We’ve had a few wedding checks this weekend!  Yesterday, Sri accompanied me to Marcella’s for my first dress fitting—need to bring in the bodice, the bustline and hem it up as well as put in the French bustle.  I can’t wait to see how the dress looks once it actually fits me better in a few weeks!  I did learn, while waiting in my dress yesterday, how painful my wedding shoes are….so I headed over to Nordstrom’s and bought a bunch of Foot Petal inserts to ease the pain…hope that works!

This morning, Matt and I attended dance lesson #3—yup, for our first dance!  I’ll keep the dance and the song a secret…but it’s been fun learning!

Lastly, this afternoon, we dropped by the local Turgeon Raine jewelry store and placed the order for our wedding bands!  Whew!  We’d been shopping around for the bands for the last month, visiting several jewelry stores and finally narrowed it down.  We are super excited with these–and, man, it was just in time!  Since we had to order them (for the correct sizing, metal, width…), it won’t be in til the 3rd week of June—cutting it close!

It’s been very fun coming home everyday and rushing to mailbox to see what RSVPs we get—super thanks to everyone who has sent them in already.  We are so excited to see all of you!

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Yup.  I can’t believe it.  I talked to Leah, the bridal sales consultant at Marcella’s, today and she told me that my dress came in early.  WAY FREAKIN’ EARLY.  I only ordered it in–what–end of August?  It wasn’t supposed to come in until MARCH.  How exciting is that?!  I can keep the dress at the shop too so I don’t need to store it anywhere—and then do my official fittings late spring since it’s closer to the wedding date.  Apparently, the designer pushed all trunk show orders a little ahead of the line so that they got done first.  Sweet.  I can’t wait to see it—I’ll hopefully “visit” my dress this weekend.

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Bridal shoes, like everything else in the wedding industry, are ridiculously overpriced.  Take the same shoe in black, turn it white, throw the word “bridal” onto it, and it’s instantly at least double the price.  For me, I’ll need at least 2 pairs of shoes: 1 to wear with my Western style white dress and the other to wear with my cheongsam.  I’ve been drooling over a pair of Vera Wangs for a couple months now but couldn’t bring myself to paying as much as Vera Wangs cost…so I’ve just been looking out for deals on various websites.  Recently, I was introduced to eweddingshoes.com, which sells discounted bridal shoes for specific sizes…and lo and behold, I found the shoes I’ve been eyeing in my size, in ivory and in a lower heel (can we say “more comfortable?”).  I think I only thought about it for 24 hours before deciding to get them….and I’m so happy!

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Veils are expensive.  You wouldn’t think right?  It’s just a piece of tulle attached to a hair comb.  I knew since trying on my dress that I wanted a veil…and a long one at that.  A nice, ivory, cathedral length veil with a blusher and a little bit of edging.  I’ve been looking around for this sort of veil—know how much this costs at a bridal store?  One that I love = $475.  I mean, this is something I’m only wearing for the ceremony and photos.  Surprisingly, that’s not a bad price considering designer veils, such as the Vera Wangs, run in the thousands of dollars.  But this was something that I just couldn’t bring myself to spending that much money on.  The dress? Yes. The Veil? No.  So I was delighted to find a woman on the knot who had recently gotten married and was selling a bunch of things from her wedding, including an ivory cathedral length veil with pencil edging…for how much? $50.  Now, that’s my price.  The great thing–if I don’t like it, I’m sure I can easily resell it at that price.  Cathedral length veils, even at David’s Bridal, cost a couple hundred dollars.  But who knows–I’m heading to the Fall Bridal show today and may see something else I just love at a great price.  I finally convinced Matt to go to this with me and then I’ll meet up with the Seattle bridesmaids later.

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On Saturday, I organized for all 4 of the Seattle bridesmaids to go shopping at FIVE different stores.  Whew!  We checked out Nordstrom’s, Marcella’s La Boutique, Macy’s Victoria Bridal Couture, La Belle Elaine’s, and Moms Maids & More in total.  One highlight for me was going to Marcella’s and finding out that they had the sample of my gown already in the store so I was able to hang out in my gown as the girls tried on various dresses–what a treat!  It was also a luxury to be able to see how the dresses would look next to mine.  Throughout the day, the most common themes for what we liked were “soft, long, flowy, romantic, halter, gathering, hide-the-tummy, forgiving material”.  In the end, the front runner is this Jim Hjelm chiffon dress — likely the bridesmaids will be in the halter style and maid-of-honor in the v-neck strap style (very subtle difference).  The color I’m currently leaning towards is “spice” (the swatch right below)

   

And here’s a picture of the Phoebe and Jigna trying on these dresses:

 

It was a really productive day and I’m so excited!  I’m going to at least wait til next week’s Fall Bridal Spectacular to see if any of the fashion vendors there carry these lines–and if so, if there’s a bridal show discount.  Otherwise, I think this is the one!  One great thing about these dresses—the girls can totally wear these again after the wedding.  They could even hem it into a cocktail length: how cute!

One great thing about shopping for bridesmaid dresses—we could take photos!  The one exception was Macy’s…which was interesting because some of the other shops were higher end and were totally fine with photos.  In any case, we snuck photos in inside the dressing room!

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Woke up early this morning for a 9am appointment at Marcella’s where Phoebe, Asayo & Jigna met me and my parents to try on the final 3 dresses…and we decided on the Lazaro dress that I saw at the trunk show over the weekend!  I’m soooo excited.  We put the deposit down and the dress is now getting ordered.  Woo Hoo!

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Over the weekend, I was browsing through the Lazaro website, knowing there was a trunk show at Marcella’s, when I came across a dress that made me gasp.  I sent a mail to Leah, the bridal sales consultant that I’ve been working with to see if the dress was at the trunk show.  She immediately called me and started blabbing about how much she thought I’d love the dress and that she totally thought of me when it came in and that I should come in that day to check it out.  I snagged the last appointment.  Fortunately, Phoebe was able to join me so last minute to check this out.  I loved it.  Admittedly, it was a bit hard to envision it fitting on me initially because this was probably the smallest sample size dress I’d ever tried on–it was literally the dress from the runway, so the model was like a size 0 and 5′10″—great.  So the sample kinda falls on me funny—but after tucking here an tucking there and holding things in for a bit, I could see it and I really loved it.  Did I mention that it’s much cheaper than any of the other dresses that I’ve been looking at?  That helped too.  Another neat thing—Lazaro, himself, was at the dress shop for the trunk show so I got to meet him.  I think it’s my favorite now.  Fortunately, the shop is going to hold this dress for me until my mom gets here–and I’ve made an early AM appointment for Wednesday, after which they’ll fedex the dress to the next trunk show.  I hope my mom likes it!  I really think that this may be the one…

On the coordinator front—wow, well, I’ve spoken to 5 coordinators so far, including Coordinator A, the first one we ever met.  I think I have a pretty good idea who I’ll want to hire now after interviewing so many but I won’t go into it since future coordinator will likely peruse this website; however, here are my thoughts in general about coordinators:

• It’s really helpful to see examples of their work–such as the timelines they put together or the email newsletters they may put together for the wedding party.  This is especially important for day-of coordinators. Why?  Most coordinators bring their “portfolio” which is just photographs of weddings they’ve done–while I ooo and aaah over these photographs, they don’t really show me what this coordinator is capable of–it just shows me they did a pretty wedding and that there was a great florist and photographer.  I was impressed when a coodinator showed me actual examples of how they coordinate.
• Do they review contracts?  Preferably yes.
• Know your vendors.  I interviewed one coordinator whom I started asking ‘who’s your favorite band?’ ‘who’s your favorite florist?’ ‘who’s your favorite officiant?’  For each one, she stumbled trying to remember names of vendors.  That really didn’t impress me.  I would hope that a coordinator can instinctively remember great vendors rather than needing to refer to some sheet of paper they’ve been updating.
• Good vibe is important–I’m going to be working with this coordinator a bunch.  I need someone that’s on the same brainwave as me–not someone that I’ll just get annoyed with speaking to.  There are plenty of good coordinators out there, so hire someone that you’ll get along with.
• Shop around–prices totally vary.  I’ve found day-of coordinators to range from $750 - $3500.  And they all basically do the same thing!
• Do they get vendor discounts? See how the coordinator reacts to your desire to take advantage of that.  Will they limit the number of vendor referrals/discounts they give you?  Do they take kickbacks? (preferably not)
• Have they ever worked at your venue?  Have they had experience with any special things you want to do at your wedding?  I asked each one about their experiences with Chinese tea ceremonies–it ranged from “I learned Chinese doing it!” to “I’ve never planned one”.  That can be a tiebreaker.

At the end of the day, honestly, I liked all of the coordinators I met–they were all wonderful people that I’m sure are totally capable of helping out with the wedding.  It’s little nitpicky details that ultimately help me decide in the end who I want to hire.

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Over the weekend, one of Matt’s best friends from San Francisco, Lucrecia, was in town–while she was here, since she just loves dress shopping, we decided to hit a couple more stores that I hadn’t seen yet: Cicada Bridal and Brides by Demetrios.  We didn’t find anything.  I was sadly disappointed by Cicada Bridal which I had heard was really beautiful–there wasn’t a single dress there that I wanted to try on, probably because most of the dresses were separates which I wasn’t interested in.  I found a few to try on at Demetrios but they just paled in comparison to the 4 candidates remaining for me. At the end of the day, my heart keeps thinking of, like, the 3rd or 4th dress I ever tried on–which is really similar to Adrianne Curry’s dress that you see over on the left (without the ribbon).  Pretty funny considering it was a dress I found within Hour 1 of my dress shopping experience.  Just goes to tell ya that I’m the type of person that needs to see a thousand options before making a decision.  Same went with the location—Matt and I saw Newcastle first, then saw 8 other places before picking Newcastle.  And really, it was all me—Matt probably would’ve gone with our gut in the beginning…but I needed and insisted on seeing more places just to satisfy myself that I had seen the whole spectrum of choices.

Well, I’ve got the 4 dresses narrowed down, somewhat in order–and when my mom gets here in a week and a half, I’ll show them all to her. But I have a feeling I know which one is “the one”.  Everyone says it—every bride will just know which one is “the one”.  The problem is whether or not that bride is willing to admit it at the time.  I certainly wasn’t but can see it now. 

Here are my afterthoughts after dress shopping so much, for future brides to consider:

• Always bring a bustier to try on dresses.  Some places will offer you one but not always, so it’s great to have one just in case.
• If you think you’ll wear a veil, try one on with the dresses that you like–in a lot of cases, it really makes a huge different and completes the look for you.
• Try to bring something to clip your hair up if you know you’ll likely wear your hair up.  It really helps in imagining the final look.
• Most places don’t allow you to take photos of the dresses to show friends and family—so it’s pretty important that you have your close girlfriends to see the dress on you in person to help you with your decision.
• If you get a chance to have one of your girlfriends put the dress on you in the dressing room, you can take advantage of that opportunity to snap photos inside the dressing room for future purposes…..but…..
• Most fairly good bridal salons will have a dedicated bridals sales consultant waiting on you hand and foot, including putting the dress on you in the dressing room, so it’ll likely be hard to grab a snapshot.
• Fabric does make a difference.  Wearing silk satin vs. a synthetic fabric means a huge difference in the way your skin breathes and feels underneath.  Keep in mind you’re wearing this dress for hours.  You need to be comfortable.
• The typical sample size in the store is a size 10, which equates to, like, a size 6.  If you’re like me, don’t feel like crap after trying on dresses–those samples were worn by 14 year old models, not real women.  That’s what those crazy clips are for!
• Your friends really really help in telling you not only what looks good on you, but whether or not a dress suits your personality.  While my eyes kept landing on the beautiful all-lace dresses, my friends made a really good point that those dresses, while beautiful on me, didn’t quite suit my personality.  I really see what they mean now.  I don’t think I would’ve realized that if I were shopping on my own.
• Lastly, really go with your gut.  You’ll know when you see the one.  You just have to admit it to yourself at some point.  It took me seeing 6 other stores to realize that.  (of course, I’m saying this without having actually picked the final dress)

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So last weekend, I went for a hardcore day of wedding dress shopping with all the Seattle bridesmaids (and with Phoebe this time who was a trooper for hanging with me all day)–it started at 10:30am and ended at 6:30pm.  Whew!  All in all, we visited 5 different shops and tried on a ton of dresses. It was really interesting to see which shop had a bridal consultant that offered to help you put on the dress and which didn’t–thank goodness Phoebe was there to help me put some of those dresses on!  They’re mighty hard to just “slip on”.  I’ve narrowed down to 4 dresses that stood out throughout the day, one of which I actually first saw at the Monique Lhuillier trunk show (and is still a big favorite).  All of them are either A-line or a modified A-line/trumpet shaped dress.  I’m leaning towards simplicity, a touch of lace, and classic yet modern.  All are strapless (which, prior to dress shopping, I would’ve thought wouldn’t look good on me).  I may hit up another shop or two in the next couple weeks–but my mom gets here mid-August as does Matt’s mom and I’ll take them to see the final candidates to help me choose the final “one”!

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I kicked off wedding dress shopping yesterday with Jigna, Sri and Asayo by checking out the Monique Lhuillier trunk show at Marcella’s La Boutique.  Now, I really didn’t know what to expect from a trunk show—I now know that it would’ve been best for me to have shopped around a bit first and then make the trunk show be one of my final shopping destinations because any dress found at a trunk show can only be bought at a trunk show.  If I decide later the next month that I like a dress–oh well, I lose.  I guess that’s what makes trunk shows unique and special because the dresses shown are unlikely to just be bought anywhere within that year.  That also means a ton of self pressure to make a decision that day.

The shopping was a ton of fun–and it was really interesting hearing both the bridal sales consultant along with my friends whipping out key words to describe the aspects of my personality that should be a part of the dress.  For me — sassy, fun, sexy, sophisticated, a bit girly but not too girly, romantic but not too romantic, modern, grand.  For example, my eyes were really drawn to an all-lace gown…but my friends all thought it was *too* girly for me.  Ha Ha.  After trying a few more on, I see what they mean.  The good news is that I came out of the experience with 2 dresses that I really liked–and both happened to be non-trunk show dresses, so I can return to Marcella’s another time and get them if I choose to.

I decided last minute today to go out and check out more dresses on my own since I didn’t really have any plans–so I went to see The Bridal Garden (named the Best Wedding Dress Shop in 2006 by Seattle Bride magazine) and La Belle Elaine’s, a shop that I’ve seen close to the Space Needle everytime we walked over for a Sonics game.  I must say: my shopping trip at Marcella’s yesterday definitely spoiled me as my quality bar was quite high after feeling the luxurious silk satins of Monique Lhuillier’s dresses.  Still, I probably left today with potentially 1 candidate from La Belle Elaine’s that I equally liked compared to the Lhuillier dresses—a Cristo one with a bit of lace and was quite similar.

Ideally, I can narrow down dress candidates over the next month before my mom visits so I can show them to her to help me pick the final one.

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