Weddingbee Blog

After accepting that I wasn’t going to find the dress of my dreams at Filene’s Basement, I started online shopping and found a designer that seemed to capture my love of light fabrics, elegant ruching, and floral embellishments, all within my budget: Watters. Unfortunately, very few salons in Chicago carry a wide selection of this brand, so I was overjoyed to find a salon in Minneapolis that carried both that line and the line of bridesmaids’ dresses that I had been eyeing. Every Labor Day, Mr. Bacon, some friends, and I take a trip back to Minnesota (the glorious state where I grew up) for the great Minnesota get together, AKA the Minnesota State Fair, and to see some familiar faces. This year MOH Bacon was going, too! So we made an appointment at Rush’s downtown and crossed our fingers.

Rush’s is pretty laid back. They take you to a dressing room and ask what you like, and then you are free to roam the store and pull whichever dresses catch your eye. Once you have some dresses, the saleslady helps get them to the room and you put them on with your helper. The only thing they are strict about is zipping you into them, since the zippers are pretty fragile from lots of different sizes trying them on. What’s nice there, too, is that you can buy the sample that day or you can order it and they’ll ship it to you for a meager $12 fee. Amazing, right?

So, MOH Bacon and I pulled eight or ten dresses, and the saleslady pointed out one we hadn’t noticed that had just arrived that morning. It had all the things I like: sweetheart neckline, floral details, pockets. It was right in my price range, AND it was a Watters dress. Of course it was the first one I tried on! The funniest part is that since it had just arrived that morning, I pretty much did a fashion show for the whole salon since all the ladies wanted to see it on a bride rather than a hanger. I was a bit unsure of the patterned fabric, but something about it really appealed to me. Maybe it was because it was so light, or the little waist it gave me, or the fact that I was the first one to ever wear it, but I really liked it.

Mojave by Watters: Source

But that dress had no ruching, and ruching is the key to some serious va-va-voom. So we went through the stack of dresses one by one until I found this show stopper by Pronovias.

Diamante by Pronovias: Source

It had some great detail, the V-neck was totally flattering, and it seemed to nip and tuck in all the right places…but I couldn’t get past the straps. Not the fact that it had straps, but rather that the straps were supposed to rest on the edge of my shoulders, not in the traditional place that my tanktops and bras have lived all these years. I couldn’t do it; I just kept fidgeting with them, and I knew I would end up with too many wedding-day photos of me tugging at those things.

So we were back to the Watters gown that had this allure I couldn’t quite explain. We tried it on in a different fabric, but it didn’t seem to have the same effect. So on it went, this time with a birdcage veil, and it was time to make a decision…or rather, send a picture to my mom and see if she agreed.

(Please notice MOH Bacon crouched down taking the picture in the corner.)

Mama Bacon wasn’t sold by our blurry photos and was a bit heartbroken that she might miss out on dress shopping. (In her defense, I had promised not to buy anything without her that weekend.) So, the dress went back on the hanger, and I jotted down all the vitals of the dress in case I could talk her into it later. After selecting the bridesmaids’ dresses in record time (25 minutes), we left the salon with no white dress. It must have been the Cosmos making sure my mom and I got to have that perfect moment when we’re both crying and I’m in a white dress on a pedestal.