Whose Bride Is This?!

Photo: me, Sara and Savta
First, the good news: I got a wedding dress! I love the dress I finally decided on, though I really struggled between two dresses that were both perfect. In the end, I let my family sway me a bit; plus, the one I chose feels lighter when I walk and makes me feel like a true princess. How can that be bad??

The day began on the early side with a trip out to Oak Lawn, IL which turns out to be wedding central. We passed a bunch of bridal and tux shops, photography studios and wedding mega-store, David's Bridal on our way to our first stop: Eva's Bridal.

Eva's is just what I was warned about in my wedding bible, Bridal Bargains. I brought in my list of dresses based on what I found on the website and my bridal consultant, Sue, essentially ignored it. She told us to peruse the dresses on our own, which we resented because a. all the dresses look the same b. they were all mixed up in terms of prices c. this is exactly what we need the consultant for, to help sort out the dresses. None of the tags were in the dresses so you would have no idea who designed the dress (a practice the book says is illegal) and when I asked, she brushed me off by saying that I find out later when I order. Plus, photos were not allowed and when she caught my sister snapping one, she asked her to erase it, citing some copyright violation. By whom? We have no way of knowing the designer! Anyway, she made us feel that our budget was too low for a quality dress and gave us a hard sell, saying that the sale was ending that day and I had to decide on the dress I liked right then. We decided to leave instead.

Our next stop, House of Brides, is also a large dress shop but our experience was better. Though I knew well enough to be wary, I felt that my consultant Julia was sincere: hovering around when I needed her, backing off when we needed to be alone (for Sara to take the photos which weren't really allowed there either). When I arrived with my list of dresses to see, she went to look them up to find them in the store. Though the dresses weren't well labeled, she pointed out where certain designers were located so we could peruse. Finally, when I tried on a dress that my mother and grandmother liked but I wasn't totally satisfied with, she asked if she could make a few suggestions. She came back with a dress that when I put it on, my mother told me I looked stunning. I couldn't believe how I felt in it! It was so pretty and flattering! But the problem was, I had already fallen in love with a lace dress which suddenly confused the issue for me. What to do! So I would try the other on to compare and it wouldn't help; I would see a whole different me that I also loved. Oy! Finally, while I was wearing one dress, my sister, Sara, came out wearing the other one over her clothes. It was hilarious! If only we had a picture!

Finally, I chose the princess dress and went to go find Julia. While I was walking around looking for her, I heard a saleslady say, "whose bride is this, dragging her dress around?" about me. I found that so funny: whose bride is this?! It made me feel less of an individual and suddenly part of this group called 'bride' who belonged to a particular consultant. It was funny but odd.

I am so glad I chose a dress. Thank goodness for my sister being there to help with the perspective as well as my mom and grandmother who suffered through more hours of dresses. I was definitely overwhelmed with the whole ordeal and feel that I just needed to move forward with the dress since it was definitely the best we had seen. Who knows if a more perfect dress is out there still? I don't even know what that means. There are always going to be others out there, more choices, better dresses...I just had to stop the madness...

Finally, we headed home, tired but happy. I was still anxious about the decision and had tried to send the illicit phone pics to Aaron's sister, Nina, for another opinion but she couldn't see them. I still felt nervous because it was such a big purchase and such a departure from my understated, simple style. But, the truth is, I only plan on doing this once so I'm going for it.

Now, I'm back in LA, jetlagged and full of kosher Chinese food. I accidentally took home someone else's bag so the afternoon was interrupted by an unexpected return to LAX. Our next stop on the road to wedding bliss: locking down the location!