Silk and Organza and Tulle, Oh my! (Part 1)

To be honest, my first experience with trying on wedding gowns was a total nightmare. I had seen an ad for a sample sale, dragged my mom along to check it out, and had a big fail whale of a moment. In addition to the lack of staff help and the tremendous amounts of tulle and fluff, my mom and I got into a whopper of a fight. The details aren't so important, but my mom was stressed about her upcoming move into her boyfriend's house and I was being a bride, and I'm learning that those sorts of mother-daughter conditions nearly always lead to tears.I ended up trying on itchy scratchy tulle dresses while blotchy and hivey from crying. Not so fun.

Needless to say, I was not looking forward to getting back on that horse. I did plenty of online research and put off dress shopping until the last possible minute. (Apparently that last possible minute is 7 months from your wedding day. It takes a long ass time to order a wedding gown!) Finally, the moment of doom arrived. I really was convinced that dress shopping take two would be horrific and would result in me a) crying b) yelling and/or c) getting drunk.

Armed with Mr. Rucksacks's dos & don'ts list and an iPad full of ideas, I set up two appointments for one weekend and asked Momma Rucksack and Auntie Rucksack to join me. I was almost certain that I would choose one of these beauties:

Theia Style 890022 via Misses Dressy

Sweetpea via Ivy and Aster

Stop one was The Plumed Serpent in Westport, Connecticut. Our appointment was at 9:30am (Alison was a sweetheart and opened early for us!) and since I had read up on dress shopping etiquette, I arrived with no make-up, simple hair, a strapless bra and leggings. I quickly learned that it didn't matter since I was naked within seconds and in a borrowed long-line bra.

In addition to the Theia dress that I "knew" was the one, I allowed my mom and aunt to each pick one dress. Momma Rucksack leaned toward huge princess ballgowns while Auntie Rucksack chose curve hugging dresses.

Well, it turned out that I was very wrong about Theia. It hit my curves in all the wrong places. Insert sad face here. Luckily, I was in a store full of beautiful dresses and with some urging from my aunt I finally tried on her choice:

Romona Keveza A-Line Gown via Kleinfeld

And I fell in love. Unfortunately, that feeling quickly dissipated when we learned that the price was way over my budget!

I left the store feeling extremely conflicted, especially after Momma Rucksack and Auntie Rucksack assured me we could make it work. I just couldn't fathom spending so much money on a dress!

Luckily, we still had one more day of shopping ahead of us.

Did you fall in love with a dress that was way over your budget?

Mr. Opinionated Chooses a Gown

Perhaps this is odd, but I actually showed Mr. Rucksack pictures of the gowns I was interested in. He's my best friend and he has impeccable taste, so I didn't think much of it. Plus, he's the one I want to impress on our wedding day so he had better like the dress I choose!

As it turns out, he surprisingly had a lot of opinions about dresses. It helped narrow down my choices a lot because my ideas were all over the place. So let's take a look at some of the choices that were quickly nixed by my opinionated guy.

Grace Gown ia Watters

Part of me wanted a dress with straps or sleeves. I'm rather busty and I live in constant fear of looking like I'm trying to show them off - or worse, having the top come down and actually showing them off! However, Mr. Rucksack did not agree. He thought the sleeves and halters were kind of weird. That knocked off about 1/4 of the dresses on my list.

Blush Style 1104 via JLM Couture

This gorgeous dress has two qualities that Mr. Rucksack disapproves of: lace and a keyhole back. I know. He is insane. I kept showing him this dress in between others hoping maybe he'd changed his mind, but he's too smart for that kind of tomfoolery. In the end, I actually agree that it doesn't fit the mood we're going for, but that didn't stop me from trying on a couple of lacy numbers just to be sure!

Dakota Trumpet Gown via Nicole Miller

This was one we were split on. He prefers a more flowy style (which I informed him is called A-line) but he didn't dislike this, he just hadn't pictured something like this. He also doesn't understand the whole sash thing - something I explained he better get used to because I knew I would want some bling in the form of a bridal belt.

Sweetpea via Ivy and Aster

Theia Style 890022 via Misses Dressy

Then there were these two beauties. I loved loved loved these in the photos, and bonus: so did Mr. Rucksack! To me, they just screamed "Beachy Princess Bride" and I loved that they were traditional, but still had their own funk. (Noticing a trend here?)

While I kept my mind open when dress shopping, it certainly was helpful keeping Mr. Rucksack's wishlist in the back of my mind while trying on dresses.

Did you involve your fiance in picking out the dress?