First of all, things have been so hectic in my crazy life that I have completely neglected my PJ. For those of you who have been regular readers, I apologize.
Dress shopping. I assume this is what most girls have been dreaming of their entire lives. Go to the store, find the perfect dress, try it on and cry because you know it's "The One". Given that this was the perception of dress shopping that I had learned from social media and entertainment, I thought surely my experience would turn out the same way.
Having my mom with me was really important and for those of you who may be new to this PJ I should tell you that I live in NYC and my mom lives in South Florida. SO... I waited until Spring Break to start the process with her down there. Admittedly, I was pretty psyched about it. Having had all those magical experiences shoved in my face made this outing very exciting for me and I was ready to live that moment myself.
The first store we went to was in Homestead, FL. This woman has been down there for as long as I can remember (as I was raised in that area). Once we had learned that she relocated her store to a much bigger space and that people were traveling near and far to shop, I knew we had to give it a shot. When we arrived I was immediately impressed by the store. It had a lot of options, was very clean and just felt sort of homey to me. I worked with a young girl named Christina who was really awesome. Oh and let me just say about this whole process... getting naked in front of someone you've known for a total of 5 minutes is pretty weird to me. I felt inclined to ask each of them if we could go out to dinner first but no one said "yes". They just laughed at me and I was expected to strip down to my granny panties (because honestly ladies, going there in a thong or skimpy cute little pair of undies just ain't right). But I digress...
We looked through the magazines and marked a bunch we wanted to try. I really wanted lace in my dress. I thought it was so feminine and classy (two things of which I'm not but on my wedding day I wanted to be). Then I was escorted to the dressing room and the stripping commenced.
The first dress... omg... it was SO heavy! I'm a thin girl but by no means am I fit. The thought of lugging what felt like a 20 pound dress around all day was not something I jumped for joy about (mainly b/c I couldn't jump in it). We continued with the process trying one dress on after another. I wanted to see as many styles on my body as I could to help me narrow it down. I tried a mermaid dress and hated it. Not being able to walk properly all day wasn't exactly appealing to me. They look amazing on some body types but it just wasn't for me. Along with that, I really wanted to see what a dress with capped lace sleeves would look like! They are just so pretty! I stripped down and strapped it on and... beautiful! I loved it... until I tried to move my arms. Unfortunately, not being able to lift my arms up to dance is a deal breaker.
The funniest part about this trip is there was a woman working in the store who everytime she walked by and I was in a new dress she'd look at me, look at the dress and say "beautiful". EVERY dress I tried on. It got a little ridiculous and my mom and I would giggle every time she walked by knowing what she'd say. The woman never disappointed us.
After a while, everything was getting so confusing. I found one dress that I liked but wasn't in love with. It was pretty busy with lace and I was quickly learning that I don't like too much business.
Our trip ended unsuccessfully with the exception of the hug that I got from my new girlfriend.
I will say this... there was no magic and no tears. I didn't feel like the princess I thought I would. There was nothing special about the day which was really sad to me.
SO back to the drawing board... I looked up Alfred Angelo because I had read about the ladies here trying on his dresses and of course he had the Disney line. It turns out there was a store in Coral Gables so we made an appointment for the day before I left FL. This time I had narrowed my choices down and written down about 20 different style numbers I really wanted to try on.
When we got there I was less than impressed. The store was not the cleanest it could be and was very cold (hellooo headlights). People in Miami love there air conditioners. What I disliked most about the store is that they only had one very long mirror there and no mirror behind you to see the back of the dress without having to turn around.
The process began. I stripped down, invited the girl to dinner who promptly laughed at me (which of course means "no"). The first dress I tried on was the Cinderella ball gown. I really wanted to see it. Wow was it big! Very full poofy skirt which had glitter on it. This was not my thing at all. We proceeded to try on dress after dress after dress and I have to say that these gowns look different in the magazine pictures than they do in person. Some of them looked cheap and just thrown together. OH and I learned really quickly that I did not want a corset back. No offense to anyone who has one... I know they're very popular now but when i see them I think of an old fashioned prostitute so I dubbed those dresses "the ones with a w h o r e back". That always got a laugh out of the ladies I worked with.
There was one dress that I kind of liked but wasn't in love with. It was just "eh". We took some pictures and left the store. I was frustrated and nervous. What if I didn't find it? At that point I had tried on about 25 dresses and nothing was appealing to me. And still... no magic... no tears and nothing special.
I was so discouraged!! Never did I think it would be this difficult to find my dress. The pressure of finding "the one" was really creeping up on me. What if I didn't find it?
Jodi
But I had a really giddy happy feeling, and also only after I'd told the sales consultant I was going to buy it, so I took that to be the sign I needed instead. And even still I woke up nauseous the next day with worry that I'd made the wrong choice! No one on Say Yes to the Dress ever mentioned that!
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