Another day, another bridal shop

So I'm done with bridal shops. Maggie and I were bombarded by the same question ("When's your wedding?") about 7 times from 3 women today at Special Event Bridal Shop and when we said "September 1st," their only, repetitive comment was "Ohhh... that's soon!" People (my sister-in-law and my stepmom) have MUCH shorter engagements than even 5 months (which is what we're down to now), so I don't want to hear "Ohhh... that's soon!" from anyone. I'll pick out my dress in my own time, thank you very much, without the comments from the peanut gallery.

The shop, even though we had an appointment, was rushed and all I felt in the air was commerce. The owner wasn't all that friendly and only when we put our coats on to get out of Dodge did one of the women ask what we were looking for and pulled out a possibility from a rack (read: wall) of dresses that I hadn't seen. Where was she 20 minutes earlier? Anyway, I tried on the dress, which had a very nice element to it, but kept comparing things to the dress I saw (and have since "improved" in my own mind) at Maggie Flood's a few weeks ago. So it's back to them to see if I can alter the design to be "my perfect gown" and get the color swatches for the bridesmaids' dresses.

Maggie and I are off to David's tomorrow (we have an appointment set from our first visit there) to see if we can find dresses (or at least colors) for Liz and Leigha. Then, hopefully, they can pick out their own favorite styles in their local David's and voila! We'll have some bridesmaids' dresses. Maggie and I will get ours at Maggie Flood, I think.

The hierarchy of service at the three shops I went to:

1. Maggie Flood (they were WONDERFUL)
   
2. David's (believe it or not, the service we got there was pretty damn good)
   
3. Special Event (ah... not so much)

Things we're waiting for

-- Proposal from Tastings Caterer
-- Proposal from Currier & Chives Caterer
-- Color swatches for bridesmaids' dresses from Maggie Flood (we're not locked in yet, I just wanted to get this started so we can decide where to get the bridesmaids' dresses)

When we get the caterer proposals and decide on which one to go with, I'll know if we need a florist or not (C&C has their own, which I'd be happy to work with). If we go with Tastings, I'm really thinking Joan at the Inn would be a great florist, but I'd want to see her pictures again -- she has a few good albums.

And when we get the bridesmaids' dresses settled, I can take the color we decide on and work on things like the placecard holders (I'm making the frames for them and then those frames will be favors, too), napkin weights (we're incorporating our backyard into this -- for those of you who've seen our backyard...), invitations (which we'll be making).

More dress shopping

David's was never going to be the end-all, be-all for the dress shopping. It is, however, a good place to look at several types of styles and materials and try things on so I know what types of dresses look good on me and what doesn't.

In that vein, Maggie and I are going tomorrow to look at Special Event Bridal Shoppe in Marlborough to see what they have. We have a 4:30 appointment. The hunt continues for both the wedding gown and the bridal party's dresses.

The girls -- quite a team!

We had our first bridal party call and here it is.

We discuss things for Alice to do (Paul's daughter) during the ceremony and reception, wedding gown style, desired venue quality, length of the party, date for the bridal shower (since it's going to be in PA, Maggie and I need to make a planned road trip so it won't be a surprise), colors for the wedding and the dresses, procedure for getting Liz and Leigha their dresses, shoes for the bridal party, bridal gown train lengths, cost-cutting measures for my ladies, undergarments for the wedding gown, next steps.

In editing the podcast, I realize I sort of overtook the convo... Sorry, ladies! I'll do better next time... I don't wanna be Bridezilla. ;-) The little kid voice you hear towards the end is Joe, who was eating lunch at the time of the call.