Weddingbee Blog

After some hits and misses in bridal stores and after gallivanting around strangers’ homes, I gave up dress searching for a few months. I breathed some non-wedding-dress-breaths into my life. It was nice. Until January came, and those breaths (along with my heart rate) quickened significantly when I realized that if I was planning on getting married (check) and I didn’t want to do it naked (double check), then I better buck up and buy a dress.

Luckily, I stumbled (metaphorically) across an online ad for a sample sale at Marina Morrison. Marina Morrison is a bridal salon in San Francisco that I never considered looking at during my extensive gown search because it’s quite fancy schmancy. And while I can appreciated fancy schmancy, I’m not much for fancy-schmancy-this-dress-can-buy-a-car-prices. But with my ensuing panic attack, I decided to make an appointment.

The salon is like an art gallery for wedding dresses! [Source]

My parents and I were immediately bowled over when we arrived at my appointment. Marina Morrison was 1. above Gumps (oh la la), 2. we had to be buzzed upstairs by a doorman and 3. the salon was A to the Mazing. Despite feeling a bit intimidated, the ladies at the store quickly put as at ease and then let us loose on the sample sale racks. We grabbed our loot and I set to work trying them on (with my mom as official zipper-upper and my dad working as paparazzi).

I tried on a dozen or two (bringing my total dress try-ons to 1.64 bajillion, if you’re counting). And… I BOUGHT ONE! It was not an easy decision. We had it narrowed down to two dresses which were quite different. I tried them each on 3 times, asking “This one? Or this one?” Here are the pictures of the top two contenders. Can you guess which one I bought without looking below?

Dress on the left by Suzanne Erman. Dress on the right by Carolina Herrera

I hemmed and hawed for a solid 15 minutes in the dressing room trying to decide between the two. My parents each gave their opinions. The saleswoman provided her two cents. I tried on the dresses again. And then I bit the bullet and chose the Suzanne Erman dress (the dress on the left)!

The designer is French and is known (or so I was told, as I’d never even heard of her) for her use of hoop skirts in her wedding dresses. My dress does have 3 hoop skirts at the bottom, which always makes me think of Gone with the Wind (too bad a mint julep couldn’t appear in my hand each time I try it on).

We were able to walk out of the store with my dress in hand. It sure is an adrenaline rush purchasing a wedding dress! My dad said he hadn’t seen me smile that big in a long time, and that he didn’t know if it was from my actual dress, or just that I was happy to be done with the search. In reality, it was a bit of both! I was beginning to think I would end up a dressless bride (I could have been birthday-suit bride).

My happy self with my mom after I had made “the decision”

I never had the feeling that some brides talk about—the “this is the ONE” moment. I think that even if I tried on all the dresses in the world, I would never have found “the one”. There are just too many gorgeous dresses out there to pin point the best one! Though I never had that feeling, I still love my dress to pieces, and the whole process was a hoot and a half.

What did you feel like when you bought your wedding dress? Who had tears? Who had cheers? Did anyone’s heart rate double like mine did?