Wedding Dress Hunting

There are number of weddings slated for next spring/summer/fall. In one of these weddings I will be a bridesmaid. This is rather exciting for me as the only time I have been in a wedding I was about 3 years old and a flower girl. I have been helping the bride-to-be search for her wedding dress for a litle over a month now. The experience has been eye opening.

Together we have been to four boutiques in Boston, David's Bridal and Jessica McClintock in the Natick Mall. The service at the stores was, for the most part, consistantly good. Vicky at David's Bridal was no less attentive than the women working at the higher end stores like Vera Wang and l'Elite. These individuals all really knew what kind of dresses look good on a person's body. It was also refreshing to see that they were not afraid to let you know if the dress wasn't quite made for you. They always waited for our initial reactions, but if there was doubt about a look, they were perfectly willing to explain why that doubt most likely existed and also let us know if it was something that could be fixed.

After we had picked out the dresses we found to be interesting, these women would often suggest something that was overlooked or intentionally not picked. More often than not, these dresses looked breath-taking. Moral of this part of the story: trust the wedding dress shop employees!

There were a few heartbreaking scenes which all related to the fact that these places only have sample sizes on site. Usually the dress only comes in one size and the size can be from 6 to 10 (more likely a 6 or 8). My bride was able to fit nicely in most of the dresses. Occasionally we had to clamp her in because it was too big, but out of the 50 or so dresses we tried on, I think maybe 2 didn't zip up.

This was not the case for some of the others. I saw girls who had the dresses completely unzipped in the back and the dresses were clipped onto their undergarments. One of the women who I saw trying to envision herself in a dress that would actually fit her ended up just breaking down. She went out onto the stairwell and tears began to flow. It killed me to hear her friend have to reassure her that there was nothing wrong with her shape and that she was not too big for designer dresses, it was merely an issue of a store only carrying one size. The scene really broke my heart a bit as we were leaving the store and heading to our next appointment.

I do wish that these places could carry at least one or two dresses in a bigger size because it is awfully hard to visualize what a dress will look on you when it is so mis-sized. America is getting bigger so shouldn't the sample sizes?

In the end, my bride thankfully picked out her dress this weekend and it is AMAZING! She is very happy with the final decision. The funny thing is, is that it is nothing like what we have been looking for/at for the last few weeks, it was a just for fun try-on. I hope all of the other brides-to-be that we have encountered are also able to have that moment where they look into the mirror and start to glow. :)