Wedding: Floral Shop Dress

Last summer I posted about how I wanted a happy, perfect, tea dress for my rehearsal or shower from Sohomode. She still has her shop open and her dresses are still lovely, but I ended up buying the Floral Shop Dress over at modcloth.com. I do feel bad for not helping out an independent shop, but hey we are in a recession and it was $30 cheaper and included free shipping. That and I was a bit worried about Sohomode's fabric selections and how it would all come together in the end. Either way I still got a happy tea dress to wear somewhere for my wedding :)

Wedding: 3rd Times a Charm

So last wedding post I left you with was about a dress outing to All the Rage at Hilltop. But I have been a bad lil blogger and have not updated you on such important events as PURCHASING A DRESS! WEE! I knew I'd be buying a dress there because it was a perfect mix of both my experience at Pure English and David's Bridal. It wasn't overly priced as Pure English, but I felt more like a valued customer than at David's Bridal. I felt like a bride but not a stuffy couture bride, bc thats not me in spirit or in what I'm willing to spend. The sales ladies are very helpful, but they let you breathe and let you pick out what you want to see, while still being helpful and picking things that you might not think of trying on.

I think I was also set on buying on this trip because I was just tired of searching. You'd think searching for something like your bridal gown would be something you wouldn't get tired of. But it is a tiring process. The search, the trying on, the coordinating everyone else's schedules. I just wanted to be done with it and check another thing off my list.

At first I was having second thoughts about my dress. Mainly bc I wasted my "this is it" dress feeling on a Paloma Blanca dress not in my budget (pictured right). But after much thought I realized that I am happy with the dress I purchased. It fit all the criteria of style, fit, and price. As mentioned before, I won't be posting my actual dress bc my fiance is a very supportive fiance and visits my blog every now and again. But I will tell you what my criteria was and that it is a Maggie Sottero dress. Also, I'll post some of the other contenders that didn't quite make the cut.

Criteria:
Lace
Cap sleeves or key hole back
A-line, sheath or trumpet shape
Light-weight for my summer barn wedding.
Vintage feel
Non-traditional
No satin

some Pure English Dresses:

a bit too simple for me...

not quite digging the asymmetrical sleeves...

I liked the gathering detail at the waist, but the all over lace
was a bit heavy and looked a bit matronly in person.

some David's Bridal Dresses:

I loved how this dress looked on me and it would've been perfect
for a barn wedding but I wasn't willing to pay $500 for a short dress...
it makes me look like i have a teeny waist :)

Unfortunately, I don't have any pics of the dresses I tried on at All the Rage. As I said I was kind of tired of the dress search and I think my MOH was too, so we didn't even remember to take pics until we came to the dress I ended up purchasing. But I had an overall great experience at ATR. I felt their service, selection, and prices made it an overall good buying experience.

Wedding: Mens Apparel

I have learned quite a few things from wedding planning as far as wedding apparel goes. For instance Mens Wearhouse has monopolized the Hampton Roads area. I couldn't find any other formal wear boutiques for men that wasn't a Mens Wearhouse. I remember they had Mitchell's Formal Wear-gone, all the places in the mall...all now Mens Wearhouses. So basically our options for groomsmen apparel was significantly limited. I originally wanted tan suits for the men to wear but after a trip to...Mens Wearhouse of course...we learned that we could only buy suits or rent tuxes. We didn't feel comfortable making the men buy $300-$400 suits so we are now opting to rent tuxes. I'd love to do these wheat suits from J.Crew. They are reasonably priced for the quality and fit but again we feel funny making our groomsmen buy tan suits. Tan suit aren't very practical to wear often so I doubt they would get much wear out of them. Luckily MW currently have these fabulous gray tuxes that work well with our whole casual, laid-back, summer wedding. We knew that traditional black tuxes definitely wouldn't go. So I am happy to have the gray alternative.


Next weekend I have an appointment at All the Rage in Hilltop. I am growing more optimistic with my dress search. I visited their site and picked out a few things and I'm excited to try them on. The prices are well within my budget too so fingers crossed! I'm also confused as to whether All the Rage in Chesapeake is the same? The VB site has a disclaimer saying they are the "original" but I was always under the impression they were owned by the same people? Guess not. Just seems silly that they would have the same store name I guess? Anywho wish me luck!