Weddingbee Blog

Finally, Mama Bacon and Aunty Bacon were in Chicago, and it was time to get in the rental car and drive out to the Chicago suburbs for what we hoped would be the dress-shopping experience of a lifetime. We started out about 15 minutes late (no surprise, since we aren’t really known for our promptness), then we got stuck in fabulous Chicago traffic at 10:30 AM on a Friday on not one but two highways and the last intersection, before reaching Priscilla of Boston. That’s right—we rolled up 35 minutes late to the appointment.

So we quickly checked in at the front desk and started picking out dresses. I had brought along some printouts of my favorites from the website, but those were quickly tossed aside as we started browsing. I made a beeline for the one dress I’d been pining after for a while, then my mom picked a few, my Aunty Cathy did too, and suddenly we had 10 dresses in the dressing room with my name on them. Sadly, a couple of the samples were too small to fit over my hips, including the dress that I thought was the one, so I shuffled those out for another bride.

Goodbye, lover. (Jewel by Priscilla of Boston)

So on we moved to the fabulous Melissa Sweet dresses that were part of the weekend’s trunk show. We quickly narrowed it down to two styles: Mila and Talita. (Imagine Talita without the awkward shawl.) You might notice a pattern: Trumpet, asymmetrical draping or ruching, and—of course—flowers.

Mila Talita

I probably stood around in these two dresses for a combined 30 minutes trying to decide which one I was getting married in. We even dressed me up with bling and a veil, but I still couldn’t quite decide. Should we go with the softer silk organza that moves so gracefully you’d never guess I was a total klutz? Should we go with the silk taffeta on Mila that had so much personality instead? The flowers on Talita were beautiful, and I loved the way they trailed along the side, especially compared to the seaweed-like bits that hung off the flower on Mila. But the Mila fit so well! My waist was so small and something about it fit so right…

After a final comparison, it was down to Mila and the dress from Minnesota (which neither lady with me had seen yet), so we decided to think on it while we went over to the other salon. We made an appointment to come back at five o’clock just in case we didn’t find the one at the other salon, and were on our merry way to St. Charles (AKA Mars) in search of the Watters dress. On the way, we swung by a White Castle since my aunt had never tried one of their little sliders, and we hit more traffic. Forty-five minutes later we were parking the rental car in front of a strip mall, ready to hit the last store of the day.

Did anyone else have to give up on a style because the sample was too small (or too big) to get a decent idea of what it would look like for the big day?