That was my reaction to most of the wedding gowns I saw on my shopping trip yesterday. The offending stores: Jessica McClintock and Macy's. The latter was the biggest letdown. Kendra, Mary and I trekked out to Tysons Corner Center on our dress mission, only to find that we needed to go to Tysons Galleria, the schmancier mall across the street, for Macy's bridal salon. Turns out there are two Macy's in Tysons. Of course.
By this time we'd been shopping for two hours and I'd yet to try on anything. (That period is a blur, except for Kendra buying cute purple shoes and me having a California roll.) Then finally, the Macy's sa-LON: a sea of ruffles, rosettes and poufy skirts you could shelter small children under. The only dress even close to what I was looking for was meh. We left.
The first ray of hope came at BCBGMaxAzria, despite its ridiculously long run-together name. I tried on a cream evening gown in light, flowy silk. I'm not sure it's the right look for me (really want straps), but it felt great.Then after a lot of cursing at drivers on my part and finding directions on Kendra's part, we made our way to David's Bridal in Rockville. I had pretty low expectations for the place, and it pretty much met them. I mean, I didn't hate it, but I don't want to go back. Here are the dresses I tried on there:
A couple of halters.
No bra with this one, yowza! Also, cool back.
Kinda heavy on top; too big for me.
For the most part, I liked how these looked okay, but not how they felt. Even with the flowy skirt styles, they were pretty heavy. Lots of layers of who-knows-what. I guess my fave would be the first halter, if it came in a lighter, less-stiff fabric.
Really, what I want is not a wedding dress. Just an evening gown I would normally wear that happens to be white. For less than $500? I worry that's not possible, especially when I throw in all my other requirements: straps, no satin, sheath, no lace, flowy skirt, no heavy fabric. Sigh. The worst part: I hate that I'm stressing so much over a frickin' dress.
3 comments:
Have you looked at jcrew.com yet? I bought three dresses to get married in (hey, you only do it once) and my favorite was a simple silk halter in off-white from J. Crew.
Sadly, I optimistically bought it in a size too small, so on the big day I ended up wearing a bridesmaid's dress in ivory from David's Bridal.
Which is another suggestion -- if you just want a simple white evening gown, check out bridesmaids' offerings. You can get lucky.
Of course, I neglect to mention that my dress had to be inexpensive enough that I wouldn't mind getting salt and sand all over it.
http://picasaweb.google.com/jessicakes/Wedding#4990259441461755922
Yes! My next step will be ordering 2 J. Crew dresses and seeing what I think of 'em. Fingers crossed. Also, love those pics!
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