The Pros and Cons of Wedding Dress Shopping

I have watched Say Yes to the Dress.  I've seen other tv shows about wedding dress shopping.  They always make it look so simple.  They try on 3 or 4 dresses and one of them is absolutely perfect.  Everyone cries and it's an easy decision.  

That wasn't the case for my family and me.  My sister and I did some preliminary shopping over New Years weekend while she was in Colorado.  We tried on probably 20 dresses.  We found a few that we liked, but nothing really special.  That shopping was mostly to figure out what look we would be going for anyway, so it was fun and not really disappointing.  

Well, this past weekend, I went to Indiana to go shopping with my mom and my sister.  I tried on SO MANY dresses that it wasn't funny.  We found dresses that looked nice on me, but they weren't THE dress.  

The first shop wasn't bad.  So what if we didn't find it.  We still had plenty of time.  The second place made it a little depressing.  By the time we left the third place, I was starting to doubt that we would find that special dress.  I was beginning to think that maybe it was a myth.  

When we started again on Saturday, I was hopeful, but still doubtful.  And then we tried on gown after gown after gown and still didn't find the dress.  It didn't help that the lady wasn't showing us dresses that we had described.  She was only showing us dresses that she thought would look good on me.  She was driving us all crazy.  We knew what we wanted.  She just wouldn't listen.  When she finally did listen, we got THE dress.  

When the dress was finally on and we were all looking at me in the mirror, my mom started to cry.  My sister's eyes got a little damp and her whole face lit up.  My sister's friend, Ariel (who I'd only met one other time), actually teared up, too.  And, of course I teared up.  We just knew that this was the dress.  

I am so glad that we kept searching instead of just settling on a dress that just looked nice.  We may have had to try on a hundred dresses, but we did eventually find the perfect dress for me.  And every time I look at those pictures, I am SO glad that we kept at it.  

I can't help myself!  Here is my perfect dress again:

So, the cons are that it can take a ton of time and effort to find the dress (and possibly having to deal with people who really should not be in sales!), but the pros are that once you find that perfect dress, it will all be worth it.  The perfect dress will make you feel like a beautiful bride and it will just feel right.  So, don't give up ladies!  There is such a thing as a perfect dress!