Dress: Check!

I have a dress!  I made appointments at two stores and took my mom, Lance's mom, and my sister shopping on Saturday.  At the first salon (designer store for Demetrios), my consultant pulled several dresses that she thought I would like.  The first three or so were pretty, and got progressively better, but I wouldn't have bought them.  The fourth one was different, in a good way.  Just something you don't see all the time.  I tried on several more after that, but nothing topped that dress.  My consultant said she had to pull it off a mannequin for me to try on, because it was brand new and had just arrived a week ago.  Originally I was planning on shopping in December (before I got into the Christmas cookies), so I guess sometimes procrastination pays off!

At the second store, the consultant had us pull dresses to try on.  They had several hundred dresses in the store, organized by shape and amount of detail work.  We pulled a few, but all of the dresses in the store were very similar, and none of them were as well-constructed as the ones at the first store.  I love Maggie Sottero dresses, and I tried on a few, but none of them really did much for me.  It didn't help that the dresses in the store were not in great shape and the sample sizes were 1-2 sizes too small for me.  I personally wouldn't buy a dress that I couldn't try on, so that limited my options.

In the end, I decided to go back and order the dress from Demetrios.  I probably tried on 20 dresses (10 at each store).  I never had that "OMG, this is THE dress" moment that everybody talks about.  Instead, I just noticed more and more things that I liked about the dress and had a strong desire not to try on any more cheap-looking or ugly dresses.  I didn't cry, but everyone else teared up.  And, at one point, I walked toward a mirror and thought, "This is going to look amazing walking down the aisle of our church!"  Obviously I'm not going to post a photo of the dress here (Lance reads this blog!), but I'll show you my runner-ups.  Don't judge the iPhotography!

Runner up #1:
Maggie Sottero Marianne
Corseted lace fit-n-flare

I liked the all-over beading and the lace print.

The corset gave me an awesome shape!

That train is really, really heavy.

Runner up #2:
Allure Bridals 9060
Backless beaded lace dress

I really liked the beading, but the lace was coarse and full of daisies.  Yuck.

Loved the back on this dress!  You can't see it here, but the sides are see-through.
Very sexy, but not exactly what I envisioned for myself on my wedding day.