Wedding dress nightmare

"It was the best day ever!"
"I'll never forget the moment I laid eyes on my dress!"
"My mother and grandmother cried when I came out of the dressing room."
"It made me feel like a princess."

...those are definitely not thoughts that will ever come out of my mouth when referring to the day I went wedding dress shopping. While most of the wedding plans have been coming along quite smoothly, I will have to say that wedding dress shopping was one of the worst shopping experiences I've ever had. Did I mention that my mother came along?

First of all, I had expectations--not even high ones--and I should have had none. I guess I expected that I wouldn't hear my mother say "If only you were five pounds lighter" when I was standing in front of a room full of people in an uncomfortable gown, but I was wrong. To add to my nightmare, the dress I did love cost close to $1,000, which I think is a ridiculous amount of money to invest in an article of clothing that isn't supposed to prevent bullets from penetrating your skin.

So, the dress I did finally settle on looked absolutely gorgeous on me. Everyone's face lit up when I walked out of the dressing room. It just wasn't what I had pictured and it has taken me about three months to finally warm up to my decision. But now I love it. I love the birdcage veil even more, though. It was the fifth or sixth dress I tried on that day and I was already breaking out in hives just having to stand up in front of a room full of people when I tried on the dresses. Since everyone agreed it looked great, it fit my price range, and I wanted to put my normal bra back on, I quickly made my decision and got out of there as quickly as I could.

The whole dress fiasco took less than two hours. I guess I could have been humiliated, but if you knew my mother--I mean really knew her, like only close family really know her--you wouldn't expect anything less. The only thing equally as awful that day was having the sales girl describe the history of a veil and how a husband 'unwraps' his bride, his gift. Too late, I wanted to tell her and giggled instead. It's all going to be worth it, though, when I see his beautiful face and gorgeous smile as he sees me for the first time in my wedding dress.