Wedding Dress Outing (or Helping A Friend Find The Perfect Dress)

When Rayshell and I had dinner recently, one of the topics we talked about was her wedding planning. She’s actually gotten a ton of planning done already. The venue is set and they’ve got the caterer and hotel blocks done. But the one thing she was having trouble with was finding the perfect wedding dress.

She had found a couple of dresses that she liked, but didn’t really love. And one dress that she almost loved, but it was way over her budget.

As we were talking, I remembered how years ago I had gone wedding dress shopping with a friend. She was looking for a very particular dress (she is very religious and needed it to cover from neck to the ground and have long sleeves), so we had gone to a handful of store together. The only one that I really remembered was Alfred Angelo. So while Rayshell and I were at dinner, we pulled up their website and checked out some of their dresses. There were a couple that she liked (and were in her budget), so Rayshell made an appointment and invited me to go dress shopping with her!

We got to the store about 10 minutes before the appointment, so we sat down and looked at some of the dresses in the store and in some of the catalogs they gave us.

Rayshell found several dresses that she wanted to try on while we were waiting for someone to come and help her pull dresses. When the stylists came over, we showed them the ones that Rayshell liked, and then we got the bad news. Most of the dresses that she liked are discontinued and not in the store. But one of the ones that she liked was still there, but there was only one dress left and the stylist wasn’t sure if it was in her size.

So we started wandering through the store together pulling dresses. We found the one that was on the list that Rayshell liked, and luckily it was in Rayshell’s size! So we grabbed that one. Rayshell and the stylist pulled a couple of other dresses and while Rayshell and I were looking we pulled that original dress again two more times!

Finally it was time for Rayshell to go into the dressing room and start trying the dresses on.

The first dress Rayshell tried one was pretty, but it seemed not quite right (and Rayshell seemed to think the same thing). The second dress looked too much like a costume to me.

Finally it was time for the third dress which was the one that we had selected 3 separate times. And when Rayshell came out of the dressing room, I knew instantly that that was her dress!

She was glowing and smiling and it was exactly what she had described to me as her dream dress! It was the only one in the store like that because it was discontinued the day that the sample arrived so nobody else would have that same dress. I felt that it was fate that the only one of that dress was in the size and color she needed!

Of course, Rayshell had to walk around and see how the dress looked in sunlight (versus the store lighting) and I took tons of pictures so she could see how it looked from every angle. I can’t share the pictures of the dress with you (because then her fiancée might see them), but I did get permission from Rayshell to show you one detail from the dress.

That detail doesn’t even do it justice. That dress is so incredible and so perfect for Rayshell! After Rayshell was pretty sure that it was the dress, she Facetimed her mom (I held up the phone) so she could show her mom the dress too. After her mom approved, it was settled that Rayshell had found her dress!

I felt so lucky that Rayshell invited me to go dress shopping with her. It was a really fun and special afternoon. And it was a nice added bonus that I got to be there when she found her dress. I haven’t had that opportunity before so it was really cool for me to do that. For most weddings I’ve gone to, I only get to see the dress at the wedding (or maybe a picture of it from a website). With my sister-in-law, I got to see the dress at the fitting, but that’s different from getting to go shopping for it together.

Rayshell’s wedding is still months away, but I’m even more excited for it now because I can’t wait to see how she looks in the dress when it’s all fitted and accessorized!

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Making My Friend Try On Wedding Dresses (or I’m So Glad She Found The Perfect Dress!) Renting A Dress (or Testing Out Gwynnie Bee) Santa Barbara Wedding (or Dancing The Night Away) A Happy Hour Celebration (or Looking Forward To Another Wedding) Brunch and Shopping (or Helping A Friend Make Some Upgrades) Beautiful Wedding For A Beautiful Friend (or I’m Glad I Wore Waterproof Mascara)