More About Dresses

Last Friday, while my parents were in town, my mom accompanied me and my entourage on another dress shopping expedition.  I suspected it from the beginning, but am now convinced that I am not the type of woman to find the ONE dress.  I think I've tried on around 15 dresses so far, and almost all of them I like well enough, but I haven't had one that made me think "wow!"  I think I've come to terms with that.  I plan to go to a few more places this weekend with my best friend, and will make a decision before she leaves.  Who knows, I may still fall in love with a dress this weekend, but I'm not going to despair if I don't.

So, last week, we went to Juliet's Bridal in Parkville, MD.  It's definitely one of those places that you are not likely to just happen upon.  I saw online that they were having a sale, so I wanted to check it out.  They didn't have a huge selection of sale wedding gowns in my size, but the woman found several beautiful ones within my price range.  The woman was very nice, and I appreciated that she immediately realized that an ivory gown would be more flattering to my complexion than a white gown.  I have a viable option at that store, but considering that almost all of the gowns I'm interested in are off-the-rack, it may or may not still be there if I decide to go back for it.

We then went to Amanda Ritchey in Fallston, MD.  We had a great first impression of this place - the space is beautiful and pink, with cutesy antique settees and tables.  I thought for a moment that I had found the ONE hanging on the wall, but it didn't live up to its promise once I put it on.  I also ended up being a little turned off by the sales person, as she tried to talk my budget up, then wouldn't tell me how much the dresses cost before I tried them on.  I specifically asked, "How much is this dress?"  and she answered, "Well, it's on sale, and wait to see how much you're going to save!"  I sort of resent being manipulated in that way.  There were two dresses there that I really liked, both out of my real price range. 

She redeemed herself a few days ago, though.  She emailed me to let me know that the designer of one of the dresses I really liked had recently gone out of business, so she would be able to give me the dress for $500, putting it in my price range.  I'm going to take my BF there this weekend to see what she thinks, because I'm not going to let a grudge get in the way of what might be my best option for a dress.

One thing that I've discovered is that late June and early July seem to be ideal times to go wedding dress shopping.  Many of the shops are clearing out the "2010 models" for the "2011 models," just like cars.  And who can tell the difference between the 2010 and 2011-style dresses?  It's not like they're trying to pawn off dresses from 1988 or anything.  Whatever!  I'm happy to benefit!

So, today we go to the Columbia Bridal Boutique, then tomorrow we're going to hit up Poor Little Rich Girl again (since I realized that all of their samples are 50% off, that puts some dresses in my range that I initially thought were not), back to Amanda Ritchey, then up to K&B Bridal in Bel Air. 

If I end up with nothing, I'm considering ordering a custom dress from Ieie's Dress Boutique online.  Some of her stuff is really beautiful!