Saying Yes to the Dress: The Full Experience
Well, it’s been a full year (almost to the day, actually) since I went shopping for my wedding dress, and now my wedding has come and gone, which means I can finally share the behind-the-scene photos with all of you about shopping for my dress in October 2021. If you haven’t already read my blog detailing my dress shopping experience, check that out here, but now let’s talk all about the full experience of when I went shopping (with photos!).
When I first started thinking about what my dream wedding dress would look like, the first things that came to mind was A-Line, lace, flowy and long sleeves. And if you had asked me before I went dress shopping what I thought I’d absolutely not pick, I would’ve said a sleeveless mermaid style dress. Well, if you’re dress shopping, take this as a piece of my personal advice — they aren’t lying when they say go shopping with an open mind, because what I thought I wanted, I hated on me, and what I thought I wouldn’t ever want is what I ended up falling in love with. Now, this all being said, I really didn’t know what I wanted, and I did go in with that open mind & I’m thankful I did or I wouldn’t have ended up with the wedding dress I did.
Once I tried on an A-Line gown, and I didn’t love the way I felt in it, I listened to my consultant and let her bring dresses that she thought I loved, so away went the A-Line dresses, and out came the mermaid styles, and yep, she was right. I loved them.
Though I can’t remember exactly how many mermaid style dresses I had tried on over the course of my appointment, I feel pretty confident saying it was somewhere around the 8-10 mark, and even though so many of them were beautiful (and a couple I didn’t even bother showing), the first mermaid style dress I tried on was sitting in the back of my mind the entire time. I had narrowed it down to three dresses, but I think I knew all along, deep down that the first dress was the one. In fact, you can see it hanging in the background of all of these photos because I instantly fell in love with it and knew it was going to be one of the top three!
As I had mentioned, I had it narrowed down to three, so we pulled out a veil (which ended up being the one I purchased for the wedding too), and tried on all three with the veil, and I knew the moment I put the first dress back on that this dress was the one. I still entertained everyone by trying the other two on, but my mind was made up. Funny enough, it wasn’t the dress that everyone loved best, but once I decided, and you could see how happy that dress made me, everyone couldn’t help but fall in love with it.
So there you have it! The dress I chose is named Hattie by Rebecca Ingram, and the veil is Embrace Cascade Fingertip Veil by Laura Jayne. I also have to give a huge shoutout to my bestie, Brianna (who was also my maid of honour!) for bringing her camera to the appointment last year and taking photos cause I wanted to write this blog after the wedding had passed. It’s hard to believe that after dedicating a year of my life to planning a wedding, it’s now over and I am no longer a 2022 bride, but hey, that doesn’t mean the wedding content stops here! I’m still waiting on my full gallery after all 😉
