After the holidays wound down I was itching to give the dress hunt another go. This time it meant a small road trip, though, as we don’t have an Alfred Angelo Signature Store in Tallahassee, but there is one a hop, skip, and a 2 1/2 hour drive away in Jacksonville.
Taking advantage of having the MLK holiday off, the Friend-ficiant L, BFF Star, Partner-in-Crime (PiC, from here on out) JD, and I piled into Electra (my Saturn) that Monday morning and headed east, singing along with my Wedding Belles Playlist and making general merriment until we got to the shop just before my appointment.
Just like David’s, Alfred Angelo is known for treating plus-sized brides fairly. Our consultant (whose name I’ve sadly forgotten) was great with rolling with our silliness and said she liked when she had a fun group.
I tried on another dozen or so dresses, here are a few of the better representations:
Not bad, this first dress was the general chiffon, empire with beading–what I thought I wanted, remember? And it was okay, but didn’t do a whole heck of a lot for me. There was a wrap I’d marked on my favorites list but it looked much different online than in person.
Hello, chest! We were trying to remember the beading pattern.
Something may have been said, here, alluding to a Snow Beast. Maybe.
I felt like a frilly linebacker with the wrap on–how do people wear these?!–but I will give it props for balancing out the top and bottom halves of the picture. Still, we’d brought along my stunt-shrug as an alternative, and moved on.
I think this is my “hmmm, I think I like what I’m seeing, here” face. Or I could be trying not to laugh. It’s a toss-up.
This was probably my favorite dress of the day–and of the 2 appointments, in fact–I just knew it was out of my meager budget. Still, it was the one I kept thinking of even when we got home. I liked the swishy tulle skirt with it’s ribbon and scattered beading (easily duplicated, by the way, if push came to shove), the bodice details and, especially, the straps. It was still sleeveless, though, and I knew I’d be wearing a shrug of some sort for the wedding and I was afraid the straps and lovely details would be overshadowed by the addition of a wrap.
Heaven only knows what I’m doing with my lips, here, or why.
We thought this hi-lo lace dress might be fun–I was thinking something slightly less than formal would be great for the idea I had of the outdoor ceremony. Truth was, the hemline looked odd on me and the beading on the lace was scratchy wherever my arms landed. Next!
But check out the boots. I’m not destined to be a cowboy-boot-wearing bride, but the heel height was about what I wanted to wear on the day-of, so I thought they’d give me a better idea of how things looked. Plus, they were much more comfortable than the shoes I wore for the last appointment!
Not even bling could help this one!
Going from hi-lo to short, this dress did absolutely NOTHING for me. Even when we added the sparkly belt I thought it made me look even more short-waisted than I am. Not the dress for me (though I did think about something in this vein made over to look like dress 2, above).
Contemplating. There were several votes for this one, I just thought it was too formal for the event we were planning.
Back into lace, this time a classic a-line with scalloped sweetheart neckline. I really liked this one a lot, too, making it my second favorite dress overall, but thought, at the time, that it was not quite right for the ceremony and reception we were having–just not right for this event.
Of course, after we booked our venue and it was determined our outdoor ceremony would be on the circular drive and not in the grass, etc., a dress like this became my goal. Like this, but not this, as this one was far outside my available budget. But I’m getting a little ahead of myself.
Shiny satin, pick-ups, massive everything and a ballgown–everything I didn’t want in a dress, but it was still fun.
Hows about some cupcake action, huh? Yes, we did put me into a big poofy confection of a dress that, surprisingly, wasn’t all that bad. It was way too much dress for what I had in mind, but it didn’t look half bad. The girls were unanimous in their opinion of the tiara, though, and Lyssa wondered if we should have at least bought that. The jury’s still out on just what I’ll be wearing in my hair, but I do like the idea of something sparkly up there.
Va-va-va-voom!
After we’d gone through the usual suspects, I pawed through the clearance rack next to the dressing room. Might as well, right? I believe this picture was taken just after I said “Oh, Mr. Road Trip would probably like this one,” and someone (maybe several someones) replied “Of course he would.” Aside from the shiny satin and the bright white, it wasn’t a bad dress. A bit Marilyn, and way more sultry than I wanted, but it was fun to try it on.
When we left to head back to Tallahassee, I had a much better idea of what I was looking for in a dress, but still couldn’t commit until a few more details had been nailed down.
How many dresses did you try on before shaping your ideal dress vision?