First off, am I really going to give you all a sneak peek of what my wedding dress looks like….? Of course NOT! lol but enjoy the blog post and some of the silly dress pictures 😛
So I have to note that this is kind of a late blog entry, only because I actually bought my wedding dress in October. Nonetheless, I’m still ecstatic about it and I have to share my ‘say-yes-to-the-dress’ story with you all.
I know that most of the time, when women get engaged, one of the first things they want to do is go look for the dress. This was actually the opposite for me. When Ozzie and I first got engaged, I tried to avoid the ‘white dress’ for as long as I could because I was always afraid that I would never find one that was perfect for me…maybe I wouldn’t look right in this, or that…or maybe the ones that I loved so much in the magazines would disappoint me…you name it, I had an excuse. Not to mention I wanted to lose a little bit of weight first. Don’t we all, ladies? I also think I was still a little in denial that I was engaged. It’s the moment we girls all wait for our whole lives, and it was my turn, and I guess I kept thinking, ‘really? I get to go try on a wedding dress?…no, it can’t be!’ Anywho, October rolls around, and I figure it’s time.
I will say that I had THE most fun with my first wedding dress experience! I brought along my mom, my sister, and my maid of honor for my first experience and we went to the most adorable little wedding dress boutique in Anaheim called Mariposa Boutique. I truly felt like a princess! First of all, my appointment was for 11am and the whole store was mine. Yup! The whole store and all the dresses at my beck and call. We met with the sales rep and she basically said to look around and I could try on any dress I wanted. So here we are…my mom, my sister, my MOH, and myself, wandering around the store picking and choosing what I should try on. So much fun! I think I tried on a total of 8 dresses, some just for fun and other ones that I loved. Potentials! The fitting area had a little wooden runway with mirrors and romantic lighting, just for me to parade around with dresses. Even the music was cute…everything was just so perfect. With all the dresses I tried on, I narrowed it down to my top 3. Two of the three dresses were very similar, but both were missing a little something. Either there was no flower on it, or the flower was too big. Something was missing. The third dress, I absolutely loved, and so did the girls. It was a very romantic, vintage lace dress with a cathedral train. It was also almost 3 times my dress budget. womp! womp! Although mom said we’d be able to do it, there was something inside me that kept telling me that this dress still might not be the one (although, it definitely was the front runner up, hands down). So we left Mariposa…no dress, but definitely not discouraged. In fact, it only made me more excited to go try on more dresses.
A couple weeks passed, and I received a postcard in the mail for the Fabulous Bridal Affair Wedding Gown Sample Sale at the Hilton in downtown Long Beach. I had the day off, so my mom and I decided to check it out. This experience was a little different. We were put in a room with hundreds of wedding dresses and other women, and it was first-come, first-serve. And you basically try on the dresses together with all the other ladies in the same room…so everybody is looking at her dress and my dress, and everyone’s dress. Not as personable of an experience, but definitely affordable and worth the look. We found a couple of dresses that I liked. But didn’t love.
It was still early when we decided to leave, so we decided to still continue my wedding gown shopping that day. We decided to check out Las Tunas drive in Temple City, which I had heard had several wedding dress shops and other miscellaneous wedding shops. We stopped by a couple boutiques, and they had beautiful designer dresses that were very affordable, including dresses by designers Maggie Sottero, Mori Lee, Melissa Sweet, Watters, Pronovias, etc. I think I had exhausted my wedding dress count for the day, and decided to head home, but we drove passed another little boutique called Love Boat and decided to pass by. Perfect idea!
Love Boat is a very small wedding dress boutique, but also a wedding photography studio. It’s very quaint, and we didn’t need an appointment to look around. I must’ve tried on 5 more dresses that mom and I had chosen, when the consultant finally picked one that she thought I should try on just in case. Then it happened! The moment I had been waiting and hoping I would have…my ‘say-yes-to-the-dress’ moment! Ahhh! I was in LOVE with this Watters Too dress! I literally stepped out of the dressing room, onto centerstage, all lights on me…and had THE biggest smile on my face 🙂 I was literally twirling around in this dress like a little princess, that even the consultant had a laugh at me. To make the moment even more perfect, as I was looking at myself in this wedding dress, Edwin McCain’s “I’ll Be…” started playing overhead and I started crying tears of joy…this was my dress. Even mom had to wipe away a few tears (sorry mom!) lol. Sounds cheesy, but this was by far one of my favorite moments of wedding planning. After trying on probably over 20 dresses, I didn’t know if I was going to have that moment, and I did. And it was tailor-made for me. Even still, I’m feeling so smitten, and can’t wait to have Ozzie see me walking down the aisle in it for the first time 🙂
ozzieheartsnikki 