Say yes to the dress - a shopping adventure!

I've been dreaming of wearing a beautiful wedding dress since I was a little girl.  I love gowns and the intricate construction and attention that they require. When I took design classes at Parsons, my final design sketching project was a wedding gown (not my dream gown, but a wedding gown nonetheless!):

Sketch by Miss Cauldron

So, it probably comes as no surprise that one of the very first things I did after we got engaged was figure out a weekend for my mom to come up to NYC for a weekend of wedding dress shopping!  My bridesmaids, Chicago J and New York J, also signed up for the fun.  Who wouldn't want to shop for wedding dresses in NYC?!  There are so many great salons to choose from.  I scheduled - count 'em - seven appointments in two days.  What a whirlwind!  On the list were:

Kleinfeld Bridal
Gabriella
Junko Yoshioka
Lovely
Amsale
Vera Wang
Mark Ingram Atelier

I did a lot of research beforehand and I used Pinterest to collect everything in one place - what an easy way to store photos of all the gowns that caught my eye!  I printed out all the photos and sorted them into stacks according to which store had which designers.  We set off for our first day of shopping with printouts in hand, but an open mind about what we'd find.

First stop was Kleinfeld.  Debbie was my consultant (she was suggested to me by a friend the week before, so I called and asked if I could be scheduled with her, and it worked out!)  She was great.  I was a little nervous about trying on gowns, but she reassured me and pulled some amazing dresses!  Kleinfeld doesn't allow photos, but here are just a few of the beautiful gowns I tried on:

Rivini - Dari / Image via Rivini

Anne Barge - Kristen / Image via The White Dress By The Shore

Kenneth Pool - Estelle / Image via Kenneth Pool

Monique Lhuillier - Bellflower / Image via Wedding Clan

As you can see, Debbie did a great job mixing up styles, fabrics, and shapes so I could see what looked best on me.  We left with a couple of favorites in mind, and headed to the next appointment, at Gabriella.

Overall, we weren't as successful at Gabriella as we were at Kleinfeld, but it was still fun, and a totally different type of experience.  Gabriella is in a loft-like space with racks of dresses all around the room, and you select your own gowns to try on.  I tried on a handful of gowns, but not very many of them seemed to suit my style.  We did snap a photo of this Reem Acra, which was unique and had such a flowy feel:

Looking slightly goofy in Reem Acra.

Our last appointment on Friday was at Junko Yoshioka, whose gowns I had fallen in love with online.  We walked into the space, which was the salon as well as the production facility, and we chose from racks of their samples.  We didn't take many photos as we were too dazzled by the prettiness. This one is Valentina:

The color dip on this was amazing!

And this one is Bella:

A little dark, but it was so pretty!

All in all, a productive first day of shopping!  We left with some clear favorites, and looked forward to day two...

Did you love shopping for your gown?  How many bridal salons did you visit?