Weddingbee Blog

I felt bad for teasing you guys before and not showing you my wedding dress, so I decided to be nice and share some pictures along with a recap of my journey to find “The One”.

OR DIE! (j/k, I love you but please go away now)

Before I dive in, I wanted to mention that Mr. Sunrise and I agreed to spend no more than $1,000 on my dress. Since we are paying for this entire wedding on our own, we wanted to stay on a strict budget. I had to say goodbye to my desires of the perfect Vera Wang or dreamy Monique Lhuillier… but I was okay with that. My first stop was David’s Bridal.

I scheduled an appointment for a weeknight because I read a lot of stank reviews about David’s Bridal being really crazy on the weekends and I didn’t want my first experience to be a bad one. Then I combed through all of the dresses on their website and found one dress in particular that really stood out to me: David’s Bridal style V9539. It had everything I wanted: strapless, beaded bodice, full skirt w/ pick-ups, buttons going down the back and a beautiful chapel-length train. Perfection. I bookmarked it and looked at it every day. I couldn’t wait to go to my appointment and try it on.

Close-up of back

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After a long day of work, I picked up Sunmaid S and brought her along as my photographer and expert opinionist (that’s a word, right?). All of my other ‘maids are scattered across the Midwest so they couldn’t make it. I arrived prepared with a picture of my dress and style number in hand (just in case I needed it). It was relatively quiet in the store with only a few other girls trying on dresses nearby. Most of the bad reviews that I read mentioned that a lot of DB associates are very rude, but I didn’t experience that at all. I had the full attention of my consultant and she was actually very nice. I guess it all depends on where you go and who you talk to. She immediately found my dress for me, but suggested that I also try on other dresses, too. She let me borrow a strapless bra and crinoline and went off to pull a few other dresses in a similar style.

Okay, since you made it this far, I will now show you some pics. Notice the enthusiasm on my face… these were all rejects.

1) I thought this was such a fun dress because the top part was sparkly and the skirt resembled feathers. But I didn’t like that it was really heavy. I won’t be able to dance the night away!

2) Uhhh, no. This dress had some boning (cue Mr. S giggling) in the bodice that was not very comfortable nor flattering on my body type. Moving on…

3) Don’t be fooled by the smile here. I loved the pick-ups and sweetheart neckline, but it was pretty plain so it bored me to sleep. It just didn’t have that oomph that I was looking for. Zzzzzzzzzzzzz…

4) I saved the V9539 to try on last because I really thought that it might be the one. I had swooned over it so much that I was very excited to finally try it on. The verdict? It turns out I wasn’t impressed. At all.

I was waiting for that “Ahhh” moment to come, but I just didn’t feel like a bride in it. I kept it on for a while though. I even tried on several different veils with it, including a blusher veil.

I tried to love it, I really did. But no, it just wasn’t the one. I felt like it didn’t have enough pick-ups for me. I wanted a fuller skirt with lots of pick-ups all over. The metallic embroidery also looked very gold, instead of silver like I thought it would be. I think that’s what turned me off the most. In the end, I abandoned it and bid my nice consultant lady a good night.

When I got home, I quickly jumped on my laptop and googled David’s Bridal V9539 to look for some reviews or pictures from other brides that may have worn it. What I found instead, was a dress made by a different designer that was very similar to the V9539.

The DaVinci 8340!

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I thought it was beautiful! It was almost identical to the V9539, but the skirt looked much fuller with more pick-ups! It was also in my dress-budget. I had to try this one on! Upon further Googling, I discovered that one of my local bridal boutiques, The Wedding Shoppe, carried dresses by this designer. The next morning, I booked an appointment and I even bribed my sisters/MOHs to drive four hours to Minnesota so that they could come with me and Sunmaid S. Off to The Wedding Shoppe we went!