My Gown-Shopping Weekend

I'm sorry to get this post up so late. Since my mom has been here, I've been slacking on keeping up with my online responsibilities. :)

My "gown-shopping" weekend was totally crazy!

First, my mom and my cousin Christi were supposed to fly into Boston around 5:15 p.m. on Friday. They were going to take a shuttle to the hotel and I was going to meet them there as soon as humanly possible. Well, around 10:00 a.m. I got a call that their plane had broke down and the airport staff searched and searched for another flight to Boston and could only locate ONE ticket that day for ANY airline. WTH?? When does that ever happen? I guess it was spring break and everything was booked. So, my mom got the ticket and my cousin had to stay home. I was soooo bummed she couldn't come. AND my mom wasn't going to get into Boston until midnight!

So, I took my time getting up there and when I got to the hotel, I was feeling kind of bummed, so I ordered a martini and turned on Comedy Central. I felt a little better. :)

FYI, the Chelsea Windham hotel serves the BEST dirty martinis!

When my mom showed up at the hotel, it was after midnight, but of course we started chatting and didn't go to sleep until around 3:00 a.m.!

We begrudgingly woke up the next morning to start our busy day of shopping.

The first place we visited was Vows.

Starting my gown shopping!

This place was highly rated on The Knot, but when I went in and looked around, I only found ONE dress I even wanted to try on! I tried on a few others, too, but didn't find anything that really wowed me.

Next we went to The Bridal Secret (no picture, sorry). I had high hopes for this place. I read through the website and the owner seemed like she really knew what she was doing. She emailed me a bunch before our appointment and she just seemed very friendly.

Well, she didn't really understand what I was going for and I didn't feel very happy there. I found a couple dresses that looked 'okay' and she kept telling me that she could tell I loved them. Yeah, I didn't.

We weren't planning on going to any more places that day, but I was feeling pretty anxious and decided to stop by a high-end shop in downtown Boston called "Pricilla of Boston". We didn't have an appointment and when I asked the sales lady if there were any dresses under $2,000 available, she basically turned her nose up to us and said we were in the wrong place.

When we left there I was convinced that I was never going to find "the one" (or that "the one" was going to cost me $8,000 custom made, which wasn't going to happen) and I found myself thinking I would either have to go back to The Bridal Secret and buy one I didn't love, or fly back to Seattle and get one of the super-expensive ones I found there that I did love. Neither option was ideal.

Both my mom and I were feeling kind of down when we went back to the hotel, so we went down to the bar for drinks.

Yum.

THREE ROUNDS LATER (which is a TON of alcohol for us two lightweights), we stumbled back to our room and I fell asleep as my mom scoured the internet for other options.

The next morning we both woke up with hangovers and my mom announced she found a great bridal outlet.... in Ohio. We were actually contemplating how we were going to get to Ohio as we got ready to head out to our fourth and final store.

The final store we went to was The Wishing Well, in East Providence, R.I.

The BEST gown shop in New England!

As soon as I walked into this store, I saw a gown hanging up that actually looked like what I was looking for. When I went over to that one, I found two more that were my style. I started shaking because at that point I KNEW I was finally in the right store. It sealed the deal when I came across my pipe dream dress - the dress I found in a magazine when I first got engaged that I fell head over heals for and placed in the front of my wedding binder. I never thought I would get to even try on that dress, let alone think about purchasing it!! I was elated!

I tried on several dresses and can you believe it - I found a dress EVEN BETTER than my pipe dream dress! It's the same designer (Maggie Sottero) and very similar, but with just a few details changed that made it so 'me'. As soon as I put it on, I knew - I had that amazing, enchanting feeling and knew I found "the one". It was even in my price range. My mom was crying, I was crying, and everything was wonderful.

What a relief!

We put half down and they ordered it. So exciting! (And now we don't have to drive to Ohio.)

I know you want to see what it looks like, but I don't want Joe to see it until the big day. So, I'll have to send you all individual links. Just don't show it to him!!

Such a big decision out of the way. It feels good.