1

Oct

2012

Diary of a Boho Bride – Rachel and Philip, Entry 3: The Dress

Today we are talking wedding dresses with Boho Bride Rachel. Last time we met with Rachel she was telling us all about the great venue hunt and how she had found her dream venue after seeing it featured on one of my real weddings here on the Blog. Today Rachel is taking us through the process of finding her dream wedding dress.

For some brides finding the dress is simple, they know exactly what they want, what suites them and quite often buy the first dress they try on. Others are very different,  trying on a whole number of dresses, all different styles until they stumble across their chosen dress.
Personally I bought the first dress I tried on, which is quite unlike me as I am normally pretty indecisive!

I’d love to hear your stories! Have you bought your dress? Was it an easy experience? Or was it hard? Did you enjoy it? Are you still looking? Did you find too much choice, or maybe not enough?

 

I’ll pass the Blog over to Rachel so she can tell you all about her dress experience………….

boho bride

(Photo Credit www.tuxandtalesphoto.co.uk)

As a small-chested lady with a bony collarbone, the only thing I knew when I started looking for my wedding dress was that I didn’t want it to be strapless. After lots of rummaging through wedding magazines, blogs and designers’ websites, I had managed to work out that I didn’t want it to be shiny and I found large quantities of tulle quite an exciting prospect. So I was not the most focussed bride-to-be when I went to my first bridal boutique – the Lace Market Bridal Boutique in Nottingham.

I knew from the website that the dresses were beautiful and had a real sense of the unique about them, which was a good enough starting point for me. The hour and a half I spent there with my mum and sister was brilliant – Laura the manager was a delight, and guided me through the fabulous collection with a great deal of friendliness and insight. It quickly became apparent that the floaty, romantic, Grecian-style dresses that I initially gravitated toward weren’t for me, and with the arrival of designer Kula Tsurdiu, we eventually landed on a couple of styles which were completely knock your socks off. Although I didn’t end up choosing my dress from the Lace Market Bridal Boutique, it was a close thing and I would very strongly recommend them to other brides. It was such fun to speak to the designer and hear her ideas about how she could take a design and alter it to fit your dream dress ideas.

boho bride

I had seen a Benjamin Roberts dress online that I really loved the look of – not least because it combined my tulle obsession with sleeves, and spent quite a while hunting it down in Nottingham. I went with one of my bridesmaids to a boutique in the city centre, where I had the chance to try it on, along with some more traditional wedding dresses. I really loved it, and it had the added bonus of being well within budget, but I wanted to wait until I’d been to a couple more appointments I had lined up before committing.

boho bride

 

My next appointment was at Elizabeth Avey in London with my sister, when I had the opportunity to try on some genuine vintage dresses. I was lucky enough to fit into most of the dresses that caught my eye, which of course is one of the challenges of vintage! There was one which looked incredible but was about the right size for my thigh. Unfortunately, it isn’t just my thigh getting married, so that one was a lost cause, but I was able to try on lots of amazing dresses. One of them made me feel quite emotional, and again, I left feeling like I may have found ‘the one’ (the Benjamin Roberts dress was suddenly left in the shade). Once more, I’d had an absolutely exemplary experience at a wonderful boutique, and I would definitely suggest that any budding vintage brides try out Elizabeth Avey. The love and care that is felt about each dress is apparent and it’s just lovely.

boho bride

 

There was one more appointment left in my diary, but I’m not going to tell you where I toddled off to next because I don’t want to give anything away! Suffice to say, the lovely sales assistant listened to what I had to say about what I’d liked so far and produced a dress that moved us to tears as soon as I looked in the mirror and that was that. It had to be that dress. It blew the budget somewhat, I have to admit (okay… it cost a little over double what I’d budgeted for a wedding dress, let’s be honest), but with careful budgetary tweaks in other areas (okay… the complete annihilation of the budget for transporting our guests between ceremony and reception), my wonderful boy gave me the green light and I ordered my dream dress. I may not have known it was my dream dress before I met it, but I’m certainly spending a lot of time daydreaming about it now! I can’t wait to wear it.

boho bride - wedding dress

(Photo credits 1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

I had an overwhelmingly positive experience of wedding dress shopping (the low point was being told on the phone by someone that ‘ladies don’t normally buy without mum there, dear’ when I explained I would visit with a bridesmaid – well, this lady did – my mum won’t see it until January!), and I couldn’t be happier with the beautiful gown I’m going to wear on my wedding day.

Rachel x

 

Thanks so much to Rachel for sharing her wedding dress story with us all. Rachel has told me where her dress is from, and I am incredibly excited for her! Remember to tell us about your wedding dress shopping experience! Rachel will be back in a few weeks time to share with us more of her wedding planning journey.

 

 

♥  You can read more Diary of a Boho Bride entries HERE  ♥

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Comments

    Laura C

    I have a large feeling I know where you went – but very exciting! Sounds like you had a fab time trying on gowns :)

    Reply
    Jill Hanby

    Oh I love hearing when someone ‘knew it was the one’ – even if in some cases there seemed to be lots of dresses like that!

    The shops are amazing with all their pretty – I struggled to find my dress, with everyone I tried on having the same reaction; “its so pretty, but its not really me. I like the top but not the skirt”.

    Even though I didnt easily find my dress, I dont see why us girls don’t go and try on wedding dresses every so often, what better way to boost your confidence and feel amazing!!!

    Can’t wait to see your dress Rachel, all the photos here are gorgeous… if quite different!!

    Reply
    Rachel

    Laura – I wondered if people might be able to work it out. Ha!

    Jill – it is such a wonderful feeling trying them on, isn’t it?!

    Reply
    boho

    I have to say I ‘knew’ as soon as i tried my dress on so I bought it there and then. i do feel like I may have missed out on the whole trying loads of dresses on in different shops, but I know i saved myself a whole load of stress!

    Reply

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