Dress Shopping

So today I finally went out and looked for the dress that I am going to wear for the vow renewal.

When Rob and I originally tied the knot I weighed over 300 pounds.  I’m not sure how much over because at one point our scale broke, and well, who really wants to keep weighing themselves once you have reached 300??  Anyhoo, my mother in law generously offered to make my wedding dress and I was very grateful.  I can’t imagine anything more horrifying than going wedding dress shopping when you are the size that I was.  She made a beautiful dress and a lace shirt that went over the top to cover up my flabby arms.  It was very  nice but when you look like a whale, nothing you put on really ever looks good ya know?

What I’m trying to say is that I never did the dress shopping thing for my wedding and I was happy with that.  However, now that I have lost some weight I’m kind of excited to see what this whole dress shopping thing is like.

Cut to today.

Rob had to help his dad with some yard work at their house in Salinas so I dropped him off and headed out.  I stopped at Walmart to get some new sports bras and running shirts and then at Fashion Bug for some regular bras and one impulse buy of an 18 dollar dress and the jewelry to go with it.  Then I headed off to Campus Bridal Shop.

I had heard from several people that this was the goto place for dresses.  I guess it has been around FOREVER and a lot of people get their dresses there.

It wasn’t anything like I imagined.  Seems silly now but in my head I would walk into the shop and try on all these different dresses and be able to see how they look on me.  Not so.  What were hanging on the racks were sample dresses.  Most in a size 14 but they did vary.  So you look through the dresses and find the one you want.  You give it to the lady who then orders it in the size and color that you want(I can only imagine that they must take your measurements before they order but I’m not sure, I wasn’t purchasing today only looking) and when it comes in they give it to you.  To me that is kind of weird because what if the dress doesn’t fit you like you wanted it to?  Are you out the money and it’s tough luck or do they work with you to exchange or otherwise to alterations?  All questions that I will ask when I am actually ready to plunk down the money.

Anyhoo, I had an image in my mind of the dress that I wanted and even drew it out.  I left it at work of course or you would be seeing a picture of the drawing right now.  🙂

I was able to find a dress that had about 85% of what I was wanting in the dress in my mind so I think that is going to be the dress I get.  The colors are hideous on the sample dress, I am aware of this.  Brown and green?  Ewww.  But here are the pictures I took of it:

Okay, now imagine the brown as hot pink and the green as black:

Nice right??  The only differences between this and my dream dress were that my dream dress was a halter and had a poofier skirt.  Oh and I’m totally going to ditch that flower in the middle of the bow.

I’m pretty sure I’m going to go back next weekend and make the big purchase.

The only other dress that jumped out at me while there was this one:

I love the color and I love the flowiness but I think it is a little too plain.  I like the contrast of the black in the other dress much better.  Gives it more of a unique feel.

So what do you think???  Comment and let me know!