OK, so a few weeks ago I went shopping for dresses with my mom in the Toronto area. It was my first time shopping. I'm about a street size 12/14. We went to Revival Bridal first. It was a cute little boutique that sold dresses off the rack so you would save a lot of money. I had been e-mailing one of the owners of the store beforehand, and when I arrived, there were already dresses pulled for me. I was the only customer in the store, which was nice. The lady helped me in and out of all the dresses. Note: Please excuse the bad pictures (I guess the flash shouldn't have been on?) and my face and hair in the pictures. Also, please excuse where you can see my bra (I forgot to pack my skin toned one and I was kicking myself for it).
So, the first dress was lace layery and just looked bad on me. Maybe it's because the sample was so tiny, but I look like the Hungry Caterpillar:
The next one was better, but still made me have a pouch.
This next one was just too much lace and material up on my shoulders, though I liked the way my torso looked in it.
Again, way too much up top for me.
At this time, we ran out of the dresses that I could squeeze into that she had pulled for me. So, she pulled another one and said it looked crazy on the hanger but sometimes you try something out of the box and it is "the one". So, I tried it. And yeah, big fail.
Then I went through the section of the racks that the store had around my size to find any dresses I might want to try. Why oh why do they make dresses that hug bellies?
This was my top one, though I had a tiny bit of an issue with my belly as the boning and stuff didn't go all the way down and the dress didn't fit the greatest. The lady said a seamstress and good undergarments would fix it, but I still wanted to shop as I was not sold.
I tried on a ball gown for the heck of it, and it was pretty big and plain for me.
Then there was this one, which if it fit better, would probably be very flattering due to the blingy stuff in the front making a sort of colour blocking/optical illusion effect. But, there was a definite line between the skirt and the top and that drives me nuts.
Then, it was on to David's Bridal. That store was freaking huge. The consultant I had was very nice, but I was left to put on the dresses myself in the room then come out and she would zip me up or whatever if need be. She kept pulling dresses for me and was very attentive, other wise, though. So, I came in with a list of dress numbers I liked from the website and she kept pulling them so I could try them all on and go from there. She also grabbed some shoes for me to wear with the dresses. She was being nice, and the shoes were cute, but good god my feet were absoultely dying. The first one was "the one", but I'll go back to that one later.
So, this one was nice, but didn't feel as flattering or luxurious as it could have been.
Kill me now in this dress.
This one looked nice on me, if I do say so myself, but I could hardly walk in the thing. I kind of need to move my legs to do that, so, no.
At this point, she ran out of the dresses I had came in wanting to try that were still in stock. So, she started pulling what she thought might look good or what I'd like. The lace in this next one was old lady-ish, IMO, and just too much for me.
Dear god, another fail.
And now, a big, satin ball gown. I didn't like the line at the top meets skirt thing, again, and the skirt was just too much. But, the structure on this thing was unbelievable. It is hard to tell from the pictures, but this thing made my torso look slammin', IMO. It actually looked like I had a symmetrical waist.
Another no-no. Just so much at the top and such a plain skirt.
This one was OK, but it was something about the bust area that was off and the skirt was a bit "interesting" with the tulle.
So, after trying on all those dresses, I went back to "the one". My mom teared up the first time I tried it on, though I didn't notice as she stifled the tears so she wouldn't put any pressure on my or anything to pick it. I didn't want to take it off and I couldn't find one thing I didn't like about it (OK, well it only had a zipper back that I wanted to put buttons onto, but that's easy peasy). It is a peachy/champagne colour with a kind of sheer overlay with little ivory lace pieces.
Then the manager came over and there was this cute thing about ringing the bell and making a wish once you found your gown, so I did.
After thoughts: I was glad I went with just my mom, I didn't want any opinions. Maybe I should have worn some hard-core shape-wear so I would look better in some of the gowns I tried on (I wore high rise, medium control panties).