my day: the dress

Oh my dress. How I love thee. (And I promise to get you cleaned… eventually)

These may be some of my favorite pictures… I love that dress!

Tip: When it comes to bridal gowns, finding one that you love, on a budget, can be difficult. I made the mistake of going to a high end shop first. Knowing that my budget was low, I wanted to spend $500, I knew it would be difficult to find a dress at a nice place. Little did I know it would be pretty much impossible!  I tried on a few gowns that I absolutely loved. The fabric was of great quality, the details were lovely and they fit like a glove. Unfortunately they also came with hefty price tags…  about $2,000 or so more than what I could spend.  I left that day loving wedding gowns, but uncertain where I would find one I loved that was on the cheap.

I did lots of searching online, and I finally decide to check out David’s Bridal. Just to look. I had heard mixed reviews and wasn’t too sure I would find my dress there. Boy was I wrong.

The service was impeccable. We went in the off season so I had a sales person who was only working with me, we brought in champagne and a few of my maids even tried on wedding gowns!  Yes, some (most) of the dresses I tried on weren’t really me… but then my (brilliant) sister asked the woman “do you have anything with lace?”  and out came my dress. I tried it on and wham. That was it!  It was a little over my budget at $700 but I didn’t want to pass it up. You see, this dress was a sample dress. They only had a few in select stores, waiting to see how it sold before putting it into mass production. This was the only one in this size at that location, and they were unable to order it. To this day it is not on the David’s Bridal website.  A (almost) one of a kind dress from David’s Bridal? Who knew!  Overall my experience at David’s Bridal was great and I would encourage any bride out there to give them a chance. It can’t hurt!

As for alterations, that did set me back an extra $200, but by that time there was nothing I could do about it. And actually $200 is a good price considering my dress is all lace. The fee covered bringing the dress up a few inches, doing a french bustle and bringing it in an inch or so. I would highly recommend my alterations lady, Mehtab. She is located in Orange County, is very sweet, quick and very helpful. You can check out her website here (don’t judge a book by it’s cover, if you know what I mean…)

All images by Studio 7 Photography