Shopping for the Gown, Part 3 — Dresses that Didn’t Make the Cut

I’ve had some requests to show dresses in their full-length glory, but I just CAN’T show my top two — they’re just too similar and Jeremiah will hopefully be adding to this blog as time goes by. While I’m not terribly superstitious, I do want the first time he sees me in my dress to be when I’m walking down the aisle. I also have a fear that Jer will see the one I didn’t choose and love it, then be disappointed when I’m wearing a different one. Crazy? Perhaps. He’s assured me that I could show up in a brown paper bag and still look more beautiful than ever… what a guy! 🙂

I have, however, decided to put up some pictures of the dresses that didn’t get close to being “the one”. I tried on over 40 dresses in my three separate trips, but only took photos of a few of them — these were the best of the lot.

Remember my first shopping trip, when I just wanted to try on every size and style I could to get my body in? Well, I always wanted to try a big-and-puffy one, so this fit that bill:

I actually thought this dress was really lovely, but it weighed well over fifteen pounds, and after only a couple of minutes in the dress, I had bruises on my hips where most of the weight was being held. The strangest thing? It was completely hollow underneath, and could easily have hidden multiple flower girls in true Mother Ginger (from the Nutcracker) fashion. If it hadn’t been so heavy and awkward to move in, it might have been a great option – for a winter wedding. I would probably had melted for our July wedding, so it was out.

The next two are similar in style but extremely different in… ahem… taste.

The first is also from Boulder Bridal. I have always loved the look of lace, and really like the style with the cut-out back and cap sleeves. This one was exactly that:


I loved the back but HATED the front — it had what is called eyelash lacing on top. On some women, it’s absolutely gorgeous. On others who are lacking a bit up top (like me!) it was pretty horrible. NEXT.

The last dress for today was at Anna Be Bridal. Did I mention that I loved my consultant here? She was fabulous, and never pushed me for time. She let me play a little, and understood how important it was that I drug out the experience. 🙂 This dress also featured the cap sleeves and popular cut-out on the back, but was skin-tight and made from a thin, stretchy material:

Va-va-yikes. Honestly, I was pretty happy with how it made my body look, but m y Grandma Marge, who you can see in the background, was appalled by this selection. It might be a great choice for a Vegas wedding, or someone that was more comfortable with a “sexy” look on their wedding day, but I wanted to go with a slightly more traditional look. On top of that, it was strangely reminiscent of my Senior Recital dress from college — it had the same gatherings in the middle, the same cut-out back, and a mermaid style flare at the bottom:

My senior recital dress... Does anyone else notice a trend?

It’s a lot easier to choose which dress is NOT right than it is to decide on “the one” It’s even easier to stick by that decision, as you’ll see in the next post…

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