i said yes to my dress!!! My experience and advice:

I posted on here earlier this week because I was stressing about my dress appointments. I had 7 women with me: mom, sister, both grandmothers, Future MIL, and both FSIL’s. I had some anxiety because half of these women are pretty opinionated and our families don’t know each other well so I was preparing for “awkward”. We had 4 appointments scheduled for Saturday. Went to the first one and everyone was great, getting along, pleasant, EXCEPT my crazy grandmother. Love the lady to death but she was on a MISSION to shove her opinions and picks down my throat right off the bat. I was changing in the dressing room at one point and the woman legit had her phone through the curtain trying to take pictures while I’m half dressed. CALM DOWN LADY! Sit your butt on the couch and wait for the curtain to open like EVERYONE else. Anyway, I found some contenders at the first shop but never got that “feeling”. Went to the second shop and the consultant gave everyone clips to go tag gowns. She said “don’t pay attention to silhouette or price tag. If she likes it, we’ll find one in her budget that’s similar.” This was a BIG mistake. A few dresses in and I put on “the one”. Tears were flowing and of course by that point it was too late. That was my dress. Ended up spending double what I really wanted to spend but it is what it is! I am IN LOVE with my dress.
Three bits of advice for ladies going to find a dress:
1. Limit your crowd! I got guilted into it and didn’t have the heart to say no but, dear God, it would have been so much more enjoyable without the drama.
2. Do NOT let the consultant con you like she did me. Luckily my FH just got a big raise and we can take the hit but if you have a strict budget don’t let them give your party “free reign”.
3. 10/10 recommend going to Spec’s in between appointments and making mimosas in Solo Cups in the parking lot😂 It was just enough to calm me down and make me more pleasant/less stressed.
Now the goal is to keep the gown a secret from my fiancé until next October. LOL