As promised, here are some photos from our dress shopping expedition.
We set our alarms for 5am, and headed off on the road at about 6:10am. Which is a really good effort on our behalf, as we were hoping to get away by 6, and usually we're at least half an hour behind schedule.
We stopped off a Maccas about half way for breakfast, and I called FMIL to find out how she was going, as we were meeting her and a friend at the dress store. They too were on their way.
We got back on the road and continued our journey, arriving in Newcastle at around 9:45am. We had a really good trip, because it's usually atleast 4 to 4 1/2 hours drive away.
We also managed to find a park almost right out the front,
We went inside, and like any budget concious bride made a beeline to the sale area
unfortunately none of the dresses on my short list were in there. I browsed around the Maggie Sottero section, and was pleasantly suprised to find that most dresses were around the $2000 mark.
When approached by a sales lady I gave her my shortlist and she started collecting the dresses for me. As all three fitting rooms were currently taken she took them out into the back room for me to try on.
The sales lady was lovely, she wasn't pushy and she made us feel welcome, and not in the slightest bit rushed.
She disappeared for a little while, so my BM helped me into the first dress, and my mum started lacing me up. I was fine with this, and was hoping it would continue as we would have had plenty of time for sneaky photos
Unfortunately we forgot about taking photos of the first dress, and then by that time she was back in, and then almost never left my side
In order, I tried on:
Monalisa
Allyssa
Fiorella
Jenna
Krisha
Cassandra
Ambrosia
And then Allyssa again...
Whenever my BM and I were alone in the back room she snapped a few photos, the first time she had to jam the camera down her pants as the sales lady came back in, another time she was just focusing when the sales lady came in, and had to play dumb like she didn't know you weren't allowed to be taking photos.
Monalisa up close
Allyssa on the rack.
Allyssa up close.
Jenna on me. (I was keeping a look out
)
Ambrosia on me.
Now if you haven't seen it, Maggie Sottero's Monalisa is a very "Cinderella" dress, and it was the first one I tried on. So everyone immediately decided it was perfect.
It really is a beautiful dress, and it is perfect for a Disney wedding, but I was there to try on 7 dresses, so I was going to try on the 7 dresses.
Then I tried on Allyssa, and everyone changed their minds. This was the dress!
I continued trying all of the dresses on, and none of them really compared to Allyssa, they couldn't find Ambrosia, and were starting to think they must have sold the floor model, so I was about to put Allyssa back on, and decide for sure that it was what I wanted, when they found Ambrosia.
So I put it on and went out and stood on that box thingy that's in front of the mirror, and FMIL started crying
I think mum may have gotten a little teary too, but she's made of harder stuff like me, so it wasn't really noticable
After we finished up here we went to have lunch and chat about the dresses. It was down to Allyssa and Ambrosia. Allyssa was priced at $2200, and Ambrosia was $3500
FMIL and her friend left us after lunch and we headed to a nearby store so my BM could try on her dress. Alfred Angelo - 6471.
The closest store shut at 2pm, and we got there at 2:15pm...
No one was inside either. It looked like they were long gone.
I looked up the Alfred Angelo site, and it was able to tell me there was another store about 30 -45 minutes away. I gave them a call and they didn't shut until 4pm, so we decided it was worthwhile going to.
We got lost a couple of times, but eventually made it.
Here is my BM taking some sneaky photos
This was actually a really good store, as it also had a whole heap of lovely mother of the bride outfits. We may not buy the BM dresses here as they were $240 each, and I know where I can get them for $140 each, but we will most likely go back so my sister can try on a dress, and I think mum wants to get something from here too.
Over all, a successful day. Now just the tricky part of deciding which I want to buy...
we bought tickets for his Sydney show yesterday. Can't wait!! 
It shouldn't matter though, as I'm hoping the general public deals will come out and be much better value, so I can just book a king room anyway. It's just a huge weight off my shoulders that it's finally booked 
I feel like I'm finally doing some proper planning!
