Weddingbee Blog

I’m saving you all reader space here by consolidating the dress searches that didn’t result in purchase into a single post. You’re welcome.

I had NO idea what kind of wedding dress I wanted. None. OK—that’s a lie. I knew I wanted it to be white. But in terms of silhouette…no clue.

Since my mom was in town a couple weeks after our engagement (and we had the venue and band locked in), we decided to go try on some dresses. I thought it was absolutely crazy to try on dresses that soon, but we made a strict “no purchase” rule.

Part I

We decided to visit Bridals by Danielle in the Washington Square section of Philadelphia on a Saturday afternoon. The store.was.hopping. Although there was only one bride trying on gowns in the main area, it’s not that big of a space, so with her seven onlookers, it felt a little crowded. However, they were not lacking for dresses. Apologies in advance—no photos were allowed.

Our consultant was running a little behind, so we had a chance to browse through the gowns. Maybe I’m just oblivious, but I was overwhelmed by the variety. Different styles, fabrics, colors of white (yes, I realize some of them may just have been dirty—not that naive!)…it was a lot. We picked out a few gowns we thought might be good to try on, mixing styles and fabrics and varying degrees of “bling.” Again, this trip was not to purchase, but hopefully we could narrow down style.

We were paired with Cynthia. When we told her our situation, she became even more helpful, if that was possible. Instead of trying to push us to purchase, she asked questions about the type of wedding, what dresses I feel most comfortable in, etc. I ended up actually trying on a lot of Lazaro dresses and finding that ballgown was the style I was looking for. I’ll save you the individual stories, but several styles were immediately nixed due to the fact that they made me look crazy tall—I’m almost 5’10″, so don’t need help there. Believe it or not, I also walked away with a dress that I thought could be a real frontrunner (this one) with some minor adjustments, so, overall, an extremely successful trip. Thank you, Cynthia!

Part II

Over Easter, I headed back home to upstate New York and, since we had some free time, decided to visit Lily of Saratoga to look at some dresses.

I kept mostly to ballgowns, but did try on a few different styles (including an all-lace dress—gorgeous, but not in keeping with my vision for the wedding). Believe it or not, I walked away with another favorite dress, but one that was completely different. I liked it so much, I put on a veil.

Personal photo—I am wearing this dress.

In person, this dress seemed perfect. First, it was extremely comfortable. Next, it was a classic style, but with a modern twist because of the small flowers and pickups. It was dramatic without being too dramatic.

However, we realized the problem when we got home…its drama, beauty, and detail did not translate in the photographs.

You can’t see all the flower detail in the skirt.

I realize we were using a point and shoot and not a professional camera, but it took this dress out of the running. Sad face.

We did have some luck in terms of bridesmaids’-dress inspiration during this visit, though. More on that later.

Part III

Later in the spring, my mom made another trip to Philadelphia, and we decided to head out to the ’burbs and check out Priscilla of Boston (RIP).

Although I enjoyed my experience at Priscilla and really liked my consultant, it felt as though the dresses were a bit pricey, especially when compared to other dresses I had seen. We went back into to the dressing room with only a few gowns, including one rogue which I was not a fan of on the hanger.

Oops.

It ended up being my favorite dress of the day and, ultimately, the dress I ended up comparing to the Lazaro from Part I. Apparently these consultant people know more than you do.

I look A LOT happier than the model of this dress. (Why the long face?)

This dress was a bit “funky,” you could say, but with the classic silhouette I felt like it wouldn’t be something I’d look back at later and question (like my father’s aforementioned baby blue tux). After the photography issue with the Augusta Jones, I was SO happy to see that the painted-lace detail came through. Unlike the Lazaro, I didn’t want to make any adjustments to this dress.

Again, the veil went on to check out how it felt to “be a bride.”

This would be such a cool photo if it weren’t for the clips.

It felt pretty good.

I walked away from Priscilla empty handed, feeling like I had two (very different) dresses on my short list. But how to narrow it down? The yellow legal pad was seeming fairly necessary to go through pros and cons…

Did you have success in your early wedding-dress searches?