My Wedding Dress Shopping Experience

In honor of FINALLY picking up my wedding dress from the store last weekend, I’m sharing about my wedding dress shopping experience and (almost) all of the wedding gowns I tried on today!

I was one of those people who knew exactly what wedding dress they wanted. For me, that was Jenny by Jenny Yoo Lawrence Gown. Since Anthropologie carried that dress, I booked an appointment online to try it on. (If you’re looking, this was the North Hills location which has a BHDLN corner in the store). Tragically, the dress was not everything I dreamed of… it was good but not great?!

I tried on a few more dresses but BHDL carries such a limited number of dress styles, there wasn’t anything else I liked. My mom and sister convinced me to go to another bridal shop, New York Bride & Groom of Raleigh, which we went together last year actually when my older sister was planning her wedding. It was late afternoon, and I was worn out by BHDLN appointment already but I begrudgingly went… and thank god I did!!!

I can’t really make a comparison since I ended up going to only two places to try wedding dresses but New York Bride & Groom really delivered a relaxing and fun experience! They do not take reservations so you can decide to go last minute like I did and you’ll still have a dedicated room for you (which BHDLN doesn’t… they have an area on the way into the dressing room so not a very intimate experience. You also go into one of the dressing rooms to change into the dress and I felt like I was in people’s way constantly).

One of the staff will stay with you throughout the entire time, which we found really helpful. They have a ton of dresses for you to try on so if you’re undecided on the style or if you were set on one dress like me and it doesn’t end up being the one, you have plenty of options to consider. I wanted something A-line and with straps but besides that, I went in with an open mind (especially since the one I had my heart set on didn’t work lol).

I tried on this sparkly dress with off-the-shoulder sleeve dress (pictures do not do this dress justice!!!!):

My mom commented that the dresses I was trying on were too plain and I had to explain it was simple, not plain! It turns out my mom’s definition of simple and my (and the dictionary) definition of simple are quite different because she picked out below dress for me to try on because this was “simple” lol.

I did pick out a simple dress at the end, which I will share after the wedding day! I’ve shown it to a few people in person but I’m doing my best to keep some things a surprise for the big day (which is coming up so soon ahhhh)… Until next time, friends!