The Hunt Begins!

     After the hilarity of trying on my mother's wedding dress, my first real appointment came up fast. The recently-wed Bridesmaid Danielle, asked to come along for her bridal expertise and sunny disposition, Mom, packing tissues, & I headed to the city a few saturdays ago for two appointments on the designer (read: spendy) end of the wedding dress spectrum. My plan was to hit the fancy spots and try on styles to see what looked good on my shape (and more importantly didn't offend my anti-tulle sensibilities), assuming that as I continued to look I would see the same styles repeated again and again - in fashion, and especially in wedding dresses, everyone rips off the 5-10 wedding designers who set the styles for everyone else. 

     First stop: the (in)famous Kleinfelds. I was nearly scared right out the door by signs posted saying anyone entering the premises consents to the possibility of turning up in the background of a reality TV show they were filming there. Luckily TV camera crews don't seem to wake up as early as dedicated dress-hunters like ourselves, because we got back out before they got there. I very quickly realized that this dress hunting was NOT going to be as overwhelming after all... Kleinfelds must have about 10,000 dresses, as we saw as we swam thru the taffeta-filled stockroom, but maybe 90% of those are strapless, so there really weren't THAT many dresses to look at. I think I ended up trying on 5. I had also done my obsessive-compulsive homework, and had printouts of the dresses I wanted to try on anyway. The Kleinfelds saleswoman took one look at me and didn't even give us the "I'm the expert, you don't know what will look good on you, I do" runaround. 

     I have to say I was both more and less affected than I thought I would be. On one hand, my ultra-sarcastic stance on the whole wedding-industrial complex quickly melted under a stream of beading and veils, and I found myself actually considering buying a $3,000 dress. That was a little scary. On the other hand, even when I put on the dress I really thought I could see myself getting married in, there was no magic "This is it" moment. It was a beautiful dress, it was comfortable, and I could definitely see myself getting hitched in it. Was I as teary-eyed as Mom? Not quite. Although the veil thing was weird - I wasn't expecting that. 

     Look, anyone whose job is selling stuff to brides is no fool. The more they insist you're special, this moment is special, this is the ONE (whether it be dress, cake, hall, wedding-themed flip-flops, etc.), this is the ABSOLUTE BEST THING EVER, the easier it is to get you to swallow the concept that you're about to spend 300 times more than you've ever spent on an article of clothing in your life, that it is NECESSARY! That you are SELLING YOURSELF SHORT if you consider this in any way ridiculous or overblown. It's the MOST IMPORTANT DAY OF YOUR LIFE, after all. And the reluctance to throw open the coffers suddenly feels like you're the one being crazy.

    Ok ok I'm sorry, I digress, like I said, I found a beautiful dress, with straps, that really made me feel beautiful, comfortable, and yes, even a little special. Did I consider just buying the damn thing and ending the whole search right there? YES! But I couldn't. If I am going to spend that much money on something, I need to be damn sure it's worth it. I need to check out all the other options first. Then, if I ended up going for it, I'd feel justified.

     So, thoroughly famished and in need of a stiff drink, we took a brunch break and headed to Pastis for some really good french toast. We had a long time to wait until our second appointment, so we looked in on a few shops and got poured on in a flash thunderstorm. Also, we shopped at Cartier for a while (ok, MOM shopped), and wandered through an exhibition of ancient Minoan artifacts from the island of Crete - hey you never know what you'll stumble into killing time in NYC.

     Appointment #2 was at Pronovias, which is a spanish designer that just opened a showroom in midtown. In my research I had seen a bunch of styles I liked, that seemed to be less poofy & not-strapless. I tried on maybe 4-5 more dresses, and again found one stunner. And it even had a detachable train! I know, shocking that I would like something with a train (almost more of a cape), but I can revel in my hypocrisies, thank you very much. Anyway, said dress there was $4,000. Ouch! However, they were very nice, and instead of plying us with the THIS IS YOUR MOST SPECIAL DAY IT HAS TO BE PERFECT sell, they just gave us unlimited champagne! (A much better selling tactic, Kleinfelds, take note). Danielle & Mom liked this dress better than dress #1, as it was sexier. I liked them both. But still, I knew I needed to explore the less stratospheric price ranges.

Still, I felt like we accomplished a lot. Thanks to an only slightly-weepy Mom and a very useful-for-honest-opinions Bridesmaid Danielle, I definitely figured out what I liked, didn't like, really didn't like, and what I should be looking for. I really appreciate both of them coming. 

Oh, and in case you were wondering, no I can't post pictures of the dresses I tried on! I know I am picking and choosing traditions at will, but still, I don't want Ryan to see the dress before the wedding...But i'll email the frontrunners to you if you ask.