Weddingbee Blog

So, after my first run in with David’s Bridal and before my second one, I spent a lot of time at other bridal salons; almost every other bridal salon in Virginia, actually!

No, seriously.

I had a two-week hiatus from work and I made it a point to go shopping for a wedding dress during that time. I felt bad that I didn’t go to Running of the Brides event at Filene’s Basement in Washington, DC, which I had wanted to do, but decided I wasn’t cut out for such an event. My girls were gung-ho and wanted to do it (quite a few of them even took off work), but I figured since I have such a hard time making decisions [any decisions], there was no way I was going to be able to find a wedding dress in such a rushed fashion. I booked an appointment at Leesburg Bridal and Tuxedo instead and geared up for a week of wedding dress shopping.

Leesburg Bridal and Tuxedo

• Loved the variety of dresses!
• Loved the attentive staff (they even sent me a thank you note)!
• Loved having the store to myself!

I liked this shop so much that I went twice! Once with my stepmom and then again with my BMs and my MOH. Even though the store is really, really small, they have a ton of dresses! They carry a wide variety of designers and the staff are super nice and attentive.

My girls and I had a fabulous time. We tried on a bunch of gowns! We had the entire store to ourselves, because apparently it’s really slow during the week and that made it a lot of fun. We were there for 3 hours! That’s a long time, I know, but it was fun times! Nobody complained.

Here are two dresses I tried on and liked:

After two trips to Leesburg Bridal and still no feelings of finding “the one,” we headed out a little further to Manasas to a place with an excellent reputation:

Jeanette’s Bridal ’N Tux Boutique

• Loved the store. It’s big and beautiful!
• Didn’t love the limited number of dresses
• Didn’t love the size of the samples

Jeanette’s Bridal ’N Tux Boutique is a top-rated seller of bridal gowns in this area. My stepmom purchased her gown from Jeanette’s and lots (I mean lots) of her friends, their daughters, even coworkers found their dress there as well.

I absolutely loved the store. If you want the real bridal experience (something kind of like Kleinfeld), head to Jeanette’s Bridal! Just the appearance of the store is enough to catch your attention. The staff was fabulous and they really go out of their way to make dress shopping a memorable experience. We worked with a woman named Maria and she was very funny and attentive. She was determined to “make us cry”! She said, “that’s when you know!”

Unfortunately, I didn’t feel the dress selection was as wide as I would have liked. There were a lot of nice gowns, but Leesburg Bridal and Tuxedo had a lot more of a selection. I also felt that most all of the dresses at Jeannette’s were small. None of the samples were fitting and that was pretty discouraging.

Here is the one we really liked:

Even after hitting these two very prominent dress shops, I still wasn’t sure I had found the one. I had definitely started to accumulate favorites, but there was nothing I was ready to commit to 100 percent. Was I just afraid to say yes to another dress or had I just not found the right one yet?

Up Next: Part 3 - Finding More Favorites and the Fear of Committing to Just One