Weddingbee Blog

I don’t even know where to begin, except to warn you that this is the story of a Girl Who Cried Dress or one indecisive bride’s journey to finding the right wedding gown!

You know that movie 27 Dresses? Well, I’m the bride with 27 dresses; not bridesmaid dresses, but wedding dresses. Well, not really. I only actually bought two, but I changed my mind about both of them within 24 hours. And I also thought about 10 others were “the one”!

Yeah, I’m one of those. Ugh. Damn indecisiveness.

The two dresses I actually put money down and said, “this is the one,” were both from David’s Bridal, a place I do not intend to ever go again. No offense to DB or girls with DB gowns—I love their dresses (hello! I thought not one, but two were the wedding dress for me)—but every time I walked into a DB store, I felt pressured to walk out with “the” dress.

On my very first trip to a DB, I thought I found “the one.” You’re not going to believe this, but it was the very first dress I tried on. In hindsight, I realize it might have been the excitement of trying on a wedding dress, and not me totally loving the actual dress. There was no way to tell me otherwise.

I don’t have a lot of pictures of the first “one,” except these:

Sorry the quality is crappy. I literally took pictures of pictures on my camera with my phone!

The reason being that my mom forced me to erase all the pictures. Once we picked this dress, she thought I would change my mind if I stared at it all day. Good try, mom. I changed my mind anyway.

The same week, I returned to DB with my maid of honor to get her opinion. She loved it, but she grabbed another one she thought I might like. That’s when the indecisiveness began (and pretty much never ended).

The only pictures of the second “one,” are again pretty crappy. Sorry.

The second “one” was the first of two I would actually put money down on. Yay! I have a dress! No, not quite. I started second guessing the dress the moment I left the store.

I woke up the morning after buying it and immediately checked the contract. My mom saw what was happening and that’s when she demanded I erase all the pictures, less the obsessing, but I knew right away. I knew right away I had just joined the ranks of brides who bought a dress, then changed their minds.

Uh oh.

Well, a few weeks passed and I tried ignoring the fact that I had put money down on a dress I didn’t love, but a lot came to light in those few weeks, like changing our wedding date from October to April. This was a biggie because the dress was a very thick material and was no way going to work in early April. That was when we decided to return it. I lost $80 and felt pretty bummed.

I took a bit of a hiatus from shopping, probably due to a bruised ego and feeling a bit silly for having bought a dress in such rushed fashion, but eventually I did press onward. I pretty much hit EVERY bridal salon in Northern Virginia, but eventually landed back at DB.

You’re not going to believe this, but I put down money on another DB dress!!!

This time I went with Mr. B’s mom. We were visiting her in Williamsburg for the weekend and I asked if she’d go shopping with me. It was a holiday weekend and the bridal salon she wanted to take me to was closed, so she booked an appointment at DB. I was actually excited about heading back there just because it had been so long since I had been there, and I figured I might see something new.

Indeed, I did.

I found two dresses I really liked. I somehow attracted the attention of the whole store, including managers and everyone thought it was the real deal! Was this “the one”? Here is a picture of the first dress we started to consider:

What the hell was I thinking? haha!

Everyone loved this dress. They were all very nice and so excited, and again, I fell into the trap of thinking I was supposed to walk out with it. Our assistant was so fabulous, too and I didn’t want to let her down.

I wasn’t feeling it as much as everyone else, so I moved onto another dress:

As if I absolutely had to pick one, I started to proclaim, this was it!

Again, what was I thinking??

We pulled out enough money to start another layaway plan, and before I could blink, I had done it again! As soon as I started calling family to tell them I found my dress, I could feel the fear building. That night, I knew I acted too soon, and this time with Mr. B’s mom!

OMG! What is she going to think of me changing my mind again? I was totally distraught over the whole thing and felt HORRIBLE. She had been so excited to be the one that was with me when I found my dress. We decided I needed to go back with my mom and get her stamp of approval. Mr. B’s mom was very nice and kept telling me should would understand if I changed my mind, but still, was I really about to do it again?

I was and I did. I returned the dress, but this time I did so in time to get our money back. My ego was still bruised and I felt a bit conquered by the whole finding-a-wedding-dress thing. That is when I vowed never to go back to DB.

I tell this story to illustrate how I became known as the Girl Who Cried Dress, and to give warning to other brides who may be like me and feel easily pressured to make a decision. My advice to you is to give yourself PLENTY of time before you make your choice and put money down on a dress—even if the whole store says it’s “the one.”

Up next: Part 2 - Venturing Outside of David’s Bridal

Did you order a dress only to change your mind? Who holds the record for most dresses bought and returned?