Finding the Dress: The Hunt is On

**D! You might not want to read this one because it has some serious hints about my dress!!**

So now that I knew what I was looking for, it was time to go dress shopping. In the time leading up to my first appointment, I found one more inspiration picture to add to my collection: the D1032 by Essense of Australia.

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I basically picked where to go based on which bridal salon had that dress. Luckily, there was one not too far from my house, so I rounded up my posse and off we went!

Since this was my first true wedding dress shopping experience, I really didn't know what to expect. I pretty much assumed it would be like an episode of 'Say Yes to the Dress.' It wasn't really, but it was still fun!

The first shop I went to was called Bridals by Al-Mor. I brought my mom, future mother-in-law, sister, future sister-in-law, another girlfriend, and my grandma, so it was quite a large crowd! Once we arrived, the saleswoman pulled the Essense dress and we started looking for styles off the racks. Since I had an idea but wasn't really sure exactly what I wanted, I told everyone just to pull what they wanted to see me in, and we would go from there. Once we had a bunch of dresses, I started trying them on. (And I can't find the pictures, so unfortch you'll have to imagin what they all look like!)

The Essense dress was definitely nice and an early favourite, but the flowers weren't as nice in person and the material was a little stiff. My mom was concerned about how the fabric would hang in the July humidity and if it would wrinkle really easily. So although the dress was nice, it wasn't THE dress.

The saleswoman had pulled a style similar to the Essense that she thought I would like, so we put that on next. This dress, friends, is what I thought was going to be the one:

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Ohhhh goodness... this dress was gorgeous! I had definitely narrowed down my style and figured out what I wanted. I loved the fitted bodice, the empire waist, and the full ballgown, which was a HUGE shock. I really thought I would want something a little more fitted and sexy, but there was something so fun and cute about the ballgown style. Also unexpectedly, I loved the sparkly belt! I didn't think I wanted any bling at all, but this added something so fun to the dress, and I really loved it. I didn't, however, love the price tag. At almost $1500 CDN, it was quite a leap over my original budget. So we took lots of pictures, and I definitely came away from the experience having really narrowed down what I was looking for. Now, to find a similar style that wouldn't break the bank!

Did your dream wedding dress fall within your budget?