Weddingbee Blog

Oh my gosh, hive! Upfront I feel the deep need to apologize for my absence around these parts lately. Simply put, life has gotten crazy busy in Armadillo Land. Before I knew it, Thanksgiving had come and passed and now we’re on the countdown to Christmas! Anyone else feel like the last couple of months of this year have gone by at warp speed? It totally freaks me out.

Anyway, just because I’ve gone MIA on Weddingbee doesn’t mean I haven’t been hard at work on wedding-related activities, so I can come back and share some updates with you guys! A few posts back I shared what we had planned for my lovely bridesmaids to wear down the aisle. They ranked their favorites on Weddington Way, each chose a different dress from the Alfred Sung line by Dessy, and fabric swatches helped solidify the decision to go with the dupioni fabric in “Dahlia.” However, I didn’t exactly feel comfortable asking my girls to fork out money for dresses they hadn’t even tried on, so last Tuesday I set up an appointment for me and three of my girls at a bridal boutique in Houston. Unfortunately, MOH Henna lives in Arizona and couldn’t make the trip with us, but the rest of my girls piled into my car and we made the two hour drive to Weddings by Debbie, which was the closest retailer that carried the Alfred Sung line.

Weddings by Debbie is a fancy schmancy “appointment only” salon, and I’ve got to be honest; I had no idea what the place was going to be like when I booked the appointment. The only reason I picked Weddings by Debbie in the first place was because it was the closest salon that carried Alfred Sung dresses. Needless to say, when we walked in and saw the $10,000 couture bridal gowns on the showroom floor, we felt a little…erm…out of place. They also had a few plaques up on the wall displaying their status as a “The Knot Pick of 2010″ and “The Knot Pick of 2011.” We warily told the receptionist at the front that we were there for an appointment in the bridesmaids salon and were pointed in the direction we needed to go.

You guys, Weddings By Debbie is AWESOME. If four unassuming small-town girls like us could be made comfortable in such an impressive place, I think anyone could. We were helped by a woman named Jenn, who was the manager of the bridesmaids section. She asked us what we were interested in trying on, and we gave her the style numbers of the different dresses the girls had chosen online. Unfortunately, Jenn had NONE of the style numbers we wanted to try on in the store (totally my fault for not calling ahead and asking!). However, she did pull every Alfred Sung dress they had in the salon, and my girls each tried on a dress in a similar silhouette and style to the one they had chosen.

I took some pictures with my phone, and I apologize in advance for the terrible quality! But maybe there are a few bees out there who are curious about the Alfred Sung dresses and want to see them on real bodies, so for your viewing pleasure, here they are!

Here’s Lil Dillo modeling style number D542 in Peau de Soie in the color “mango.” Remember, Lil Dillo’s original pick is Alfred Sung D492!

BM Mascara is modeling style number D538 in Peau de Soie, color “pine green.” Her original pick is a similarly shaped strapless number, D445.

BM Dancer is wearing D520 in Peau de Soie, color “Atlantis.” Her actual pick is D488.

In the last picture there, you see that slight pop of a purple skirt peeking in at the bottom left? That’s a dress made in the color and fabric we chose for the actual dresses, the dupioni in “dahlia.” I took a photo of it on the showroom floor to see what the color looked like in the store lighting:

Bah, such a pretty color!!

We were literally in and out of the store in about 20 minutes. Jenn measured each of the girls and gave us a few tips and words of warning about ordering dresses from other retailers online. I absolutely loved that she didn’t try to pressure us into placing an order with them that day, and she was overall just about as helpful as I could have possibly imagined. If any of you are in the Houston area and are looking for places to shop for bridal gowns or bridesmaids’ dresses, I highly recommend Weddings by Debbie!

Anyway, I was originally set on ordering from a website called perfect-bridesmaid-dresses.com since they appeared to be the least expensive, but then Weddington Way held a site-wide 15% off deal during the Black Friday/Cyber Monday madness, which brought the Alfred Sung dresses down to literally the same price, except Weddington Way’s delivery date was two weeks sooner than the other place. Needless to say, I got my bridesmaids on board and we ordered this past weekend. The dresses should get here in February, and I seriously can’t wait!

What was your bridesmaids’ dress shopping experience like? Did anyone else end up ordering dresses through Weddington Way? Has anyone else been to Weddings by Debbie and have a kick-ass experience like we did?