The Great Dress Search

Girls Weekend Update!!! Last weekend, Mom, Bren and I headed down to Orange County to visit a few dress shops that we had heard about. Aunt Carol and Meredith recommended we check out "bridal row" in Corona Del Mar, so I made a few appointments- Mary Me Bridal, The White Dress, and Mon Amie Bridal. We drove down super early on Saturday morning, and made our first stop at Mary Me Bridal in Orange. What a GREAT place! I tried on about 20 dresses, and we were there for almost 2 hours. Our lady, Susan, was SUPER sweet, and helped me find some absolutely beautiful dresses. We had a great time there! Sorry, no pictures- they wouldn't let us! Boo! But I found an AMAZING dress, and I think it might be the one. It's a Maggie Sottero, but that's the only detail that I'll give you- I don't want the surprise to be ruined! After Mary Me, we headed to the White Aisle in Corona Del Mar, on the "bridal row". We were a little late, and the lady I met with was really rushed- I didn't really feel like she cared much. Maybe she sensed the dresses were out of my budget!? I tried on one dress that was $8000.00!! Oh goodness! After that place, we went to Fashion Island (visit #2), and did some shopping. No wonder everyone in Orange County looks so gorgeous! They have the BEST shopping! We hung out there for awhile, and then went to our last appointment at Mon Amie Bridal. Thankfully, we had the GPS system (named Sally), and it saved our rears- just plug in the address and it tells you where to go! We had a great time at Mon Amie Bridal, and the lady even let us take a couple of pictures. I'll post them after I've picked the final dress! We were there for almost an hour and a half, and I tried on tons of dresses there also. I found 2 beautiful ones, but they are slightly outside of my price range! Oops! Oh well. They're on the "maybe" list right now. We had our own private room, and did all the trying-on inside the room- usually they make you go out into the store to model it, but Mom and Bren were able to stay in there! Our saleswoman was so sweet, and told us we could take pictures, just as long as we didn't tell her about it, and she wasn't in the room. So she said when she said, "I'm going to see about a veil" that was our cue to take a picture! Ha! I also tried on some long veils, and have definitely decided I'm going to have a long one for the ceremony, and then maybe a shorter one for the reception. I feel so bridal in a long veil! SO fun!!

After our dress shopping extravaganza, we headed back to the hotel where... there was a wedding going on! Our balcony looked right out over the wedding! It was super cheesy... oh gosh. All the things I don't want to do... bad karaoke singing (bridesmaid singing "A Moment Like This"), "Hit the Road, Jack" as the recessional song, ring bearer on a tricyle, a groomsman had a mohawk... oh wow. But it was fun to see! After that, we headed over to Ikea, to pick up some shelving for our house. We also ended up buying the lanterns that I had originally posted about! They were 50% off! Mom and I couldn't resist... we'll use them around the place, as decoration. After Ikea we headed back to Fashion Island (visit #2) and had some dinner. The Galaxy game got veoted because we were exhausted! We all crashed that night at about 10pm!

We got up the next morning and headed BACK to Fashion Island (that's visit #3!!) because Bren wanted to get a new ipod. While at the Apple Store, my mom said that she would get me an iPhone if I ended up getting the less expensive dress out of the 3 that I really liked! Haha! What a bribe! The ironic part about it is that we all liked the least expensive one the best! After lunch at CPK, we headed home... only to find that the lanterns from Ikea made a rediculous amount of racked when were were on the freeway... 10 glass/metal lanterns makes a heck of a lot of noise. Haha! We made one last stop at David's Bridal in Ventura to check it out... I'll never go back there. The dresses are CHEAP quality and pretty expensive. Plus I felt like I was in Ross... not that I don't LOVE Ross and their deals, but I don't want my wedding dress to feel like that!

It was a great weekend and we had TONS of fun. I can't wait to go back and try on the dresses again- hopefully soon!

In other news, I ordered a GREAT pair of shoes today!

I can't find my inspiration picture, but I have seen some amazing photos of brides wearing very classic dresses... and then some AWESOME colored shoes. Such an unexpected surprise. I can't wait to them to come!