Weddingbee Blog

I took my mom and Lil $is into Manhattan for (what turned out to be) round one in my misadventures in dress shopping. Our first stop in my marathon day of dress hunting was the J.Crew Bridal Boutique—I was sure that my dress was there! I was so excited to get there—so excited that I barely took any pics of the gorgeous shop. Except these:

Shoes! Pretty perfume bottles!

Ooh shiny…

I want that dress in the background. If only I could find a wedding dress I want that much.

And with that, my lovely consultant Lydia took us downstairs and the appointment began! (Mr. Marmalade, darling, this is the little warning. If you don’t want to see me in any wedding dresses before “the big day,” then turn back now.)

First up, the Savoie gown.

Image via J.Crew

I didn’t get a picture of myself in it. I loved the crinkle chiffon, but I didn’t really feel like a bride in this. So, next!

Whitney!

Side note: That heart is staying on my face until I learn to make a habit of wearing makeup. This, of course, is more for your protection than it is for me (no it’s not).

Whitney did absolutely nothing for my figure. Again, I loved the soft chiffon, but I felt it made me look really boxy and altogether non-bridal.

And then there was Margeaux.

I loved the sweet simplicity of this one. And I don’t know if you can see it, but there are buttons going down the back! Unfortunately, I can’t walk down the aisle backwards, or at least I don’t want to since the front did nothing for my figure. Also, the duchess satin was amazingly luxurious, but it was a little heavy for our July wedding.

And my favorite of the day, Aveline.

She was my favorite dress from J.Crew. As you can see, I liked her so much that I donned a veil. The washed crepe felt amazing, but I didn’t like the unfinished grosgrain detail on the shoulders. The back, again, was my favorite part. But I didn’t get that feeling I was looking for…you know, the “wow, I feel like a bride in this one” feeling. So I moved on.

The Goddess.

Or not-so-Goddess in my case. I felt so uncomfortable in it that I refused to stand up straight. And I had looked forward to trying this one on! It was the biggest letdown of the appointment. Oh well.

In an attempt to change gears, I tried on the Erica gown.

This dress was super flattering. Very comfortable—look, pockets! But I didn’t love it.

Next was the Tulipe gown.

This is nothing that I thought I wanted, but BM Lil $is asked me to try it on. Truthfully, my inner five-year-old loved this dress and wanted to twirl around. In retrospect, it looked pretty good. But it’s not right for me.

I pushed forward to the last dress—the Dune gown.

I didn’t feel much like a bride in this one, again. The dress was pretty flattering, and I could imagine wearing it on a beach somewhere. But our wedding is not going to take place on a beach. So that was that.

I tried on two more dresses that I will not be posting here, or anywhere for that matter.

Lyden:

Image via J.Crew

This was actually the first gown I tried on. And it was also the gown that I was told is so slinky that all brides are encouraged to wear Spanx underneath to smoothe their lumps and bumps. Even the most petite brides. Sigh…

Lastly, the Principessa gown.

Image via J.Crew

I was really uncomfortable with the bust portion of this dress. This dress took me from J.Crew to JWoWW (heyo!). It was just way too much skin for me.

All in all, my experience at the J.Crew boutique was a positive one. My consultant was helpful, sweet, knowledgeable, and not pushy. I felt really comfortable—there wasn’t a shred of pretentiousness in sight. I highly recommend making a stop here if you’re in the New York area. It was also the best part of my shopping excursion, as everything quickly went downhill from there.

So thank you, J.Crew! I love you even if I didn’t end up buying one of your wedding dresses.

Did you think a certain designer or store would have your dream dress? Did it work out?

Personal pictures unless otherwise noted