Picking out my wedding dress -- Part 1

Despite the terrible reviews David's Bridal gets in just about every forum I've looked at (including yelp, bridal bargains, google reviews, etc...) I decided to take my chances. DB was the first place I went dress shopping and found my dress almost immediately. I did visit one other bridal shop, but did not find anything within my budget (and, quite honestly, didn't really find anything I even liked there).

About a week after my fiance and I got engaged, one of my best friends and I spent a morning at DB to try on dresses! I called to make an appointment and the girl on the phone told me to print out my favorite styles from their website to try on. Unfortunately, I honesty had no idea what I wanted. No clue at all. I've never been the type of girl who has spent her life dreaming about her wedding, sneaking peeks through wedding magazines or sketching her wedding dress in the margins of her class notes. And there are so many styles and choices out there! What's a girl to do?

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To make matters worse, I am by no means a fashionista. I buy things that I think look good on me, but I have no idea what "a-line" means! So when friends started throwing words out like "trumpet" or "mermaid" or "bias cut" or "corset" (okay, that one I knew) I panicked a little. "How will I ever find a dress if I don't even know what I'm looking for? And I can't use the right terminology to explain what I like and don't like?" I wondered.

Now, I'm an indecisive sort and it's always hard to pick any one thing whether it's a movie to watch, a book to buy, or what to eat for lunch. So I went through my typical route and started eliminating styles that I didn't like. And I slowly learned some fashion terms.

Styles I vetoed (all images courtesy of DB):

I didn't like the skirt on this dress...also known as a "pick up." I did end up trying on a couple with this style, but only because the consultant kept bringing them over to me and I didn't want to be rude. I think I live for other people's approval...even the bridal consultants who work on commission.

I also didn't want anything too "princess-y." No full ball gown type skirts, no feathers, and no tulle. Now, this decision was made partly because I'm not real into the princess look...it's just not my style. I did once buy a prom dress with a big full skirt, but I was 16...and even then, it wasn't really my style (but I was still figuring all that out). The other reason? I'm super tiny! I'd just get way too lost in a big poofy skirt.

I realized fairly quickly that I didn't want anything that had too much embellishment, at least embellishment that was super obvious. So, nothing that was overly beaded, lace or sequined. No surprises here, since all of my clothes are generally very simple and classic looking.

These three got three big "no!" responses from me. Just too over the top and detailed for my liking. (Especially the first two which featured the aforementioned "pickup" style skirt.) Initially, I also thought that I didn't want a white dress. I just felt that stark white wasn't a good color on me. So I was leaning more towards ivory and champagne. I felt like I wanted some color on the dress, too, and was strongly considering a sash. I wasn't too sure about the train, but was leaning against it. Most wedding dresses have trains, though, so I knew I'd probably have to at least try on dresses with the train.

So, after my initial narrowing down of styles, my summary: No "pick-ups," no tulle, no full ball gowns, little to no embellishment, and something off-white. After eliminating these styles, it was time to start looking into things that I did like. But we'll save that for Part 2!