First Things First:: Dress Me Beautiful

My Mom came in to town sometime in March, and so we decided to look up some dress shops in Salt Lake City and see what we could find. We found A Bride Beautiful and had a really fantastic experience. We had the store to ourselves and my Mom, sister, and I went to town. Orrie, the owner was so great at listening to my likes and dislikes and was NEVER pushy.

Side note: Speaking of pushy, what is up with sales people at bridal shops attempting to push their own preferences on you? At another store I visited I spoke about the possibility of a birdcage veil and her response was "Oh you don't want a birdcage veil. You need a REAL veil." I consider the birdcage to be a real veil thank you very much.

I have a lot of pictures because I called all of the bridal shops in the area to find out if they allowed photos to be taken. If they said no, I didn't visit. I'm all about the photos.

My Mom loved the dresses like the one above. Full of interesting details and flair. I wanted something a little more elegant.

Whenever we found one that we thought might work, we would attempt to improvise some sleeves to get a better idea what it might look like after alterations were done. I loved this dress (and still do), look at those amazing pleats along the bottom! You should know I have a mild obsession with pleats.

This one was made with a type of fabric that I loved. I didn't like it as much at the time as I do now.

My found me a birdcage veil to try on with this one. If I were to walk back into the store and choose one dress right now, it would be this one. My waist looks so curvy. I luuuurrrrvvvvee it! (But I don't have dress regret, I found something better!)

We thought I was going to buy this one. The sleeves would have been so fantastic, and I love the way the bustle looks. As soon as I got home and looked at the pictures I realized that it just wasn't doing it for me. I decided to keep looking in Dallas when I moved down in a few weeks.

I had decided not to get any of these dresses, and I was feeling stressed about how I was going to find a dress and who I was going to order it from, when I received a card in the mail from Orrie letting me know that she has the ability to order almost any dress from any designer. I had looked through a book of her alterations and was really impressed by their ability to reconstruct gowns. I knew that when I found what I wanted, I would be ordering it from her.

Anyone else think they found "the dress", only to look back on the photos and change your mind? Also, please brainstorm with me on ways that we can convince the bridal apparel industry that the photo ban is unnecessary and outdated.