Picking Out My Wedding Dress -- Part 2

In Part 1 of my dress-shopping saga, I learned about the styles I didn't like. To recap: no pickups, no tulle, no full skirted gowns, not too much embellishment. It was time to start figuring out what I did like. I was thinking something simple and classy, perhaps in an ivory or something with a splash of color. Had I picked our vintage theme before wedding shopping, I'm sure my dress would have been much different.*

Dresses I liked:


Okay, to be honest, I didn't really love this dress, but it was one of the only tea-length dresses I could find on the David's Bridal website. Since, at the time, my fiance and I were strongly considering a beach weding (and by strongly, I mean 90% of sites we researched would involve at least a beach ceremony . . . and possibly a beach reception, too), a shorter dress seemed like a necessity. I was pretty disappointed with DB's tea-length dress selections, though. So this was option 1.


This dress, option #2, was one of my favorites. It looks even better when you click on the actual dress link and zoom in to see the details. I loved that from far away it looked so simple, but up close there was some embellishment. Plus, I loved the
burnout** style (I have clothes in my closet like this). Unfortunately, I knew almost immediately that my fiance wasn't going to be crazy about this dress. He had made it pretty clear that he really wanted me to wear something that looked like a wedding dress and not just "some white dress."

Here was option #3. You can see that I really was going for the simple look. The picture shows it in pure white, but according to the dress details, it's also offered in ivory.

I wasn't crazy about this one, but I saved it to my favorites anyway. It doesn't hurt to keep your options open, right? I hated the bow on the front, but liked the rest of the dress. There was embellishment on the bodice only which I thought would be a fair compromise between the completely simple look I wanted and the whole "looking like a wedding dress" that my fiance wanted. I also started realizing that I really love the strapless look. My only concern was that the dress would fall down since I've had similar problems with other strapless dresses and tube tops I own. This bride is, shall we say, teeny-tiny in practically every way? No boobs to hold the dress up . . .

On to option #5. Again, a strapless dress. I loved the two-tone of this dress! And it wasn't too white...I loved the champagne color and the cut of the dress. It was, overall, very simple but also elegant and different. I kept going back to this one during my online dress search and decided that it was my favorite of the ones I'd seen.

Option #6 was probably my second favorite! I loved the sash in the front that goes all the way to the floor in the back. I wasn't crazy about the red, but it turns out you can make the sash any color you want. I was envisioning champagne or pewter grey. I'm usually not crazy about halters because I don't think I was blessed enough up top to pull it off. But, I still loved the dress. You can see that I was also falling in love with the split-front/cut-out style.

This one was kind of similar to option #3, above. I loved the bodice of the dress and liked that it had some embellishment on the top, but was very simple on the bottom. I thought it would show off my figure nicely, too. And, like many of the dresses I liked, it was strapless. Nothing in particular stood out to me for option #7, but I liked it all the same.

Finally, we have option #8. You can't see it from this picture, but there is no train on this dress which really appealed to me. It was a very simple, strapless dress that had kind of an asymetrical skirt. It's hard for me to really explain with my limited fashion knowledge, but if you click here you'll see what I mean. My only concern with this dress was that, although I loved its simplicity, my fiance (and mom, for that matter) would think it was too plain for a wedding dress.

When I went to DB, I tried on a lot of the above dresses, but not all. I also ended up trying on some that were on my "no" list (mainly because the consultant brought them over and I didn't want to be rude/hurt her feelings...yes, I'm slightly neurotic when it comes to pleasing people). And I found some others in the store that were very pretty...ones that I either did not see while browsing online or just looked a lot better in person. But we'll save that for Part 3.

Any guesses as to which dress I ended up choosing? Is it one of the ones above? One of the dresses on the "no" list from Part 1? Something completely different? Of course, you know that (at least in my opinion) my dress kind of (but not totally) fits in with a semi-vintage themed wedding...do any of these dresses have that feel to you? Stay tuned to find out!

*I do think that my dress still kind of fits into a vintage-y feel, but I've seen so many other dresses since picking our theme that I love. I still love the dress I ended up picked, though, so I'm not too disappointed that we didn't pick the vintage thing sooner.

**See, I was still expanding my fashion terminology knowledge!

Shopping at Michael's, One Week at a Time

Because we have a pretty limited budget, we decided to do as many DIY projects as possible. We want to do our invitations, reply cards, programs, bouquets, reception decorations (including table cloths), aisle runner, accessories (such as jewelry, garter and veil) and possibly even food items ourselves or through the help of friends and family. Also, we agreed to go to Michael's once a week and buy one item at a time (or two if I can drag Fiance with me) with the 40% off coupons that we get with our newspaper each week. Sounds like a plan, yes?

Here's what we've learned.

First, it's not really necessary to hunt down the Michael's coupon each week in our throw-away mail or newspaper. Turns out every time you make a purchase from Michael's, along with your receipt comes a coupon to use for the following week. Sometimes the coupon is 40% or 50% off any single item or occassionally you get a 20% off entire purchase coupon. Personally, I much perfer the single item coupons because I don't mind picking up one item at a time.

Second, Saturday afternoons in the month before Christmas are a terrible time to make your weekly stop at Michael's. I went there yesterday to return a rotary paper cutterthat I bought from Michael's on Black Friday (it was a great deal! It was regularly priced at $70, but was selling for $30 and then I used a 20% off coupon so I got it for $24...but then I decided I really wanted a guillotine cutter instead and will pay the extra $ for what I really want) and buy some silver ink. After battling a Ford Ranger who did NOT want to let me merge into his lane, I get to the parking lot and . . . what?! No parking spaces?! Now, other than Black Friday at 8 a.m., I've only been to this particular Michael's on weekdays either in the early morning or early afternoon and have easily found parking immediately adjacent to the door. Turns out, the story is quite different on the weekend. Ordinarily I would've said "Screw it!" and come back midweek, but I was meeting one of my bridesmaids so we could decide exactly what design we were going to use for my wedding invites. Michael's is indeed a madhouse with the line snaking through the holiday stocking stuff displays, past the cardstock, and halfway through the back of the store. Yeah, definitely not going back there on a weekend, at least not in the month of December.

Third, not all Michael's are created equal. The Michael's closest to where we're currently living has a woefully small paper-product (i.e. scrapbooking) section (and instead is replaced with a ginormous Crayola section for 7 year olds). Sad. Which means every time I visit my old stomping grounds (really only about half an hour away) I must stop into Michael's there.

Fourth, seasonal sales clerks are no help at all. I actually understand this one having worked a number of retail jobs throughout high school and college. Seasonal employees are there only to help with the huge crowds, they get hired in November or so and don't have a lot of time to learn the store, hey often don't care about customer service because they have no real ties to the company. Even so, I get a teensy bit frustrated by the blank stares I get when I ask for help. "Excuse me, but do you know where your envelopes are?" *Blank stare* "Hi, can you help me find your paint pens?" *Blank stare* Worse still is when I get a similar response from an assistant manager: "Excuse me, but do you know where I could find flat glass ornaments to decorate?" I asked, showing him a picture of what I want. *Blank stare* accompanied by, "Uh...if it's not on the shelf, then we probably don't have it." Wonderful.

***

Items that I'm looking to buy from Michael's in the next couple months: guillotine paper cutter, cardstock, envelopes, ribbon, eyelets, hole punch, floral wire, double-sided sticky tape, ink...