The Dress that Almost Made it

After my first trip to Madeleine's Daughter, I needed to plan a second trip, to bring my bridesmaids to help me make a big decision. Which dress to choose? I was never able to find a date to get us all up there, so in the end it was myself, Newport Mom, Sister Newport, Newport Aunt K, and three of my bridesmaids.

When we arrived in the store, eight months since my last visit, they no longer had samples for me to try of the two dresses I was deciding between. I was left with only my pictures and memories of how I felt trying them on. Luckily I did have the pictures. One of the two is shown below. I had thought this was the one. It wan't until getting home and staring at the photos of the two dresses, that I knew I made my choice. I loved this dress in person, but after looking at it in photos, I felt the bottom half was a little too flowy and not as flattering as the other. I thought I had made my decision.

Because I had asked my bridesmaids to travel a state away, I asked Kerry, my bridal consultant if I could try on other dresses for fun. She pulled about 10 dresses. I tried on dress after dress feeling confident in my original choice. I tried on a few different styles just to see what they were like, since I was a little more specific with styles in the past. I tried on mermaid, trumpet, and ball gowns.

When I tried on the last dress in the group, I looked at myself in the mirror before going out to see my friends and family. My initial reaction was Newport Mom is going to love this. If any dress sways her decision, this will be it.

As soon as I walked out jaws dropped. Everyone was saying this is "the dress". Newport Mom especially. All of the sudden, I was confused . I went from assurance that I was choosing the right dress to completely clueless. I had been waiting throughout the whole shopping experience for a reaction to a dress like this, but the reaction happend to the wrong dress, not my dress, not THE dress.

When I asked what they liked more about this dress Newport Mom said, "the other dress is so you, it's something expected, but this dress WOWS you.".

I loved the reaction so much, I started to think it was a contender. I did feel beautiful in it, but I never wanted a princess gown. It wasn't lacey, no cap sleeves, no flower details, and definitely not flowy. It was actually overwhelming with material and hard to walk in. Plus it had a train and I was against trains from the beginning.
I stared back and forth between my camera (looking at photos of the dress, the one that I thought was THE dress) and the mirror. I was agonizing. Did I want the dress I loved, or a dress that would get this kind of reaction. I went around and asked everyone's opinion. When I got to bridesmaid E, she said "I do love the princess dress, but I can tell you love the other one more". Although she wouldn't have chose my choice, it was nice to have someone stand up for it. After that, the rest of the comments were similar. My mom had to pull me aside because she knew I was agonizing. She let me know that although she did love this dress, I had to feel confident with my choice. I am indecisive and she knew I'd stress if I chose the wrong dress.

I ended up following my heart and going with the dress I had loved and stared at on my digital camera for the last eight months. I couldn't even talk about dresses for the rest of the day. Bridesmaid M let me know on the way out that she was happy I chose that dress. I think they all realized how much I loved it. I just nodded. I literally was still thinking all day what if I made the wrong choice. They tried to reassure me that they are both beautiful dresses and either one would be a good choice, so I couldn't have chosen wrong.

It wasn't for another two days that I finally felt like I had 100% made the right decision. When I look at the dress I do like it, but I don't love it. I don't stare at it and think, this dress is so me. When I stare at the other one, I think "this is the dress, this is my dress, this dress is so me." And that makes me happy.

So where is THE dress? Well it's a surprise, I'm keeping it to myself, my bridesmaids, Newport Aunt K, and Newport Mom until the wedding. So you'll just have to wait and see!

Did you have a tough time deciding between two dresses? Did you choose something against the opinion of others?