A quick tour of my good friend DropBox the other day reminded me that I have loads of pictures of me in wedding dresses that I haven't shared with anyone. Aside from the fact that the dresses are just so beautiful and I need other eyeballs to witness them, I'm hoping that you all can get a sense of how a seamless bridal appointment can lead you to selecting your wedding dress. Choosing a dress can be kind of daunting, but with the right preparation, close friends, and stylist, it can come together easily. Here's a little disclaimer: I don't remember who most of these dresses are by. However, my stylist at Kleinfeld, Ellie, definitely will, so if you're going there, bring in the picture and she'll hook you up.

When Ellie and I chatted about what I wanted, I told her that my main criteria was long sleeves. Aside from that, I didn't have a crystal clear vision. With that in mind, we began trying on...

Okay so I know this dress is by Rivini. It's exceptional, it just didn't feel like me. A little too, country or something? On to the next...

This dress was a legit contender for me. I never would have picked something like this out for myself, but I just felt so good in it!

Hashtag she's feeling herself. Ultimately, though, it felt too specific. Winter fairy queen. I loved it, I loved how I felt, but we needed to move on.

Such a cool dress...just not for me. Tits on toast though, no?

At this point, Ellie and I pow-wowed. We were moving in the wrong direction. I hate the word glam, but we needed to move away from country lace and move towards something a little more sleek. Does that make sense? Ellie, magical goddess that she is, hooked me up.

Right?

This dress is unreal! The reason we didn't chose it, though, was because of the beading; the dress had crystals, and was just a bit too fancy.

The top of this dress is everything. Perfect. The skirt was a little unflattering, so again, we moved on...to my wedding dress. Which I can't show you. But, before I pulled the trigger on it, we tried on one more for comparison.

She's so pretty. But as my sister in law said, "The other dress gave you sparkly eyes."

So I put it back on and pranced around and giggled and that was that.

If I can give you one piece of advice about selecting your dress, it's that you should go in guns blazing, ready to make a decision. I could have spent the entire day trying on dresses at Kleinfeld and then gone home empty-handed (and then have appointments with every other bridal boutique I could get my hands on). The process could have gone on for months. I decided before my appointment, though, that I would find my dress that day, and I think I made my life easier in doing so.

Let's summarize.

1. Go in with purpose.

2. Bring honest loved ones (Thank you Mommy, Meg, Gill and Emily!).

3. Trust your stylist.

Hope this is helpful / at the very least you enjoyed looking at pictures of me looking at myself in the mirror!

xoxo,

all photos by my friend Emily Karpin!