Where did you find THE ONE........

momo2210 · July 2010

I'm in the process of setting up some appointments for dress shopping and my mind is going a mile a minute! I have a lot of questions........

1. Where did you find/purchase your dress?
2. Which stores offered you a great experience?
3. Which stores would you never go back to?
4. When you went shopping did you make multiple appointments in one day or did you spread it out?
5. How much time did you allow in between each appointment?
6. How many people did you bring with you?
7. Any other tips or recommendations?

TIA!!

cdlnmf · July 2010

1. Where did you find/purchase your dress? J. Crew
2. Which stores offered you a great experience? I really only went to a few stores, and I wasn't really focused on the experience I guess. I was just a get in, get out kind of bride.
3. Which stores would you never go back to? DB Nashua and Natick
4. When you went shopping did you make multiple appointments in one day or did you spread it out? Spread over about a month.
5. How much time did you allow in between each appointment?
6. How many people did you bring with you? I did bring one friend to one appointment, and had two friends at another appointments. In the end, I liked the appointments where I went alone the best. For me, friends judged the style of the dress based on their personal preferences rather than by how the dress looked on me. I tend to let opinions get the best of me, so for me it was best to do it myself!
7. Any other tips or recommendations? Don't jump into buying anything if you have time. Think about it. Let it sit and settle. Theres so many things other than the dress that this applies to also. Sometimes us brides get so excited about things that I feel like we make choices that we wouldn't have it we really sat and thought about it for awhile first~!

sboston06 · July 2010

1. Where did you find/purchase your dress? David's bridal in Danvers
2. Which stores offered you a great experience? David's Bridal...I had a great consultant and she helped me try on dresses I never would have picked.
3. Which stores would you never go back to?
4. When you went shopping did you make multiple appointments in one day or did you spread it out? I only went to one store but I would recommend spreading it over several weekends. It's exhausting to go all in one day. And frustrating if you don't end up finding something you like.
5. How much time did you allow in between each appointment? I allowed 2 hours between BM dress shopping appts, which gave us plenty of tiem for lunch and drinks!
6. How many people did you bring with you? All my bridesmaids, 2 aunts, 2 moms...so 8 people total. Lots of opinions, but they were respectful and didn't try to push me one way or another.
7. Any other tips or recommendations? Wear a strapless bra and decent undies. And bring lots of inspiration pics but be open to trying on different things.

noodle_oo · July 2010

1. Where did you find/purchase your dress?
Camilla's in Arlington. Good selection of dresses under $2K, mine was $800.

2. Which stores offered you a great experience?
Marry & Tux, Nashua NH
Precious Memories, Malden MA (very good service here!)
David's Bridal, Natick MA
Manhattan Bridals, Dedham MA

3. Which stores would you never go back to?
I didn't really have any bad experiences.

4. When you went shopping did you make multiple appointments in one day or did you spread it out?
I did most of my appointments on weekdays after work, so one per day and they took about 1-1.5 hrs. I think one Sat I had 2 appts with a 1 hr gap between them. That was a long day, so I wouldn't do more than that.

5. How much time did you allow in between each appointment?
Each appt can run 1-2 hrs, so leave enough time for that plus a break for lunch or a snack between each one. It is tough to go straight from one store to another (and good to take time to reflect on what you just saw).

6. How many people did you bring with you?
I brought 1-2, always my MOH and sometimes another BM. I actually liked shopping with just my MOH the best. I also did a few appts alone which was kind of nice too.

7. Any other tips or recommendations?
Lots of great tips here:

http://www.boston.com/community/forums.html?plckForumPage=ForumDiscussion&plckDiscussionId=Cat%3aLifestyleForum%3a9627Discussion%3a72342905-271a-4023-a954-093bee690d67

JBs_Bride · July 2010

1. Where did you find/purchase your dress?
Sabella Couture

2. Which stores offered you a great experience?
Sabella Couture
Country Weddings in Hingham

3. Which stores would you never go back to?
Priscilla
L'Elite

4. When you went shopping did you make multiple appointments in one day or did you spread it out?
Spread them out. I needed time to think about what I had tried on and compare to what I had already tried on.

5. How much time did you allow in between each appointment?
N/A since I spread out dress shopping over several weekends.

6. How many people did you bring with you?
1 other person for shopping trips. (Once brought my mom, once brought my FMIL) I brought a bunch of people when I showed them the dress that I finally picked (and at that point they couldn't say anything since I had put down a deposit on it! lol)

7. Any other tips or recommendations?
Bring a bottle of water with you. For some reason, I got really warm every time I tried on dresses.

) Don't try on dresses that are over your budget. Once you buy your dress, stop shopping. It's definitely a lot of fun, but it's not a good idea to keep looking because you'll only make you doubt yourself and your first choice.

sniksa · July 2010

1. Where did you find/purchase your dress?
Madeleine's Daugher in Portsmouth NH
2. Which stores offered you a great experience?
Madeleine's Daughter was the Best, I'm so happy I decided to head up there (plus no sales tax is an added bonus!) Camilla's in Arlington was great, and so was Mariella's but that's in CT

3. Which stores would you never go back to?
Gianna's in Stoneham, I know other's have had good experiences, but I thought it was dirty, crowded, and lacked some serious privacy in the dressing rooms (the rooms are small, and just a small swinging door that pretty much only covered what was necessary- if i were any taller or shorter, it would have been bad news) and the women there just did not seem to understand what I was looking for at all...

4. When you went shopping did you make multiple appointments in one day or did you spread it out?
I only made one the first time, but right after we left I felt like I wished I had made another, so we called Gianna's and they were able to get me in the same day. Once I found Sadie at Madeleine's Daughter though, I knew I wanted to give her the sale, and I only made appointments with after that.

5. How much time did you allow in between each appointment?
I think it makes sense to make one in the morning and maybe a break for lunch and then another mid-afternoon.

6. How many people did you bring with you?
My grandmother(who raised me, so she's more like my mom), my MOH, and one of my BMs

7. Any other tips or recommendations?
- Go to a place where you can pull the dresses for your first appointment. Being able to just choose things and try different styles at Camillas and Giannas let me try things I thought I would like, and experiment a little- which was really fun, but once I had some ideas and wanted to really get serious, having a consultant pull things and help me articulate what feature I liked/ didn't like on different things to narrow it down to find THE dress was invaluable!
- Try things you don't think you'll like on the hanger
- Really consider the type of wedding your having- ours is going to outside, and some of the dresses were so heavy and hot, I would have died even though they were beautiful
- Bring some water, extra deodorent, parfume (you'd be suprised how much of a work out it can be!) a
- Wear undies you're not embarrased being seen in
- Wear you're hair roughly like you think you will for the wedding...if you're thinking down, keep it down, if you're planning on doing something up or back, have a pony tail...it's amazing how much of a difference it can make!
- Sometimes the experience is worth it's weight in gold. Madeleine's Daughter is a little bit further away from me than I thought I would travel, but having Sadie as a consultant, and her patience, caring, and enthusiasm was so incredibly different from everywhere else I'd been, I knew I wanted her to be part of my day, and I wanted her to get the credit for my sale, and to get my business no matter what!

***AND HAVE FUN!!! I was almost a bit sad when I found it...shopping is so fun, and my grandmother and I were having so much fun with it!

Karen's MOH · July 2010

1. Where did you find/purchase your dress?
Country Weddings in Hingham
2. Which stores offered you a great experience?
Country Weddings-- the woman who helped me (Jen) was SO helpful. I told her what I was looking for and price range and she started pulling gown after gown that I loved. Priscilla was nice for the experience, but they didn't have that much variety under $3000.
3. Which stores would you never go back to?
4. When you went shopping did you make multiple appointments in one day or did you spread it out?
I did it over the course of 2 days, really. I made the mistake of not allowing enough time in between and it was super stressful. I agree with others to allow time for lunch or something in between, and 2, no more than 3 MAX, a day. Don't underestimate Boston traffic, either.
5. How much time did you allow in between each appointment?
See above-- not enough!
6. How many people did you bring with you?
One or two-- MOH for the first day, MOH and Mom on the second, when I boguht my dress.
7. Any other tips or recommendations? Like others said, wear something you are comfortable being seen in underneath-- no thongs that day! Bring snacks and water, and allow extra time. Bring a camera in case they will let you take pics-- it really helps refresh your memory and see how it looks from different angles. Priscilla and Precious Memories both let us take pics. Country Weddings did not until I bought the dress.

smilecrazy8 · July 2010

1. Where did you find/purchase your dress?
Olivia's Bridal in Acushnet- fantastic place. Designer gown at half the price because they sell for bridal shops that have gone out of business! Not to mention, the women that work there (esp. the owner) are absolutely fantastic.

2. Which stores offered you a great experience?
Olivia's. David's Bridal in Natick was ok.
I just got my dress altered at Michael of Boston in Pembroke who was absolutely fantastic. I admit I was a little weary of a man sewing my dress but he has GREAT customer service and he really did an awesome job on my dress. It looks like he has a good number of options too! Oh- and he'll custom make your dress if that's what you'd like as well!

3. Which stores would you never go back to?
David's Bridal in Dedham- I got a lady who didn't help and I actually couldn't find when I wanted help. If this is what you want, great. But I didn't like it.
Bride's Choice in Waltham was terrible, all expensive and none my size. I had a hard time finding help.

4. When you went shopping did you make multiple appointments in one day or did you spread it out?
I should have done multiple in one day but I'm indecisive and needed to process each place.

5. How much time did you allow in between each appointment?
I think I spent an average of an hour or two at each place. Olivia's possibly more because I got a rehearsal dress and my mother got a MOB dress too!

6. How many people did you bring with you?
Depends when. I did a mother/daughter trip which totally honored my mom, by myself a few times and with my bridesmaids another time.

7. Any other tips or recommendations?
I must have gone to davids bridal 6 times.. crazy I know. I was determined I was going to get one there because I didn't want to spend a fortune and I didn't know any other place that had dresses under $500. I highly recommend Olivia's Bridal to anyone who wants lots of options, good prices and great service but doesn't mind driving a bit out of the city. Definitely don't put yourself in a box- I ended up with a dress I LOVE but totally different than what I was picturing. Don't settle for something you don't love. Come up with a maximum price BEFORE going in. You'll probably cave anyway but sometimes places can give you a better deal than what's on the price tag. Oh- and relax. You'll find it :-)

nikkimac1203 · July 2010

1. Where did you find/purchase your dress? Camillas in Arlington, was going after a few designers in mind. Prices were fantastic.
2. Which stores offered you a great experience?
Camillas in Arlington
Country Weddings in Hingham
3. Which stores would you never go back to? NA
4. When you went shopping did you make multiple appointments in one day or did you spread it out? I made two appointments on the same day. I knew I found my dress at the first place, but kept on to the second appointment just incase something else worked for me.
5. How much time did you allow in between each appointment? 11am in Arlington and 2 pm in Hingham.
6. How many people did you bring with you? Mother and two sisters. Keep it small!!
7. Any other tips or recommendations? Make sure you do your make up and hair. Nothing extreme, but you want to get a good picture of how it could possibly look, and if you look frumpy, you might feel frumpy about it.

Dont forget to trust your gut! Only you know you!

momo2210 · July 2010

Thanks for all the great feedback! This was really helpful!

jquirke9881 · July 2010

1. Where did you find/purchase your dress? Amari Bridal in Franklin, MA
2. Which stores offered you a great experience? Amari - I didn't shop anywhere else.
3. Which stores would you never go back to? N/A
4. When you went shopping did you make multiple appointments in one day or did you spread it out? I made multiple appointments for the same day -- but I found my dress at the first store and ended up cancelling the others.
5. How much time did you allow in between each appointment? I think I did 10am, 1pm and 3pm.
6. How many people did you bring with you? 2 - My mom and sister (MOH)
7. Any other tips or recommendations? Try on a lot of dresses - even ones that you don't think you will like! Keep an open mind.

megandjay · July 2010

. 1. Where did you find/purchase your dress?
Allegria Belmont

2. Which stores offered you a great experience?
Honestly I went to like 15 stores! And most were great, except below.

3. Which stores would you never go back to?
Kleinfeld's NY

4. When you went shopping did you make multiple appointments in one day or did you spread it out?
I did three stores in a day, but one is really better.I would not recommend more than two, the dresses just blurr together.

5. How much time did you allow in between each appointment?
1 to 1.5 hours for each appt, and then driving time.

6. How many people did you bring with you?
I brought anywhere from 1 to 5! I would say 2 is good, a friend and Mom (if you guys are on the same page)

7. Any other tips or recommendations?

Wear a white strapless bra (not black) and undies that are full coverage, some stores the consultant is with you and some stores your whole party is with you! Bring pics of dresses you like from magazines but be open to trying any style. Don't try on dresses out of your price range.

amccarthy3 · July 2010

1. Where did you find/purchase your dress? Vows in Watertown
2. Which stores offered you a great experience? Vows, David's Bridal Natick
3. Which stores would you never go back to? Manhattan Bridal, Occasions in Wayland - the consultant was not being concious of my budget, that I reminded her of many times, so of course my mom fell in love with the dress that was almost 2k above budget ah!
4. When you went shopping did you make multiple appointments in one day or did you spread it out? I went out a few times but when I was ready to buy I went to about 4-5 in one day. It was exhausting but I liked it because all of the dresses were fresh in my mind.
5. How much time did you allow in between each appointment? I gave a half hour travel time between when one appointment ended and the next started with a lunch break in the middle
6. How many people did you bring with you? my 2 sisters and Mom
7. Any other tips or recommendations? Be open to trying on a dress that you might like even if it's not exactly your dream dress. But don't waste your time trying on a dress that you don't like. (I felt bad rejecting some of the dresses the consultants were picking out but when I realized the time it took to get in/out of the dress I felt better just saying no!) Good luck!

Ainslie325 · July 2010

1. Where did you find/purchase your dress?

Before we were even engaged, I fell in love with a gown online. I bought the gown, a La Sposa (by Pronovias) Melodia once worn on Craigslist. It fit perfectly and looked beautiful. I got it for a song, but, after a couple of months, I realized that it just didn't give me that "feeling." The gown I'd loved so much in t he picture just wasn't for me. I subsequently sold it to another bride through The Knot (I didn't even take a loss other than the shipping) and purchased an entirely different style of gown by the same maker (Pronovias Harlem). I live in Chicago, and bought my gown at a shop called Eva's in Orland Park, IL.

2. Which stores offered you a great experience?

I enjoyed Weddings 826 in Chicago and the buying experience at Eva's (though the delivery experience and runaround I received on delivery was bad enough that I'd need to be convinced to go back). We also got a fantastic deal (and excellent customer service) on our BM gowns through Netbride.

3. Which stores would you never go back to?

House of Brides-- any of their retail locations or ordering online. We had a horrible experience there.

4. When you went shopping did you make multiple appointments in one day or did you spread it out?

After my initial bonk on Craigslist, I made one appointment at Eva's. My gown was the first one I tried on that day (though I forced myself to try on several after it just to be sure). I just knew as soon as I put it on.

5. How much time did you allow in between each appointment?

N/A

6. How many people did you bring with you?

I went alone. I knew that I'd know the dress when I saw it on me, and I can tell what's flattering on me and what isn't. My Mom lives in Boston, and shopping with her would have been more difficult, anyway (she's finicky, would always have thought we'd find something better, cheaper, etc.). I didn't want to spend forever there, so I just had my sales associate take me through the stock room and pointed out a few that I liked. Once I found the dress, I was done. I really think that if you allow yourself to keep looking (in magazines, at shops) you'll convince yourself out of the one you like, become indecisive, and vacillate until your wedding day (at least I would have). It felt good to say "yes, this is the one," and stop trolling the designers' websites for something better!

7. Any other tips or recommendations?

Know your own measurements before you go. House of Brides deliberately inflated my girls' measurements in order to try and pull in more money on alterations. Not cool.

That said, be prepared to order a size that you're uncomfortable with. Most gown manufacturers haven't succumbed to the vanity sizing that's now so common iin street clothes. Don't get hung up on being the 6 you are every day if it's the 10 that fits. I think that buying a gown small with the intention of dieting your way into it adds stress to an engagement period that should be enjoyable. I'd rather take it in.

Bring your undergarments and a pair of heels that are approximately the height you'd like for your wedding day.

If the shop will allow you to take pictures, do so.

Try sitting down in each of the gowns, walking through doorways, dancing, etc.

jkepros · July 2010

1. Where did you find/purchase your dress?
Priscilla of Boston, Boylston Street/Fairfield Street in Boston
2. Which stores offered you a great experience?
Only store I went to...you can read my review in my bio (link in siggy)
3. Which stores would you never go back to?
n/a
4. When you went shopping did you make multiple appointments in one day or did you spread it out?
n/a
5. How much time did you allow in between each appointment?
n/a, but my appointments there were each about an hour or so, so give yourself time to go, try on, relax & get food/drink in between, & travel/parking time to go to the next spot
6. How many people did you bring with you?
just my mom
7. Any other tips or recommendations?
I did a TON of online/magazine/catalog browsing ahead of time...I paid a lot of attention to the figures of the models. I don't have a lot of curves, so I knew that some dresses just wouldn't look great on me, even though I loved them. When I found my dress the model in the pics had a very similar body shape to mine, and so I could really tell how it would look. I made a "short list" and after a while realized I kept comparing every dress to that one...so I thought that'd probably be "the one" once I tried it on, and it was. I didn't buy right away though; I waited for a sale (actually it was discontinued). Seriously though I probably looked at like 5,000 dresses in photos online & in catalogs/magazines before going to a shop.
Have fun and try on lots of styles...some that you wouldn't even think of trying on. I tried on a bunch of styles, and it only confirmed that I'd picked the best one for me. Wear pretty underwear/bra and bring shoes if you think you'll be wearing heels, for the full effect. Don't bring too many people! And go with what YOU love.
GOOD LUCK!!!!

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