Tom and Amy's Wedding

Reri and I spent a good part of Saturday dress shopping. We started at Bride & Joy which had a nice selection of Maggie Sottero gowns. I tried Felicity on again (the second dress from Bella Mia) and still loved it, and also found Dion. We decided Dion was more elegant as it has some heavy lines of beading across the top of the dress and down the back into the train, with lighter beading on the bodice and in the panel on the left side of the gown, and is a little more slimming in that there's a vertical line from waist to hem instead of a diagonal line. Felicity was more romantic in that it has floral embroidery and less embroidery on the train. Dion also has a more dramatic back and train, which of course sold Reri!

Reri tried on several bridesmaid dresses, and she likes the one all the maids have voted on so far. They only had it in the full length dress, so it was narrower than it would be at knee length, but in the right colors. And the dress should be in the right price range! I'll talk to the maids separately and we'll decide...

After lunch we went to the Wedding Gown SuperStore in Fremont. That place is a zoo - I'm really glad I'd been to some real wedding shops first, since this is pretty-much DIY. Scout 3 dresses from the racks, try them on by yourself (thank god for Reri, who practiced her corset lacing), and check yourself out in the mirror. No help from the staff unless you're ready to order or buy off the rack. This meant I reached through the top of the dress to find the right layer, then stick my arms up through the dress and basically threw it over my head and on. There was one funny moment when I hadn't completely unhooked the back and got stuck with my arms over my head - Reri had to unhook me to get out as we laughed and laughed.

I found a dress similar to others I'd been looking at, but softer with an organza overlay. The one I tried on was too small and had buttons in the back, but I really loved how it looked. I wished it was a corset back though! I did a little digging and I found this dress which is really similar - and has the corset back, and is inexpensive, and the spaghetti straps are completely pointless, therefore removeable... hmmmmm..... I can order online or there's a shop in Santa Rosa that carries this line, but I don't know if they'd have this dress, and I want to try it on first. So obviously I haven't found the dress just yet, but I'm getting much pickier so this is a good development.