Deciding on the Dress, Part 1

(Beware: Wedding gown overload up ahead!)

Very early on in our engagement, like many others before me, I started (compulsively) looking at pictures of dresses online. On a weekly coffee date with a friend, we decided to pop over to the bridal salon across the street. On a whim, I tried on my very first wedding gown. I was not expecting to like it, and to be honest, I didn't love it on the hanger, but when I put it on, we both had chills! I knew the dress wasn't exactly what I was looking for, but it is a wonderful dress! The gown was Maggie Sottero Ireland:

(source)

Now that I had tried on a dress, I knew that this was the style that I wanted. My mom made an appointment for us at Kleinfeld's in Manhattan, and I spent weeks pouring over the vast archives on the their website nearly daily, picking out pictures and printing them out to bring with me. I arrived at Kleinfeld's with the following six pictures, the wrong bra and a bag full of nerves!

(Find these dresses and more at Kleinfeld's website!)

It would seem that I had a pretty clear style that I was looking for, right? Armed with these pictures, my wonderful sales associate brought out what seemed like a hundred dresses, some that matched my pictures, and some that were totally different. In one afternoon, I tried on about eight or ten gowns, and I found my dress. However, we didn't buy it that afternoon.

Did I go with what I thought I would get, or did I surprise us all by going with something totally different? You'll have to stay tuned to find out what dress I got, and the shenanigans that surrounded that second visit! Also, if you're thinking about going to Kleinfeld's for your dress, my review of my experience there is coming up as well.