Quest for the Dress, Part 1

Fortunately, this search has been long over, but it was such an ordeal for me! (Then again, itsn't it for every bride?!) But after visiting 10 bridal salons (a couple of them more than once) and trying on probably 100 dresses, I thought perhaps others could learn from my whirlwind experience...


It began like it does for most brides. He popped the question, gave me a ring, and I said yes! Next I went and bought an armful of bridal magazines to begin ripping out pages. Even my wonderful sister-in-law-to-be mailed me a large envelope with several mags. In addition, I also scoured The Knot and Brides.com in search of my dream dress.

It didn't take long before I found it, the dress I would choose if I had a budget like the fortunate brides on Platinum Weddings on WeTV. Perhaps many of you have seen this dress; it's been in multiple bridal magazines all spring long. I instantly fell in love with the graceful lace tiers and intricate beaded details. The price tag, on the other hand, was enough to send a fiance into cardiac arrest. I cannot remember where, but I thought I found a site somewhere that listed the cost of the gown as $11,000, though most websites just labeled it as "very expensive" or "5,000 and up." Either way it was unquestionably out of my budget. I was hoping to find a dress for around $1000, but absolutely no more than $2000.


So then what? Find a gown that looked as close to that as possible! Or at least that is what I had hoped to do. I began by finding out what designers and lines the local bridal shops carried. I don't live anywhere near a large metropolis, and the word couture is not exactly part of the local vocabulary. This meant bridal salons in the area didn't typically carry dresses that were out of my budget anyway. So I carefully clicked through those designers' websites in hopes of finding a look-alike. Some of the companies included Casablanca, Venus, Maggie Sottero, Sottero & Midgley, Allure, Jasmine, Alfred Angelo, Mori Lee, Anjolique, Impression, Raylia, and Mia Solano. These companies all had oodles of dresses that were as beautiful as they were affordable. I found a number of other dresses that I liked and wanted to try on, but I found three dresses that I decided I had to try on: style 1900 by Casablanca, style 1018 by Anjolique, and style 2020 by Alfred Angelo (pictured in that order).

The next step was the best, yet most frustrating part, visiting the bridal salons!

To be continued...