THE ONE!

So now that I've complained that the dress may be to big, I should tell you how it came to be the one.

As you know, I've looked at tons of dresses. I had been to outlets, bridal shops, big box bridal stores, and everything in between. I had tried on close to 40 dresses without "loving" any of them.

The dress was found after another failure at a bridal boutique. I had met my friend at a shop about two hours away from my house that had been recommended to me. We did not find anything in my price range, despite being assured over the phone that I wouldn't have a shortage of selection.

They did not show me one dress that was within my budget. In fact, when my friend Mrs. S left the room, the consultant actually asked me if I was sure that my friends didn't want to help me pay for the dress. Mind you, she had just shown me a dress that, after I tried it on, she admitted was $1,000; that's $600 over my top budget.

Defeated, we went to lunch. Fortified by food, and wishing for wine, my friend suggested that we check out Gesinee's Bridal Salon, in Concord, CA, where she had bought her dress several years ago. She had a wonderful experience there. I decided it was worth a shot, and am I glad I made that decision!

I walked in and told the woman at reception, "I am the bride you hate. I am here, with no appointment, on a Saturday afternoon, when you are clearly slammed with brides. The good news is that I only want to look at your sample dresses, and I don't need much help." She took it in stride, promptly pulled Irene from Alterations to help and pointed me in the direction of their samples. By the time Irene got to us (less than 5 mins later!), we had pulled 12 dresses. She encouraged us to pull as many as we wanted from the large selection. She also pulled a couple naughty dresses (full price) that were at least close to my budget. We then went to town trying them on!

Fifteen dresses later, I had three that I totally loved! Dress number one was one of the full price dresses, dress number two needed about $300 in alterations because it was at least two sizes to big, and dress number three fit me perfectly and was within my budget. Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winner!

Gesinee's was not only able to accommodate me as a walk in, they had the largest selection of clean, undamaged, dresses that I had seen. There were no tears, make-up stains, or shoe marks on any of the dresses I tried on. The only thing I needed done to my dress was to have the bustle put in.

It isn't what I expected to fall in love with, but it is me!