Dress Shopping Extravaganza

Saturday was the BIG day. It was the day that Monique & I set out to find her a wedding dress. We were gone for 12 hours on Saturday and that includes roughly two hours of drive time, two hours for supper at The Melting Pot (I'll write more about that later), and eight hours of shopping. Oh, wait...there was an hour of down time that included lunch. :)

It was a fantastic day and we had a lot of fun!! We did find her a dress and I'll give you a peek of it in the grand finale of this post. :)

We started the day at a large bridal store and it was a two-hour event, but it ended up being good in the long run. Let me tell you, though, if you ever go shopping for a bridal gown, there will be some down right scary moments...or should I say dresses!! :) Monique tried on at least a dozen dresses at the first place and sometimes I wouldn't even let her out of the dressing room because the dress was SO not Mo! Other times, though, we had a lot of fun trying to figure things out by piecing and pulling and tightening dresses here and there to determine if it was something that would work.

After that, we headed to a couple of smaller shops to look at things, but ended up back at the first place with some final decisions. Here are some snapshots of the day...


I really tried to convince Monique that these were the perfect shoes for her perfect day, but she just wouldn't believe me!! Needless to say, we left them at the store. :( I think that they're a lot of fun, don't you?!? :)


At one of our next stores, Monique tried to convince me that this was the perfect hairpiece for her perfect day! I said, "Yeah. Not so much." :)

This next photo doesn't even begin to give you a glimpse of all of the dresses that Monique tried on. She told me later on that at the first store, she started to have so many dresses in her dressing room that she thought, "Something has got to change!" Needless to say, we started taking care of things. :)

So...what do you think of this as a bridesmaid dress? What? No?!? Well, then, how about....

...THIS!!!! Talk about fancy!!!

Okay...I'm being sarcastic. Neither of them were chosen as the bridesmaid dress. :)

Monique, the wedding dress model. :) This was actually a very nice dress that may have ended up in Monique's closet, but we couldn't get the entire dress to come together like it should. Just ask Mo...I think I gave her whiplash from all of the twisting and turning I forced her to do. :)

Now this dress was a lot of fun, but Monique was not buying the renaissance style sleeves. I don't think it would have worked anyway because the top was way too bulky and it didn't fit very nicely.

I was going to buy this 12-foot veil for myself in the event that I might get married someday, but I took one look at the $190.00 price tag and screamed. Then I hung it back on the rack.

Needless to say, by the end of the day, we were exhausted. Don't believe me? Does this following picture LOOK like a picture of someone who's full of energy? Yeah...I don't think so...

Shortly after this picture, I said to Monique, "Can we please go home now!?!?" Do you know what she said? She said, "No! We have to finalize a few more things. I said, "WHAT?!?!?

After she got done laughing at my obnoxious expressions, we headed back to the first store to finalize things and...here, my friends, is a sneek peek at Monique's wedding dress!!!!!

Oh, come on. You don't really think I'd show you the ACTUAL dress, do you!?!? I think if I did, Monique would probably have some not-so-nice people come and teach me a lesson or two. :) You'll just have to wait and see what it looks like!!! :) For now, you get to look at the pretty bag that it's hiding in. :)

It was a good end to a great day!! Monique, of course, will make a beautiful bride and I am excited for the day that she will wear this dress! :)