Anyway, just to recap on the wedding dress search. It all started a couple of days before Christmas when Myla, Ivy, and I went to have our appointment at Alfred Angelo. What threw me off there is that the very first dress they had me try on was way beyond my budget. It was something like around $2500!! WTF...the consultant knew how much my budget was. So this appointment really wasn't successful because we tried on probably 5-6 dresses but nothing was really working. The 3 of us weren't satisfied so we actually went to David's Bridal in Brea down the street. They actually took us in last minute. The consultant there was much nicer. Really didn't find anything here either except for one contender. But I still didn't feel like it was the dress. The problem was we kept seeing plain dresses. Either the top or the bottom of the dress but it really wasn't the perfect combination.
So the search continued the following week when I went to a couple of boutiques in the IE! Both my parents actually came. Uniquely Elegant Attire had a consultant that was funny and helpful. She was awesome! There was one contender (that we don't have a picture of) but from what I remember, it just wasn't it because it was too plain (on top I think!). Then I headed over to Bellasposa which just looks like an awesome wedding boutique on the outside but the service was so crappy there! Mind you at this point I'm totally early on into my dress search and the consultant pretty much put all the dresses in the room for me and said, well you can go ahead and just try these on. Myself?! WTF! They said they weren't even able to give me a strapless bra cuz they didn't have any in the right size...WTF...you are a boutique! (My mom said it's because they thought my budget was too low). Whatever! I'll take my money elsewhere. (I know if I have money to spend and I'm passionate on it...it will be spent! Save the Date Flipbook...DUH!) Anyway, at Bellasposa after she actually did help. Found some dresses, "the mushroom", and another one that was similar to the David's Bridal one but still plain. UGH....and so the search continues.
And now we go into these last couple days that I had off from Target in my last week of my mental vacation. The entire search pretty much boils down to these 2 days. Ivy came with us the first day. But the first day really sucked because I still didn't really know what I wanted truly. So I kept trying on dresses that I thought I wanted but really still never found the right combination of the dress. At The Dresser in Fullerton, I tried on some gorgeous dresses but they were still so plain! We then went to Mary Me Bridal in Orange and actually found a contender there. This "9.3 dress" as my mom refers to it and as Ivy HATES to refer to it as. It was gorgeous with more detail but pretty pricey for the boringness of the dress that it was. But it was still a gorgeous Lunanovias/Pronovias dress! We also tried on "the mushroom" again and the Maggie contender from The Dresser again. But we walked out of there with a good feeling on the 9.3! On a side note, I actually tried on a dress from here that couldn't even make it as a contender but subtly hints at the silhouette that I would ultimately end up with. Little did I know at the time that that would be the silhoutte I would choose!! We continued on to Mon Amie in Costa Mesa. This was a joke appointment because all their dresses there were so expensive and out of my price range! The poor consultant...I really wasn't honest with her. She was nice but we really were just wasting her time. I couldn't fake it but Ivy tried to and I couldn't figure out when she was fake or not. UGH...we tried on so many dresses here and really didn't walk out with any contenders! What a waste of time. So the first day truly was unproductive because I couldn't find THE DRESS, couldn't find the right combination..........BLAH!!! My mom and I still were curious so we daringly said, "Let's go to Las Tunas in Temple City and look at the Chinese boutiques there!". Ivy was gone at this point and threw in the towel, probably pretty frustrated with us for having an unproductive day. So we dropped her off and my mom and I headed to Temple City. I tried on a few dresses at about 4-5 boutiques that were really nice but still weren't contenders. The prices at these Chinese boutiques were soooo cheap though! All in all, they had nice dresses but they were too traditional I felt and not contemporary enough. Tired after a long day...we inhaled food at Ajisen Ramen.
So I was supposed to go home to Beaumont on Monday but we were still so unsatisfied that I planned another last minute trip and route for the next day Tuesday. My mom and I went out again to Orange County after she got off work from Target. By the way, I got smarter on the second day because I went to the furthest southwest location first to avoid traffic on the way back home....I'm so awesome! The theme of the second day is that we started experimenting outside the box and tried on dresses that I didn't expect I would like but wow, I actually liked them. So at Jinny's in Huntington Beach (which was so annoying because it was so far off the freeway)...the lady was very helpful. They had soooo many dresses! And the final contender from this location (too bad the designer name escapes me for now!) was a whimsical, free floating asymmetrical, organza-ish different type of dress. On the second day, we actually went to less contemporary boutiques and to more of the low-key, unadvertised bridal locations. We continued on to Ferndale's and they had a lot of dresses too! They actually had a Maggie trunk show going on at the time. But still...the dresses from the trunk show really weren't it either. So then we went to this other little place called Tom's Bridal. For the very first time here, I actually tried on this very, very gorgeous Mori Lee dress. Now this was a memorable moment because for the very first time after at least 50+ dresses I tried on, this was the very first time I actually felt the magical, princess-y, bridal feeling. My mom looooved the dress and actually started pestering Rit on the phone while we were there so she could look at it. Of course, she failed in sending the pictures out from her phone. But anyway, I was concerned that it was too poofy. This was my most pestering concern ever since the first day at Alfred Angelo. It was gorgeous on the top but the bottom and the back particularly was just too much. It was the organza material pick-ups that made it too billowy. But this is where the outside-the-box mentality kept kicking in subtly saying, "go outside the box......inside the box is stuffy!". Ok anyway...I'm weird! Hmmm...so we continued to our final location (well actually second to last place as I will explain later). This next place is the beautiful Mariposa boutique in Anaheim. They are closed on Mondays which is why we couldn't put it as part of our route on Monday. Unfortunately, the only reason why I decided to do Monday instead of Tuesday was to ensure that I made it to Mon Amie which is closed on Tuesdays (well that's a joke because the Mon Amie visit was a joke!). So we couldn't go to Mariposa on Monday but I was glad that we did the Tuesday trip to make it there. This was the only reason why we wanted to go out on Tuesday but I added the 3 other additional OC places since we were going to be out anyway. (Yes, poor Civic and what a waste of gas.... :( ) Necessary, I suppose. My consultant at Mariposa was awesome. I went in there with the intent of being completely honest about my dilemma. That I couldn't find the perfect dress with a good bottom and top, that we were dancing with outside-the-box syndrome today, and that I really needed her opinion and help! I was determined to find it!! One of the great things about this place is that it carried all of the contenders from Tuesday in one place and we were actually able to take pictures for memories sake. So it was nice because I was able to try on all the Tuesday contenders (all the Monday contenders really weren't contenders after all) so that we can compare them all and take pictures. So before I continue on with this story....one side note...
Tuesday morning as my mom was at Target working and as I was planning my route for the day...I had this inkling to just Google Disney Bridal dresses. So I did just that and saw again the Ariel Disney Bridal dress and thought to myself....OMGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG could this be the dress that could be THE DRESS!??!?!? I sent Ivy a message so fast on Facebook. I had seen all the Disney Bridal dresses before but never really thought any could be it...plus I considered the cheesiness of having a Disney bridal dress. But this Ariel dress really could be the one perfect top and bottom combination I was looking for. Soooo, I actually tagged on one final appointment after Mariposa for Tuesday. I had done the full appointment at Alfred Angelo but I just wanted to try on the Ariel dress to see how it would be (which funny enough is similar to the first 410 I tried on). Alright...back to the Mariposa story!
I was at Mariposa and we looked around to pull all the dresses I would try. (Wedding dress shopping is soooo fun by the way!). I came across this one dress at the end of an aisle hanging from the rack. It wasn't like all the other dresses that were just hanging off the rack. It was special. It was on display at the end of the rack with its beauty for everyone to see. At this point, this really wasn't the style I had in mind from the Monday adventures. But remember, we were in desperate, outside-the-box mode by this time. So I determined that this would be one of the ones we would try on for the appointment. I didn't really have a whole lot of other new dresses this time around. Two of them were already previous dresses that I tried on that day. So the first dress I tried on was this one at the end of the rack. Wow, it was beautiful. Not quite the princess-y feeling again cuz I think that feeling can just come and go once in life (which for me happened at Tom's Bridal). But it was beautiful and I absolutely just loved and adored it. Still wanting to be thorough, we tried on all the other dresses but none of them just struck my interest as the first one did. Tried the Mori Lee on again....still too billowy. Tried the Jinny's contender again (mystery brand name?), but as unique and different (and cheap!) as it was, it just wasn't as exciting and bridal-ish as the first one. So O-M-G, W-O-W! We finally reached the conclusion that I've been looking for finally deciding that my Sottero and Midgley dress at the front of the rack was THE ONE-THE DRESS for me. But wait...CRAP what about the Ariel Dress at Alfred Angelo! We were about to even go ahead and put the deposit down on the dress and we could've gotten a 10% discount but I had to be thorough and just hold off since we were going to Alfred Angelo. Nevertheless, I was pretty convinced leaving Mariposa that this was my dress.
So we went to Alfred Angelo. And geez, we hit a huge problem! The ARIEL Disney Bridal dress was gorgeous. Had I not seen the Sottero and Midgley dress at Mariposa, this really would've been the one. The one that would've solved my Monday and Tuesday woes. I tried it on in white which was barfy. They unfortunately didn't have it in Diamond White. But I saw it in Diamond White. It was beautiful in white but would've been even more gorgeous in Diamond White. We left Alfred Angelo feeling confused. Lots of feelings actually. Happy that Tuesday was a much better day (I really regret Ivy going with us on Monday). Happy that we found "the one" at Mariposa. So confused now that we have a desire for the Ariel dress too. But still relieved that after trying on 80+ dresses, I was able to reach the point of limiting it down to just 2 dresses. And relieved at the time that we didn't put the deposit down at Mariposa because now we had seen that Ariel was another serious contender.
But these 2 dresses were truly a quandary! They were completely different in style. Can't compare them....apples and oranges. Both so beautiful. Now my task is to choose between the two. How would I do that?!?!??! Per my mom's command, she had me put the pictures of both side to side. I was becoming more convinced that I loooved the Ariel dress more. Because it was pretty much the style I wanted to begin with. And it was Disney Little Mermaid...that's coincidental! I LLLLOOOOOOVVVVVVVVEEEE Disney! Pricing was similar so that's out of the question. I had to think about...well which dress would be more suitable for the reception venue and the bridesmaids' dresses, etc. Actually, I knew that the Sottero and Midgley gown would be a better value because it was the same price as the Ariel but it was Couture! How that Ariel dress is similar in price to Sottero and Midgley is only due to the fact that I'm paying for the Disney name. I was sure that Ariel was the one now and happy I didn't put a deposit down at Mariposa. My mom asked all her friends and they liked the Sottero and Midgley gown. I reasoned that was because they are older and had more of an affinity to traditional gowns. I told myself that I liked the Ariel dress because it was more contemporary.
After training in La Mirada for my new job, Ivy and I decided to go to Alfred Angelo to see Ariel. Wow, the Diamond White Ariel actually arrived!! I got to try it on in Diamond White. Ivy loooved the dress too and said it was really awesome. But I guess she's good at keeping an open mind. I was still sure at the time that Ariel was the one. I told Ivy that this is it and that she might be more concerned about seeing the SM dress because I had more concerns with it. I was only 95% sure it was the one because I kept lingering on the fact that the back was still too poofy for me. I knew that the Ariel dress was a perfect combination of top and bottom I was looking for. So I told Ivy....Ariel is the one and you might not like this one at Mariposa. So we actually went to Mariposa on surface streets. From Brea to Anaheim on surface streets with Ivy's Benz and her GPS....Ivy was driving me...Wow, that's unheard of! So we went to Mariposa and I tried on the SM dress. I still looooooved that dress. The feeling of dilemma came rushing back. For a week and a half, I was convinced Ariel was the one. But I guess I wasn't that convinced if I just loooved being in the SM dress. I just still loved it and I knew this was a difficult decision if I was this in love with the SM dress. Ivy LOOOOVED the SM dress way more. She kept trying to reason with me that the back isn't even that poofy. The consultant at Mariposa (a different one from the first time) actually brought up the possibility that the mermaid type of dress doesn't work for short people because it shortens the frame. That it's better for tall people if you have long legs. If I have short legs, the mermaid poof at the bottom actually seems to diminish the legs. This was the first time I heard of this and I took it into serious consideration. I guess yes, it did kind of make me shorter. This wasn't the ultimate reason for the decision but part of it for sure. So this was it, I finally was 110% convinced that the SM dress was MY dress. It was gorgeous. I loved it. And now I'm so at peace with my decision. Today is Sunday, 1/23 and we are going to try and go back today to make the purchase. And hopefully try it on again one more time because it's just so gorgeous and fun!
So as crazy as it was trying on 80+ dresses, I'm very happy with my final decision. As crazy as it was, the experience was so fun and I'm so sad that it's over. This is it. I won't be doing this again in life. Even if I just wanted the fun, I can't just lie to be a bride-to-be and go places and try on dresses. Really, no one has the time for that. Second, I'd be a horrible liar (as I was at Mon Amie). So this is it. The wedding dress search experience is over. So sad but it was so much fun! Now I just have to look forward to the one day that I'll be wearing it in life.
And WTF, I wasted ONE HOUR writing this damn post. This is the kind of BS I distract myself with instead of actually wedding planning! This post in itself was probably longer than all my (what 3 posts since the start) posts in the whole blog. But I thought it would be really important to showcase my experience because it was so memorable and fun.
UGH...back to wedding planning now!!!
LOVE MY DRESS!
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