I wanted to write this entry when everything was fresh in my mind. When I was all excited and buzzed over finding THE DRESS. Yep, thats right, I bought my wedding dress this weekend. But it's good that I waited and I can put down all my thoughts coherently. I don't know if you would have even been able to understand my excited gibberish from this weekend. It would have gone something like OMG!!1!!!11!IFOUNDMYDRESS!THEDRESS!OMG!!!11!IMCRYING.BUTSOSOSOSOSOSHAPPYANDEXCITED!
Really, I was waiting to get some photos back from Robyn that she had taken. What good is a blog post without the photos? I also was a little bummed out about some blogging news I got last week and it kinda threw me off my game, but oh well. Time to move on. And I'm really happy with my blog and in the end, I'm just doing this for myself. I love if others are enjoying it and reading it, but I started it for me and Ned and that's what I need to remember.
So you wanna hear about my dress? Really? Because it's amazing. And perfect. And beautiful. And it makes me feel like a million dollars.
(Photo credit: Tina from Posh)
I should start at the beginning which was some time last week. Well, maybe even before that. If you remember, I was planning on having my wedding dress made for me. After one very horrible experience and searching the internet to find dresses I liked, I figured there was no way I would find something in a store that I liked. But even though I was planning to go shopping again a couple weekends ago, I was still putting it off. Thankfully, I have Rue constantly pushing me and reminding me to get things done.
After a dozen texts/emails/calls from Robyn telling me I needed to set up an appointment, I finally got around to making some calls. Unfortunately, or for my sake, fortunately, none of the first shops I called had appointments available for this weekend. I was able to set up an appointment for a couple weeks out for The Wedding Shoppe. No one was answering the phone at Grace and my voice mail wasn't immediately returned. And there was no way I was going back to Brides of France.
Then Robyn suggested I look up this place called Posh Bridal Couture that she happened to run across an ad for just by chance at a salon. It's a couture shop in the Semple Mansion and in the ad they had a dress in the exact style she knew I would love. Ok, so a couture shop in Mpls with awesome dresses....yeah, probably not going to have anything in my size. Or, that's what I was thinking. And again, I'm pretty average when it comes to clothes. I can wear a medium to large top from a normal department store and my dress size is usually a 10/12. I don't mind admitting that. I'm considered fairly average. But....wedding dresses run incredibly small. I was told at the shop that how they do the sizing is to take your normal dress size and add 4 sizes to that. That's your typical wedding dress size. Nice, huh? Lets make all the brides feel really fat in what's supposed to be the most important dress they will ever wear. Frustrating.
(Photo credit: Robyn)
To get on with the story, I looked up Posh online and after checking out some of their lovely designers, I thought what the hell and gave them a call. Marie answered the phone and I was immediately hooked. Not only did she reassure me that they would have dresses in my size to try on, she was so amazingly friendly and as luck would have it, had an appointment available for Saturday morning. I booked it.
Now here is where I start getting overly gushy and go on and on about just how amazing my dress shopping experience was. I am so lucky to say that I had that wonderful and beautiful dress experience that you see in the movies. The experience that little girls supposedly dream about, but I never thought would be me. Remember, I love dresses, but wedding dresses? It's not like I ever sat around and imagined what mine would be like. And wedding dresses scare me because, wow, they are expensive and beautiful and everyone is going to be looking at you on that day. But I am so happy to say that I had that magical experience that brought tears to my eyes. But again, I'm getting ahead of myself.
Saturday morning Robyn picked me up at my house in Minneapolis and we headed over to the Semple Mansion. It turns out that Posh has only been open since November and that is why I had never heard of them before, but they are located conveniently inside the mansion along with some other businesses. We were lucky to be the only customers inside the shop at this time and we were greeted with comfy slippers, champagne and fancy cheese and crackers. (I have to add that they don't skimp on that champagne either!) I was also lucky to have not one amazing sales girl helping me, but two; Tina and Stacey. They were both dolls. I really need to mention here just how incredible they made my experience. They were sweet, considerate, non judgmental, not pushy, not fake and they really listened to what I was looking for and what I wanted. They got to know me as a person. It really felt like they wanted to find me the perfect dress that not only looked good on me, but showed off who I am.
So...caring sales girls, champagne, beautiful dresses, what else could make this even more wonderful? The shop itself. It was like out of a fairy tale or something that you would see in a movie. From the chandeliers to the textured wallpaper to the gorgeous couches to the plush rugs to the tin ceilings...everything was beautiful. I don't even think photos can do this place justice. It's just something you should experience for yourself.
(Photo credits: Robyn)
Now to get back to my dress. The girls asked me about myself and what I was looking for and Robyn mentioned the dress from the ad she saw. Tina knew exactly the one and brought that in along with a bunch of other gorgeous dresses. Of course though, it was the one that Robyn suggested that I tried on first and it was THE DRESS. I glowed. I teared up. I laughed. I didn't want to ever take it off. It was perfect. But, like a good girl, I tried on other dresses. There was another contender in the mix, but as lovely as it was, it wasn't the same. Marie was incredible and put together a good offer for me. Even knocked off the price of some alterations and since it was a trunk show, I was offered 10% off if I purchased that day. Wow. Tough decision. Luckily I had Robyn with me to keep me thinking straight. She encouraged me to go to some other stores to try on more dresses before buying the most perfect and beautiful dress in the world.
And off we went. I could not stop glowing. I could not stop talking about the dress. It was beautiful and perfect and...over budget. Ugh. Even with the discounts, it was more than I wanted to spend. Total heartache. So Rue and I went to another shop and there was nothing there I could bring myself to even try on. I remembered Hallie mentioning a couture shop to me that is located in St Paul so I quickly called them up and asked if they had any time available that afternoon. Incredibly enough, even with their Vera Wang trunk show going on, they could squeeze me in.
I need to mention that during all of this, I called Ned and told him about THE DRESS. I told him it was over budget, but just how amazing it was and how it made me feel. His response? If it made me happy and if I knew it was THE DRESS, then I should buy it. He even offered to pay the deposit for me. Seriously, best fiance ever.
Back to trying on dresses. Brilliant, lovely dresses. Vera Wang dresses. And yet, they didn't compare. Wow. I thought that if I ever fell for a dress of the rack, it would be a Vera. But nope. All I could think about was MY DRESS. Thats how I was thinking of it by then. Mine. Like it had been designed just for me. What were the chances that Rue would see it in a magazine while getting her eyebrows waxed? What were the chances that they would have an appointment open for that Saturday? What were the chances that they would have that dress there for me to try? Everything just fell into place and I fell in love.
(Photo credit: Robyn) (No idea what I'm looking at here.)
Is this getting too mushy for you yet? Because really, I could go on and on and on about this dress. But to make a very long story just a tiny bit shorter, I bought the dress. After trying on the Vera Wang dresses I knew that it was the one. Robyn and I rushed back to Posh to make the purchase. Again we were treated to more champagne and tons of hugs and I got to put my dress back on and Robyn took a million photos. Photos that I will not share. At least, not until after the wedding. Call me old fashioned, but my dress is going to remain a secret from Ned until the day of. Which really wasn't a big deal to me before, but then Robyn drilled it into my head that I should not ruin the surprise. Poor Ned.
The end.
- Gan
Posts
