Dress Developments: First Shopping Trip

I'd been dreading the "bridal shopping experience." I know plus sized brides don't have many options, and I've heard all the horror stories of salesladies being mean to us. But I still deserve a nice dress, right? So in a burst of courageousness, I made an appointment at a bridal consignment shop. 

They had used dresses that could be purchased off the rack. There's very little help from the salesladies and you can go through the racks by yourself to see if there's something you like. I didn't expect to find "the dress" here, but it seemed like a nice place to start shopping.

They had three dresses in my size, which I expected. So I tried on the first dress. It was a strapless, beaded satin thing. I know I don't want strapless, but I want to try on *everything* before I decide. So I happily put it on. I was surprised to see that the strapless dress seemed to highlight my face. When I looked in the mirror, I looked "bridal." I'm not sure if it's because it was the first dress I put on, or because it looks like the archetypal "bridal" image. Hm. Still pretty set against a strapless, I at least now knew that I could wear a well-altered one, in a pinch.

There were two more dresses, but I don't remember them much. One had sleeves (not for me!) and the other was too big and fell off, and the shop owner couldn't figure how to fix it.

Here's what was so difficult. I was the only bride there by myself, and there were three other girls there with their mothers. My mom lives 2,000 miles away and cannot really help me with planning or shopping. It didn't help that the saleslady kept asking the other black girl's mom what she thought of my dresses. We had to repeatedly tell her we weren't there together. The saleslady seemed confused; aren't we all related? ::::sigh::::

The hardest part was watching the others try on dress after dress, all of which looked wonderful on them. One girl, getting married in Italy, found a beautiful St. Pucchi dress which was on sale for only $2,000. It was hard to watch. 

I'd prepared myself for the possibility that there wouldn't be any options, and I knew it would be difficult to see the other, prettier, smaller dresses. But I guess I wasn't prepared enough! It was all I could do not to burst into tears as I drove away from the dress shop.

The bright spot in all this is that I realized that I look nice; I like what I see in the mirror and realize that I deserve a beautiful dress as much as anyone, and I'm determined to find it (in my price range!). I'm thrilled to be getting married, and it shows. I'm going to look great! But for all of my self-confidence, this is still is a little hard. The best news is that after this experience, it will surely get easier from here. Right?