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Here Comes the Dress...

Jennifer
Feb 28, 2017
3 min read

A wedding dress says a lot about a bride.

With so many different styles available, choosing one can be a daunting task, especially when the bride doesn't truly know what she's looking for.

So it was for my girl. From the beginning we thought we had the dress thing all figured out. Ariana's aunt had a wedding dress she never wore and had offered it to her years ago. The picture we saw showed an elegant gown with a stunning train and Ariana loved it. When her aunt brought it up from Virginia she tried it on, it looked beautiful, and Ariana loved it. She thought, “This is the dress.”

The time came for us to look at reception venues and finally Ariana began to envision her wedding. She realized that “the dress” wasn't definitely “THE dress”. She talked about wearing a shorter dress that was less confining. She wanted something simple and comfortable. I felt like I knew what she might have meant and we began to Google short wedding dresses. We found dresses that were classified as “kind of what I'm looking for but not really”. They were either too short, too clingy, or too bedazzled, none of which were what she had pictured in her head.

The next course of action was to make our way to a bridal shop. I figured the best place to start might be David's Bridal, just to get an idea as to whether or not we could find what she was looking for. I remember pulling into the parking lot and telling Ariana that I was not purchasing from them, I just wanted to see. I hadn't heard great things about them and therefore wasn't expecting to give them my money. We would look, but buy elsewhere.

Walking through the doors we were met by a concierge who took some information about Ariana and called for someone to help us in our endeavors. The woman assigned to us was named Sue, a tall, blonde woman on a mission to find the perfect dress. She went right to work in trying to decipher what Ariana was looking for, taking measurements, and then rifling through the racks to see if she couldn't find the needle in the haystack. She came back with four or five, none of which were in line with what Ariana was looking for. In fact they were just like what we were seeing in our Google searches – too short, too tight, and too bedazzled.

I turned to Sue and began to paint her a picture - think of the Sound of Music - when Liesl is dancing in the gazebo with Ralph. Another young lady who had come to help Sue sprung into action. She knew exactly where that dress was and returned quickly with one more for Ariana to try on. Now let me assure you the dress is not pink and does not really look anything like the dress Liesl wore, nor is this a picture of the dress they brought out (secret, secret), but the vision has been relayed.

When I went with my mother to try on wedding dresses, I remember the moment when I stepped out of the dressing room and my mother had tears in her eyes. She told me, “That is the one.” I didn't know if I would have that experience with Ariana until she came out of the dressing room. In my mind, with tear filled eyes, I thought,

“That is the one.”

It was an enchanting moment. Before long, the other associates were coming over to see Ariana in her wedding dress. They fluttered around her telling her she looked lovely, they took pictures because nobody had ever chosen a dress like this before, and they were looking for head pieces and sashes to enhance the ensamble.

They made her feel like the princess of the ball.

When all was said and done, we ordered the dress.

Despite my initial reservations, David's Bridal served us well.

Next up.... Caterers. Can they capture our vision?

Don't miss the next episode!