I went to Charleston this past weekend for my mom's 61st birthday. It was a really fun trip. If I didn't care about finishing graduate school in a timely fashion or ever having money, I'd do a three-day weekend once a month.
I decided to broach the subject of budget with my parents on Sunday night before we went dress shopping. Needless to say, it was tense and my mom and I nearly came to blows, as expected. She just kept getting caught up on the teeniest details instead of just focusing on the big picture, which was the point. Apparently she just thinks I want to spend extravagant amounts of money on everything and have her pay for as much as possible. This is not true. I just wanted us to get on the same page early on so there wouldn't be too many surprizes. Instead we just argued about the rehearsal dinner--"what if John's family wants bologna sandwiches, is that okay with you??" Also, she was trying to tell me that I would find an absolutely gorgeous dress of designer quality for $100. I'll get back to this later.
My mom and sister and I went on a marathon dress shopping expedition on Monday. My dad thinks I tried on a total of about 27 dresses. We first went to this cute place called Gown Boutique of Charleston. Every dress I tried on was very pretty. It was really weird because my mom, sister and I, despite differences of opinion on what the best dress on me was, were pretty much on the same page about what was good and what was bad. We also decided that this cute little feathery hairpiece would be super-adorable in lieu of a veil. At the top, Adele Weschler "Abigail," and below Lela Rose "The Park."
At the next store, Maddison Row, we found a lot of dresses we liked too. My mom liked a lace Vera Wang, but I hated it. I really liked this funky sun design dress by Carolina Herrera, but Nikki said the sun design looked like a target right over my hmm hmm.
Next, we went to a store that carried sub-designer dresses. The lady helping me at the store insisted I try on all these dresses even though I told her I didn't like full-skirted dresses or sparkly ones. She also kept trying to put veils on me even though I told her I didn't like veils. She had me try on over ten dresses. My mom hated all of them. Thus began the transformation of my mom from believing that quality dresses could be had for $100. She clearly has caught the designer bug.
This is not to say that other people wouldn't benefit from less expensive styles. Unfortunately for me, I am short but not skinny. I have to get dresses that fit a certain way and have detailing in just the right places so my arms don't look fat, the neckline isn't distracting, the draping hides my lumps and accentuates my curves, and the skirt is full enough to make my hips look small and yet not so full as to make me look short.
At any rate, I came home super-stoked because I found a sample dress of the Lela Rose Park dress on sale for half off. After checking their return policy, I quickly put it on my paypal account and began contacting wedding dress seamstresses and cleaners to assess whether I could really make the dress fit and look new and at what cost. Then, at 11am, I got a call from the salon that they mistakenly allowed the transaction even though the dress was already sold. I was very disappointed yesterday afternoon, to say the least.
But I have now bounced back and am making appointments at four Dallas bridal stores and have contacted Blush about getting estimates to see if I can get a better price on the first dress pictured in the last post I made. I still need to see if my mom likes that one though.
Also, while I was home, my sister gave me an official binder to keep my magazine clippings and appointments and contacts in. John for some reason loves this binder. She also gave me her Tiffany champagne flutes to toast our cake cutting at the reception. Checkin' things off the list!!!
Stay tuned on the dress....
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