priorities after I got engaged. In fact, the saleswoman at Saks, where I went to first try on some dresses, told me dead serious-like that the dress was the focal point around which the entire wedding should revolve… interesting, very interesting.

When I first started looking at dresses, mostly in the pages of the bridal mags I bought obsessively, I was honestly a bit put off by the majority of them. Not that they weren’t pretty but they were definitely not what I was looking for. I’m pretty short (5’3″ on a good day) and I knew we wanted an outdoor wedding, so a big, poufy ball gown was out of the question. I initially decided I wanted to go super-simple for my dress, no lace or beads or any type of embellishment, country-chic, if you will…

Here’s the first dress that really stopped me in my tracks while looking through magazines…

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I still love this dress, the neckline, the pockets, the thing delicate straps, everything about it…But I knew where the Amsale store was located in New York City and it happens to be in one of the poshest shopping areas around (5th Avenue, right down the block from Gucci, Prada and LV) and deep down, I knew that I couldn’t afford the dress so I never even bothered to go try it on… next!

Have I mentioned how much I lurve J.Crew? Oh, I have? Alright then, so it should be no surprise to anyone that I was also pouring over the online bridal section… there were three that I was particularly enamored with but one is no longer on the website, so I can only show you two…

This one is kind of like the poor-man’s version of the Amsale but for only $650, and it seemed worth checking out…

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I was also head-over-heels for this one. It’s hard to tell but there is very delicate beading throughout the entire dress, which I love…

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I did eventually go to the J.Crew store to try some of these on but ultimately decided that I wasn’t absolutelypassionatelyinlove with any of them, so I kept looking.

I tried on a few Jenny Packham dresses at a discount bridal store here in New York City and decided that I actually did like beading on certain dresses. Jenny Packham gowns are incredibly gorgeous and if my budget had been slightly bigger, that’s probably what I would have ended up with (they were between $3-4K at this store). Look at these two:

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After several fruitless appointments at various bridal stores in NYC, I caved when I saw that Kleinfeld was having one of their famous sample sales. I originally didn’t think I’d be able to afford a Kleinfeld dress but I made an appointment, dragged MOH Pip with me and proceeded to try on about 20 dresses. A few of the more popular ones…

This Jim Hjelm dress is ethereal, floaty and most importantly, empire-waisted, a style I was becoming more and more enamored with…

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This Magia By Pronovias gown was simple and elegant and had a silhouette I liked, yet I felt like that certain je ne sais quoi was missing…

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I also liked this Pronovias…

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I didn’t actually try on this Oscar de le Renta gown but I tried on a few that were similar and (shocker!) decided I liked flower embellishments… plus, how freakin’ gorgeous is this dress?

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I would say the vast majority of my inspiration dresses or dresses I tried on that were contenders were very simple, with minimal beading, lace or embellishments. And of course, the dress I ended up choosing has all three, which is a little too ironic, as Alanis might say…

My dress is not among these so I will leave you now, hanging in suspense, wondering which one I chose… I promise to reveal it soon and tell the saga of how it ended up hanging in my closet.

Did your wedding dress decision evolve over time or did you know right away what you were looking for?