The search for the perfect dress- Part 2 and 3

so I have been seriously slacking lately and I apologize, but good news I have a few posts on the way.

First let's start with the continuation of this post on the search for my wedding dress.  Again because both Nick and I have agreed he won't be seeing me in my wedding dress until the wedding I have decided to keep any photos of dresses out of the post even if it isn't THE dress or I'm not in it.  So sorry for the boring lack of photos post (promise the next few posts will be full of pictures).

On to the story:
Halloween weekend my mom, sister, dad, and niece as well as Nick's parents made the trip to St. Louis.  We had a weekend full of wedding fun planned.  Everyone arrived late Friday evening so we could all be up early for shopping on Saturday.  We met at Nick's house early for a good breakfast and then the girls were off to go dress shopping while my dad took my niece to "Boo at the Zoo" and Nick and his dad ran errands.

We arrived at our first stop just as the opened for the day so it was pretty quite.  This store, which shall remain nameless, was a giant BUST!  My consultant had no personality and really just wasn't getting the idea.  I tried on several dresses but didn't even really like any of them let alone were they even close to what I wanted.  I think we were there for less than an hour before we decided it just wasn't happening.  It was still a little too early for lunch so we drove by the church where the ceremony will be.  Unfortunately it was locked but everyone got to see the pretty outside.  Then we enjoyed a lovely lunch at Dewey's, one of my favorite St. Louis restaurants.   After lunch we still had a little bit of time before my next appointment so we stopped by the potential reception site.  The room was in mid set up for what appeared to be another wedding so it was nice to get an idea of how the room could look.  (NOTE: We are still waiting on a few pieces of paperwork from them before it is official and then I will make that big announcement).

Then it was time for my next appointment at Clarice's.  I could tell almost immediately that this store would be better than the last.  The girls were much more friendly and Kelly my consultant got what I wanted immediately.  This store also had the dress that I thought could have been the dress when I went shopping in Ohio so I was excited to try it on again.  Before I showed that dress of to my mom and Nick's mom I wanted to try on some other options as to not cloud anyone's judgment.  The first dress Kelly had me try on was awesome all of the sudden I was all sorts of confused but I wasn't worried because I figured once I tried on the original dress it would all be clear.  So we tried on a few other dresses, some of which I didn't even leave the dressing room in.  I had gotten pretty good at predicting not only what I would like but also what I thought my crew would say about them :).  So then I tried on the original dress and sadly I was still very confused.  Everyone really liked this dress and now we were all a bit torn between this dress and the first dress.  They were very similar dresses, slightly different neckline, embellishments and fabric, but otherwise very similar.  There were things about each dress that I liked and I just couldn't decided.  So I decided to sleep on it.  I left the store thinking I had made up my mind but then every few hours my mind would change.  I think it changed at least 10 times over the weekend.

So Monday morning I decided something had to be done.  I was going to find a 3rd store that carried both dresses, go by myself and try them on and see if that helped.  So Tuesday after work I went to a little dress shop close to my schools.  I walked in the store and was greeted by a little old woman, who had to have been at least 90.  She was very sweet and I told her I wanted to try on 2 dresses and I knew which 2. She told me that Betty was helping someone else but could help me as soon as she was finished.  So I sat a few minutes and waited.  Then out of the dressing room comes another bride in dress #1.  Betty asked me what I was looking for and I said "Well the one she has on and 'The Hunter'. (For some strange reason wedding dresses have names and dress #2's name is "Hunter")  This other girl also had "The Hunter" in the dressing room to try on, but both Betty and the other girl very graciously worked with me while she continued to try on dresses as well.  I wasn't sure how I felt about seeing the dresses on someone else and was worried it would cloud my judgment even more.  After the other girl took off Dress #1 Betty helped me put it on.  It felt just as amazing as it had the first time I tried it on and as I expected without any other voices it was much easier to follow my gut and make my decision.  I still tried on dress #2 just to be sure but in the end I decided the Ohio dress, first dress I fell in love with was the one!

It took me about a week to get my measurements straight but yesterday the dress was officially ordered!  Now I just have to wait 8 months for it to come in so I can put it on again.