Dress Tips

Our Experience
After setting the date, the site, and the photographer, one of the next steps was to find a dress for me, as we knew that some dresses, once ordered, could take several months to come in -- and we were already down to about six months. While I certainly wanted to find a dress I loved, my wedding dress was not the most important part of the wedding to me and I was determined not to spend an exorbitant amount of money for it. I began the wedding gown search by looking at bridal magazines and checking out dresses on the Internet, to get an idea of what styles were out there (and in my price range). I made some appointments -- you always have to make appointments to try on wedding dresses, whether you like it or not, I quickly discovered -- and read up on ways to get bargain dresses. I considered renting a dress, and I made an appointment with a shop in New York City that specialized in bridal consignment.

Jim and I planned a dress shopping Saturday. I had wanted my mom to look with me too (or perhaps instead of Jim) but we couldn't coordinate our schedules, and I was too impatient -- plus, I wanted to be absoutely sure that Jim would like the dress.

First, we hit the secret Saturday bargain shops in Manhattan's garment district -- I found one dress that I liked quite a lot, but the rest were not very exciting, and the sales people were generally frightening. Then we went to New Jersey and visited some bridal warehouses, which we found disappointing.

Finally, we went to the Jessica McClintock store in Paramus. And there, in the window display, was my dress. It was ivory, off-the-shoulder, silk shantung dress with a full length skirt that had a small train. The bodice had some lace and beading. I still consider it relatively plain, because the train and the skirt were simple. I'd say that it was fairly traditional -- the low cut in front made it not so suitable for a formal church wedding but the length and style of it made it seem fairly formal to me. What I loved about it was the way the fabric seemed to glow -- it just was so beautiful. And when I put it on, I just felt like it was the dress.

When I was standing on the little pedestal in front of the mirror, looking at the dress, two women began critiquing it. They said I looked gorgeous in it -- "but you do realize that that's ivory, don't you, not white?"..."Okay, just wanted to make sure, because some people want white."..."Exactly how old are you?" ..."Oh, I don't even want to think about how old I am -- and I'm not even married yet!" ... "Who is this that you have with you? That's not the groom, is it?" ... "Oh, my god,you're not supposed to see her in the dress!!" ... "I think it's beautiful. Do you feel beautiful?" ... "Then that's it -- you should get it."

I tried on several others, but there was no comparison -- I had found the dress, and in record time. After discussing it with Jim and the salesperson, we ordered it. We then went to one of the mall's restaurants for a celebratory dinner, toting along all the Jessica McClintock catalogs we'd picked up. Our waitress saw us looking at the catalogs, and got very excited when we told her we were getting married. She then plopped herself down next to me and pored over the catalog with me, oohing and aahing over the dresses and telling me she thought I'd made a very good choice.

The dress arrived in about three weeks -- so my only worries after that were where to get it altered (Jessica McClintock doesn't do alterations) and how to store it (not to mention accessories)...

Dress Tips

• Consider borrowing someone else's gown, buying a gown from a consignment shop, or renting a wedding gown.
• If you are set on buying a new dress, shop for deals at a discount bridal shop, use Discount Bridal Service (DBS), or find reasonably priced designers.
• Wherever you get your dress, be sure to check on their alterations policy before you buy -- major alterations can be very costly, so try to get all the alterations included in the cost of the dress.