Wedding dreams and dresses
Over the weekend I got a new wedding dress (which is absolutely stunning... so much so I didn't want to take it off in the shop) after fears my first dress looked like a doily, so I can now stop stressing and start enjoying planning the rest of the wedding... right? Umm well maybe conciously! Unconciously I seem to still be stressing! Last night I had a nightmare that my future mother in law got horribly drunk at the wedding and puked all over my wedding dress before I'd even had photos taken! I was SO upset. Seems my brain is determined to worry about every eventuality! Of course I told future hubby when I woke up *just* in case...
Anyway, back to the dress! I have decided to keep my dress totally top secret, not showing anyone photos of the design so it's a big surprise on the day. How well I do with that strategy is up for debate but after getting so upset over my last choice of wedding dress, even though I know this one is a billion times nicer (and 10x more expensive!) I think I'll try to stick to it to save my stressing any further!
The shop my parents took me to was a wonderful shop called Brides Dress Revisited (http://www.bridesdressrevisited.com) in a beautiful quaint little village called Otford in Kent, which they had found after spending a day driving round and checking out shops especially for me (thank you Mum and Dad!!). The shop sells second hand designer dresses at half the retail price... but that's not why I'd highly highly recommend them (although you of course get an amazing bargain on an otherwise expensive wedding dress!). I'd visited other wedding dress shops, and the usual sales approach is rather hands off. The sales assistant encourages you to browse the rails and select 5 or 6 dresses that you like, and you then try them on in a large changing room with whoever you came to the shop with. Sometimes if it's a larger shop, other brides may be trying on dresses at the same time. This doesn't sound too bad, but it has a rather impersonal feel to it. Plus, considering you (hopefully) only ever get married once, you'll have NEVER tried a wedding dress on and therefore have no idea where to start! The first shop I went to had rails and rails of tightly packed dresses, all zipped up in clear plastic bags.Yanking the dresses out to see what they looked like was hard enough, and you couldn't feel the fabric or really see how it fell. I was a bit overwhelmed by the sheer choice! The assistant was nice enough, but was really no more than a helper, getting me in and out of the heavy dresses.
Brides Dress Revisited was different however! The shop itself a a lovely cute little building with old oak beams and white walls.When we arrived, the two ladies put up a sign on the door stating that an appointment was in progress and the shop was shut. Yes shut. They close the shop when you're there so you get 100% of their attention. The dresses were lovingly hung on a rail, out of their dust bags, and evenly spaced so you could see them properly... but I didn't touch them at first. The experts at the shop (and trust me, they really are experts) explained that they’d go through the rail (as they knew which dresses would fit me) and ask my opinion on a few. Some I said yes to, others I wasn't too keen on but they politely suggested perhaps I’d like to try them on anyway as they thought they might suit me. After selecting about 5 or 6 dresses, we went upstairs to the large room that was the dressing room (again with beautiful old oak beams, white walls and more beautifully displayed dresses) with Mum and Dad, and they helped me try on dresses, giving me information on each and opinions on what they thought suits and didn't. Never did they say I looked bad, only commented on which they thought I seemed more comfortable in. They told me what alterations had been made to the dresses (as after all they are second hand) which was helpful, as some dresses had already been shortened or taken in, altered or added to, so I knew whether to budget for further alterations or not. They also gave me veils and accessories to try on, with no obligation or pushiness to buy, merely to assess the overall look. They were so unbelievably nice and helpful, and not at all salesy! In the end, I bought the first dress they had selected for me to try on. They told me that the girl who originally bought it had had the fastenings moved from the side of the dress to the back, and had embellishments removed. A good move in my opinion as the dress is now not only a one off but much prettier for it!
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Anyway, back to the dress! I have decided to keep my dress totally top secret, not showing anyone photos of the design so it's a big surprise on the day. How well I do with that strategy is up for debate but after getting so upset over my last choice of wedding dress, even though I know this one is a billion times nicer (and 10x more expensive!) I think I'll try to stick to it to save my stressing any further!
The shop my parents took me to was a wonderful shop called Brides Dress Revisited (http://www.bridesdressrevisited.com) in a beautiful quaint little village called Otford in Kent, which they had found after spending a day driving round and checking out shops especially for me (thank you Mum and Dad!!). The shop sells second hand designer dresses at half the retail price... but that's not why I'd highly highly recommend them (although you of course get an amazing bargain on an otherwise expensive wedding dress!). I'd visited other wedding dress shops, and the usual sales approach is rather hands off. The sales assistant encourages you to browse the rails and select 5 or 6 dresses that you like, and you then try them on in a large changing room with whoever you came to the shop with. Sometimes if it's a larger shop, other brides may be trying on dresses at the same time. This doesn't sound too bad, but it has a rather impersonal feel to it. Plus, considering you (hopefully) only ever get married once, you'll have NEVER tried a wedding dress on and therefore have no idea where to start! The first shop I went to had rails and rails of tightly packed dresses, all zipped up in clear plastic bags.Yanking the dresses out to see what they looked like was hard enough, and you couldn't feel the fabric or really see how it fell. I was a bit overwhelmed by the sheer choice! The assistant was nice enough, but was really no more than a helper, getting me in and out of the heavy dresses.
Brides Dress Revisited was different however! The shop itself a a lovely cute little building with old oak beams and white walls.When we arrived, the two ladies put up a sign on the door stating that an appointment was in progress and the shop was shut. Yes shut. They close the shop when you're there so you get 100% of their attention. The dresses were lovingly hung on a rail, out of their dust bags, and evenly spaced so you could see them properly... but I didn't touch them at first. The experts at the shop (and trust me, they really are experts) explained that they’d go through the rail (as they knew which dresses would fit me) and ask my opinion on a few. Some I said yes to, others I wasn't too keen on but they politely suggested perhaps I’d like to try them on anyway as they thought they might suit me. After selecting about 5 or 6 dresses, we went upstairs to the large room that was the dressing room (again with beautiful old oak beams, white walls and more beautifully displayed dresses) with Mum and Dad, and they helped me try on dresses, giving me information on each and opinions on what they thought suits and didn't. Never did they say I looked bad, only commented on which they thought I seemed more comfortable in. They told me what alterations had been made to the dresses (as after all they are second hand) which was helpful, as some dresses had already been shortened or taken in, altered or added to, so I knew whether to budget for further alterations or not. They also gave me veils and accessories to try on, with no obligation or pushiness to buy, merely to assess the overall look. They were so unbelievably nice and helpful, and not at all salesy! In the end, I bought the first dress they had selected for me to try on. They told me that the girl who originally bought it had had the fastenings moved from the side of the dress to the back, and had embellishments removed. A good move in my opinion as the dress is now not only a one off but much prettier for it!
I told them I’d recommend them to anyone I knew who was looking for a dress, and I will. But I also wanted to recommend them to everyone else out there! It’s worth the drive to make an appointment and visit the shop, as they are miles better than any other bridal shop I have visited! I just wanted to hug them both for being SO fantastic and helping me find my dream dress! So if anyone out there is looking for the perfect wedding dress, visit Brides Dress Revisited!!
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