It was right at about this time six years ago that my mom and I made the trek north to the Big City of Spokane for a day of wedding dress shopping. Many newly-engaged gals spend weeks or months shopping for their perfect dress, going from town to town and store to store. But that wasn't going to work for me. Dan proposed in the middle of July and we set a wedding date for October 20th, leaving three short months for wedding planning - including finding the all-important Dress. There just wasn't the time for hemming-and-hawing and ordering and altering the latest, trendiest style (typically a 6-12 week process). Nope, I was planning on doing all of that in a single day. It was a good thing I had my mom there to help me and offer her critiques and encouragement the whole time (and snap about a million pictures).
We started at the Spokane bridal salon where my sister had found her perfect dress years earlier. I specifically remembered the shop having a large selection of off-the-rack dresses and that's specifically what I needed. We had a set budget in mind and told the attendant not to bring me any dress that was more expensive than the amount decided on. I tried on about 15 dresses in two hours. Some were stunningly gorgeous, but not quite "me" enough. Some were utterly horrific and unsuitable for anyone, and others were just flat-out laughable. I think at one point I tried on three hilarious dresses in a row and my mom and I were laughing so hard the attendant had to give us a few minutes to get calmed down before we could get back to work.
But there was one - the second dress I tried on - that we kept going back to. It accentuated some of my positives and minimized some of my negatives. I loved the delicate bead work on the the bodice and the unadorned skirt. I loved how its price tag came in under budget. But mostly I loved how it just felt easy and right on me. We finally decided to quit comparing all the other dresses to this one, and just get the dress already.
That was a good choice.
I've never felt more beautiful in my whole life than I did on our wedding day, and my perfect dress was a big reason why.
When Lana's older (a lot, lot older) and engaged to the only man on the planet good enough for her (we've yet to determine if he exists), I so hope she chooses me to accompany her on a great dress-shopping adventure. It's a very special mother-daughter memory for me, and I'd love the opportunity to live it with her too.
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