Finding the dress - the process and emotions...

I know I said at the beginning of the blog that I wouldn't post anything about the dress, but I decided to write about the experience and the emotions instead. No photos of my actual dress or style will be shown in this post, saving the dress for FH on the big day.

Credit to huffingtonpost.ca

As seen in the photo above, wedding dress shopping is a pretty emotional time. Because I'm from New Zealand and living in Sydney, I don't have a whole entourage of family members over here with me, which in hindsight is probably a really good thing. I took my Maid of Honour (MOH) with me to multiple bridal shops and are really appreciative of her efforts to help me find a wedding dress.

Credit to Dorota Dybala Photography

I started tearing out images from wedding magazines and storing them in my wedding folder (a very handy folder to have which keeps everything together). Googling dresses on the internet and following the latest trends on the Australian website The Knot helped give me ideas for what I would like to wear on my big day. Here's a good link to what to look for when starting your wedding dress search.

In August, I was on a night out with a couple of friends and they were asking me when I was going to go dress shopping and I kept giving them the excuse that I had too much weight on to what I wanted to be at and thought that that might influence the type of dress that I wanted to try on. They convinced me that it didn't matter and dropped the funny line of 'now that you've got the ring, you've got the permission to put your foot in the door of the bridal shop... go for it'. I thought that was rather hilarious and thought nothing much of it for the rest of the evening. 

Inside a random bridal store

A couple of weeks later, I spoke to my MOH about whether she was free to come looking at dresses with me and we worked out a date (we are both shift workers) and I made my first appointment at Dressense in Miranda. We went and watched Bridesmaids, the movie first and then headed along to the Bridal store. I wasn't sure what to do when I first walked into the shop, I felt excited but scared at the same time, my MOH took the lead and started helping me to look through the many dresses in the store. 

The broken ankle (my photo)

I tried on a few dresses in styles that I liked  It was rather confronting, standing in a change room with the shop assistant, with only knickers on and everything hanging out and she's putting a dress over your head. I eventually got over the shock of the nakedness and got into the process of getting into the dress - a mission at times. We found some lovely dresses, which gave me an idea of what to look for. I got a phone call during this time from FH who was in the Emergency Department. He'd fallen off the rocks while doing outdoor rock climbing and broken his ankle, which needed an operation. So its a running joke from then on when I went to try dresses on that he promised he wouldn't hurt himself while I was away.


On the next expedition we visited Hugs for Brides in Rockdale. I found a dress that was 99.9% perfect and the shop assistant decked me out in a cathedral veil, tiara, earrings and necklace and it was like... wow I'm actually going to be a real bride. We visited a few more stores that day in Miranda with some sales assistants being really helpful and lovely and one acting as if she didn't really care and only had to be there because she was being paid. We decided to finish the day after that one.

Credit to Wedding Bells Blog

I visited one shop by myself in September because my MOH wasn't available and the dress again was 99.9% right, I couldn't work out what was wrong with it... the beading, the colour.. I wasn't quite sure but couldn't put my finger on it. I actually felt bad going without my MOH, so I waited till she was available for the next time. 


This time we visited Sweethearts Bridal, in Blacktown after a recommendation from a friend. It's a lovely bridal store and the other assistants seemed lovely. But I wasn't impressed with the lady that was looking after us. It appeared as if we weren't good enough and she argued with me on most of my comments on the dresses (they weren't bad comments either) and ended up lacing me up way too tight and roughly and at the end of it my kidneys were killing me and I whispered to my MOH ... asking if we could leave..... 

My photo

On the way home, we drove through Wetherill Park and spotted some nice looking stores. We pulled over and went to look at Bridal Vision. I was so happy the moment we walked in. The dresses were displayed on mannequins around the shop and we were able to walk around them and pick the ones out that I wanted to try on, as seen in the photo on the left, don't worry I cropped my dress out of it. 


I tried on the dresses and fell in love with one of them. I walked out of the changing room and the assistant went 'oh' so I quickly hopped on the stand and had a look in the mirror. It was so perfect! I felt a few tears coming on and was so happy at the same time as I'd found the ONE! My MOH shed a few happy tears as well. It was just perfect. I worked out what was wrong with the other dresses I'd tried on as well. They were all the wrong colour. So I paid a deposit and couldn't wipe the happy smile off my face. It should be ready in six to eight months, so I will call the store in July this year if I haven't heard anything by then.  Just enough time before my October wedding...