You said yes to him, now it is time to say yes to the dress!

While growing up most girls dream about their wedding day, and more importantly their wedding dress. When they finally meet the man of their dreams, or just a man in general, it is time to live out those plans. Of course your opinions and styles have probably changed since Ken and Barbie had their white wedding with a pink Corvette. So you set out on a journey to find that perfect dress with friends and family in tote. Armed with pictures and ideas of the ideal gown, you enter that wonderful wilderness of white!

Ball Gowns, A-Line, Mermaid, Empire or Column, so many choices out there. I have to admit that my job as a bridal consultant is heaven on earth for me. But there are those occasional moments in any job that make you take a step back and wonder why. Wedding dresses are usually made in China and the sizes are measured by their standards. What is a typical 12 in our country is a whale of a female to them. Which honestly is a shame, you think designers would do it the other way around. On Saturday it is really busy at the shop, brides, prom dresses, bridesmaids and banquet dresses are flying all around the shop. A bride enters with her Aunt and Uncle and I am her consultant. Some brides have never tried on dresses before and need to be walked through cuts and styles and every little detail that pertains to a wedding dress. Then you get the ones, like mine, who have tried on dresses a lot. They know what they want and know where to find it.

I hunt down my brides amongst all the plastic dresses bags in the "2" section. She hands me enough dresses to make a couple of trips to her dressing room. And finally I slip her into the room and allow her Aunt to help her get the gowns on. The door opens and she comes out in a $650 dollar dress. It looks amazing on her and we place her on the stage surrounded in mirrors. Now a few minutes into staring at herself her Aunt pipes up and asks the price of the lace covered mermaid dress. I inform her of this price and see her mouth hit the floor. Come one, wedding dresses are expensive, come to terms with that lady! The beads are hand sown, the lace is hand sown on and buttons and pearls take hours to get just right. So she hurries her niece into the dressing room again and closes the door. After a rather long wait I knock on the door to make sure everything is alright with my bride. The door swings open and the, oh so honest Aunt asks in a very stern voice. "We are on a very strict budget right now, and none of these dresses have prices on them."

Well we go over some dresses and I point out to her the reasons for the prices on the dresses. I also ask her what her budget might be for this dress, "$300 to $400 dollars, and no higher. But we don't want something too plain." Well I hated to break it to her that the price range she was in, plain and simple was the only way to go. I break out my handy little wedding magazine and show her some of the cheaper dresses. After I fetch the two dresses for her that were of somewhat "O.K." quality she throws them on. They take two looks in the mirror, get back into the dressing room and the brides gets her clothes back on. The Aunt throws open the door, "Your dresses are ugly and too expensive!" and stomps out the door. All the while dragging her niece by the arm as if she were some rag doll that just happen to follow her around. These are the occasions that make my job a little bit on the difficult side. :)

Oh well, my job is amazing and I love it more than anything. But it is a little bit stressful from time to time!