The Wedding Dress

Ah, the fun of selecting the most expensive dress you will ever buy and wear just once.  I have to admit, though, this really was a fun experience.  Mom came into town and we went out to Burlington, NC to visit Bridal Mart on a Saturday morning.  

We arrived around 1pm and the place was jam packed full of women of all shapes and sizes trying on wedding dresses.  This shop was really interesting.  On the right side were rows and rows and rows of wedding dresses.  On the left side was a wall of mirrors where the brides-to-be came out to view their wedding dresses.  In the back was a communal dressing room.  It was a long, expansive space with cubbies every 3 feet.  These cubby walls came out by about a foot and gave you absolutely no privacy for trying on your dresses.  There were no mirrors in this room, so you had to go out to the main room to look at the dress you had selected. 

When we walked in, we had no idea what to do.  A worker at the store saw us wandering around lost and helped us find a few dresses to start with.  After trying on numerous dresses, I did find one that I really, really enjoyed – it was a lot of fun to wear and had a really interesting look to it.  I tried that one on a few times and checked myself out in the mirror a few times, as well.  While I was wearing it, I found another dress that looked similar on a mannequin at the front of the store.  We checked the price and it was a little more expensive than I had budgeted but I figured I would try it on anyways.  As soon as I had that dress on, my Mom was in love with it, I could tell.  I liked it a lot but it wasn’t MY dress.  It was very straight (mermaid-fit) and just seemed a bit old for me.  I put the other dress back on and made my decision, this was it. 

We made our way to the front of the store and spoke to the cashier.  As she was entering the dress information into the computer, she was obviously experiencing issues.  She found our assistant who had written up the ticket and said to her, “You have to tell her.”  This isn’t sounding good.  So Oma, our assistant, turns to us and says, “The dress is discontinued, we can’t get it anymore.”  So many thoughts went through my head at that point, I cannot even go into all of them.  Long story short, she gets on the phone with the manufacturer who happens to be there on a Saturday evening and finds the dress in my size with a red sash.  I said I don’t care about the sash, I just want my dress.  So, it’s ordered.  A few tears, some stress and an overall fun day before all of that is now over.  Exhausted.

Mom comes into town the next Monday to meet with me to pick up the dress.  We go out Tuesday morning first thing – 10am we are there ready to pick it up.  I put it on…it’s stained.  The red sash that came with the dress had been packaged alongside the dress and not in a separate bag.  Oh, I was devastated.  We ended up getting our money back and leaving. 

What to do now?  Well, we looked up bridal stores in Raleigh on my phone and off we went.  We started at a store called Savvi which had an interesting system.  You buy the dress you like and you get to customize it to your liking – neckline, length, bling or no bling, etc.  Very neat.  I didn’t like any of the dresses, though…  So, we made our way to two other shops in Raleigh and Cary that night and both had dresses that were so expensive, we thought we would spontaneously combust.  At this point, after visiting the last store, it is 6pm and all shops are closed for the night.  We decided to go home, find any other shops in the area and start again fresh in the morning.  Mind you, Mom was supposed to leave that afternoon but cancelled at least three events to stick around until we found THE dress (#2.) 

The next morning – Wednesday – we got up and started in Raleigh at Maggi’s Bridal.  The woman there was very pleasant and helped me try on two dresses.  Neither dress had the wow factor but both were fine.  If worse came to worse, I could get one and be happy.  We then drove down to the Glenwood South area of Raleigh and before we even went in, I warned my Mom that we were in the pricey neighborhood.  She took a deep breath and in we went.  Yes, the dresses here are extremely pricey as well – we saw a few in the $4000 range.  $4000?  Who has $4000 for a wedding dress?  Especially when your wedding budget is under $25000??  Ok…off my soap box.  The nice thing was, I found one rack with some dresses that were very beautiful and not $1000 or more.  I took a few into the dressing room and stood back to look at them.  There was one that kept catching my eye.  I tried it on and I knew, this was the new THE dress. I absolutely adore this dress.  It has everything that I was looking for in a wedding dress.  I cannot WAIT to wear her. We bought it that day and will go back in 4-5 months when it comes in.  


That was one whirlwind couple of days that ended in perfection.


Since it's post wedding now, I'll post some pics of my dress here. It appears to be a pretty obscure dress because I can't find one other bride wearing it. If anyone else has seen someone wear it, let me know! I <3 her so.

WTOO Caroline.