BM Dress Shopping!

Hello friends! This past weekend was another eventful one. On Wednesday of last week, I got an email from Katie, the sales rep I worked with at Marcella's La Boutique where I got my wedding gown, asking if I would be interested in checking out another trunk show this past weekend. She said that unlike most trunk shows, which only feature bridal gowns, this one would have tons of bridesmaid dresses as well. I really wanted to check it out, but I figured it probably wouldn't work out because of the short notice--it's kind of a challenge finding a time and day that works for each of the busy ladies that I run with. As luck would have it, all three of my local bridesmaids--Leah, Katy, and Lesli--were free! So, we made an appointment for Saturday. And, as if that was not exciting enough, Blaire decided it would be a good weekend to visit Seattle (she lives in California), so she was able to join in the shopping too! The only sad part was that Britt was unable to come :( I even checked Expedia to see if there was ANY chance she could make it out. Of course, tickets from Billings to Seattle started at like $600, so that wasn't really an option. We missed you Britt!

Overall, we had a really fun time and even found a gorgeous dress that looked amazing on everyone! I can't believe we have been so lucky so far... it has just been so easy to find great dresses--I hope everything else continues to go so smoothly. We haven't ordered them yet, but I love the dresses and am pretty certain they are the perfect BM dresses for our wedding. Anyway, I won't show you THE dress (again, we have to keep some things secret!), but I will share with you a few that the girls tried on and even a couple of top contenders.

This first one was nice in theory--iridescent black taffeta with scoop neck, pleated skirt, complete with pockets!



We had to start somewhere, right? But we decided right away that taffeta just wouldn't work, given that my dress has a very deconstructed shape and is made of silk satin. And that decision alone, made the whole process so much easier--it eliminated about 75% of the dresses (many were made of taffeta). I believe Blaire tried this particular one on first, and I could tell by her face when she first came out that she wasn't too crazy about it--which was the first sign that it probably wasn't going to work.

This next one we'll call the "truck," which I will explain in a moment. Even though it's made of taffeta, too, I still asked Lesli to try it on because I thought it looked so fun.



It was really flattering and had a sexy hourglass shape when you look at it straight-on from the front. But when Lesli came out, she was laughing, saying she hated it and felt like a dump truck! I didn't understand at all--like I said, it was really flattering from the front--until she turned to the side. Lesli, I hope you won't take offense to this (I know you won't!), but is was super incredibly unflattering from the side! It had absolutely nothing to do with Lesli's spanx'ed figure... it was just a really wide dress and the stiff taffeta made it like 100 times worse. It sort of reminded me of the dresses worn by the stepsisters in Cinderella:



This next one was a favorite, looked great on everyone, and would have probably been a great BM dress option:



The best part was that it comes in this great "Eggplant" chiffon, and the sample at the boutique was this color, so we were able to see it in person. Ultimately, though, I vetoed this one; like I said, this one was nice, but I just fell in love with the other one that we ultimately decided on. [Note: Lesli, I really think you should get this one anyway--it's so "you".]

And this one was one Katie grabbed from the "other" dresses (the non-trunk-show dress collection) just to give us another dress to check out and compare:



I kind of liked the idea that this has english net on it (mine does too), and you could tell that it was a nicely-made strapless dress, as it fit really well. However, the A-line shape was a little too stiff, and I did not like the little ruffle of tulle poking up from the top.

I included a picture of this one so that we can see how this dress was supposed to be worn:



The straps were supposed to cross in the front! I think we had at least two different girls try this one on with the straps just going directly over the shoulders. I couldn't figure out why there was so much extra material in the straps. I guess this explains why this dress fit so oddly, when all the others fit so well!

This one was another favorite:



The shape was really flattering and nearly everything about the design works will with my dress--from the deep V-neck to the drapes and gathers. There were two major drawbacks, though--the back had a crazy criss-cross thing going on, and the straps were so narrow that you'd have to go with a strapless bra. Which is not a big deal, but it totally sucks to be forced to wear a strapless bra without getting the benefit of having a really pretty, ornate back or flattering strapless top. Also, the beading looked slightly cheap. It reminded me of a several-years-old sequin top from Bebe that I recently unearthed from the bottom of my closet and immediately threw out because it was so sequin-y. What was I thinking when I bought that top (and wore it at least half a dozen times)!?

In the end, I was super excited about the dress that we found, and especially that it was so flattering on all four girls. I know it will look great on Britt, too! Afterwards, we stopped by Norstrom's shoe and jewelry departments, just to start getting ideas--the next big tasks will be finding the right earrings, cocktail rings, and shoes!

Girls, did you have a fun time? Thanks again for making the time--I had a blast!