It seems I'm doing a fantastic job of staying distracted from work these days, between moving (oh so slowly) up to Seal Beach, wedding planning, and other little details in life. This weekend, however, was a BLAST going out shopping for dresses!
I went with a new friend of mine that I met through Meetup.com (it's a great social website, especially if you're new to an area or trying to extend your social circle), and we stopped in for lunch first at Pomodoro's. I'd done some research on Here Comes The Guide, and found 9 salons in Orange County that looked interesting and were recommended on The Guide. So, I picked 2 that were near each other, we met up for lunch (if you haven't tried Pomodoro's, you should - it was right next to Panera, which was our original plan, but I was feeling a little more adventurous than just going to an old stand-by), and then went shopping!
Our first stop was Ferndale's. Of course, we had a little trouble finding the salon, as this area distinguishes between North and South Tustin Ave, so we were doing circles on the north side trying in vain to find an address that didn't exist. When we finally arrived in their lot, we parked and walked right in through their back door... I would have expected it to be harder to make that mistake than it was. We were met by several confused staffers in the middle of their lunch, none of them looking too pleased to see us, and none really volunteering to help point us in the right direction. Overall, I wasn't terribly impressed with the shop and service - even David's Bridal had more helpful staff, and I would expect a dedicated salon to rank higher than a budget-friendly chain.
Once we'd finally found the correct entry and checked in, we grabbed a few dresses (with unexpectedly little help or direction from our consultant) and headed back to try them on. We worked through several dresses that I liked, but none that were just to die for. The beginning of the appointment went well, but once another appointment arrived, the space got very crowded, very quickly. They only had one room with mirrors, with 3 pedestals and one couch, so any overlapping appointments they had shared the same space. The woman who came in toward the end of my appointment was accompanied by about 6 people, so it became very difficult to have any discussions with my friend or even the consultant. So, we wrapped up pretty quickly and moved on to the next place. In the end, I had 3 'favorites' recorded in their log, but only one I think I'd go back to look at again (I'd rather see if another shop carried the same designer/gown, honestly).
So on to the next salon - Mary Me Bridal! This one I was very excited about visiting, as they had TONS of great pictures of amazing gowns on their site online. We made a short stop at Starbucks first since the first appointment had ended earlier than anticipated, and enjoyed about a half hour to chat about life and dresses before moving on.
When we walked in, the salon was more like I'd expect to see - beautiful cabinets filled with dresses and glittery accessories, and a friendly face behind the desk. After checking in, we were invited to go ahead and look around while they called up our consultant. This woman was absolutely fantastic. She listened to what I was looking for, pulled dresses fitting right within my budget, and was a great help in recommending dresses that pushed the envelope or tried something a little different (which I'd asked for). Whereas the last salon I only tried on about 4 or 5 dresses, we started here with at least 8 and continued on from there. Our consultant was great at helping guide our thoughts and decisions (I have a hard time eliminating dresses because I really do like most that I see), and we worked through some fantastic gowns. She was great at pulling a few accessories and such that helped visualize additions and alterations I want to have done, and really made the whole experience top notch. I left that salon with 4 great dresses I'll be going back to look at again.
So in the end, I have 5 dresses I really like, and I honestly don't feel like I need to look for any more. They essentially fall into 3 basic style categories, with three of the five being very similar in style yet distinct in execution. I'm looking forward to having my mom come out (and hopefully Ant's mom, my bridesmaids, and maybe my grandmas?) to go look at all the dresses again and make a final decision. No beating around the bush... just make a decision and run with it! Looking at dresses and feeling like I've found mine (even if it's somewhere in a list of 5 still), is making this whole getting married thing feel so much more real, and it's exciting!
