Let me start this by saying that I am not a girly girl and that I never expected to get married – ever!
I’ve never dreamed of my wedding dress but I did always think that shopping for it was supposed to be a really special day, one filled with lots of wow-factor and plenty of warm and fuzzies.
Well, shopping for my wedding dress was NOTHING like that. Seriously.
The plan was simple: my maid of honor, a good friend and one of my bridesmaids was going to help me find the perfect wedding dress.
Needless to say, things didn’t go according to plan.
The first thing that put a damper on my big dress shopping day was that not one of my family members showed even an inkling of interest in coming with me – even though I dropped several very big hints. So, that was a bit of a blow.
Then, it turns out, two of my companions were just like me, perhaps worse. They just aren’t girly girls and weddings and marriage aren’t on either of their radars, so I was bracing myself for a little impatience and a day with a less-than-enthusiastic bunch.
But they surprised me, which was great and they remained fairly optimistic – and supportive – in the first two shops we hit!
I had made a booking for 10am at a boutique near my maid of honor’s house. I was actually excited and genuinely could not wait to try on a bunch of dresses and see what styles of dress I’d like.
Then we arrived and my excitement was soon quashed.
The sales assistant told me I could only choose five dresses from her range and that she would then select which dress I could try on. Seriously?
When we finally got to trying them on, she kept pitching a sale for the dress I was wearing – and then rushed me out of the dress when she realised I didn’t like it.
I felt so rushed, I can honestly say that I do not remember what any of the dresses in the first shop looked like!
Then, at 10.50, she tells me that we have to wrap things up quickly and that she simply cannot spend anymore time with me – but not before one more attempt at getting me to buy one of the dresses.
How could she expect me to buy something I didn’t even get to spend more than a few minutes in.
Argh…
The experience in shop number two was much better.
The salesperson was very polite, she didn’t rush us and even let us take some photos, too, which was great. Unfortunately, I couldn’t try on any of my favourite dresses because they weren’t available in my size.
For some reason, they had only small sizes, very few above size 12. I was a little disappointed and didn’t think it was unreasonable to expect to be able to try on a size 12 dress or even a size 14 dress, for that matter.
Grrr. There are plenty of brides who aren’t size 12 in the world!
How they expect it to work, I do not know because, to me, it would make more sense to try on larger dresses than not try on a dress because it’s so small.
Instead, she expected me to imagine myself in a tiny little dress that could look completely wrong on my body shape.
Oh, dear! Two down, one to go!
Shop three was absolutely stunning.
There were so many absolutely beautiful wedding dresses and they were having a sale, too, so it was perfect timing.
I tried on so many dresses but there was always something missing from each one and, again, a lot of them were too small, so it was hard to really see how the dress would sit on my frame.
By now, my companions were growing impatient and I could sense they were barely surviving the deluge of wedding dresses.
At least two of them were having difficulty focusing and it was pretty obvious they were becoming frustrated with the whole process.
After so many hours, I could feel myself becoming emotional in the change room because it was just too much hearing them grumbling and mumbling. On top of that, the attendant kept telling us what we were thinking was wrong and that she was right. Really? Apparently she knew what I liked better than I did!
I could only handle so much of this before I felt like screaming!
We left eventually, but I was still not much closer to finding the perfect wedding dress, though I had a bit of a better idea of what I did like – and what I most definitely did not like.
Oh, well. I suppose I’ll have to do it all again – and keep on doing it until I find the perfect dress. I know it’s out there, somewhere!
Please tell me it gets better, or at least that my first experience is typical?
Did you experience that ‘wow, that’s the dress’ moment I was hoping for but never got?
