The Last week of Dress Shopping part 10

Finally I am closing up the dress shopping posts! To be honest it's been hard for me to write about the final trips because once I decided what to do, I did not want to even think about it since finding "the dress" took so much research & time. But I wanted to let you guys know that there is a happy ending to the dress shopping! Ok, so we last left off with me having a master plan of finding a dress in one week. Instead of posting about each day, I am just going to have one post for the remainder of the dress shops that I went to that week, since I already told you about the first place I had gone to with my bridesman/BFF.

I went to Ibex Bridals in downtown L.A, because their website said they had "over 2500 wedding dresses in stock. I came with a list of dresses in mind, but that proved futile since they only had one of the 7 of the ones on my list. When I walked in they handed me 2 huge binders with pictures of dresses, the pictures were just like those you see in magazines or online, they gave me somebookmarkers to mark the dresses I was intersted in so I could try them on. When they noticed how quickly I was looking through them & how I had not marked any, they gave me 3 other binders. I found about 5 dresses to try on but also decided to try on the Provonios Galante dress that was on the window since the owner said I would look great in it & I should just see how it fits.  They took me to an upstairs part where I got to try on the dresses & out of all of them I really liked the Galante, it felt wonderful on & I loved the ruffles. I started thinking maybe this was my dress, even though it had two things I did not want - ruching around the hip & it had straps. But I thought it maybe a contender. Ipex had great prices, & I later found out from another store that they are the distributer for many of the smaller stores around Los Angeles, so hey why not cut the middle man!


Next up was Rosa's Shop in Culver City. I had passed by this place many times on my way to Traget, but it looked very small so I never thought of going in, but we were in desperate times and on a time deadline so I thought why not? The store is pretty small, but it did have a great selection of bridesmaid dresses. I tried on a Maggie dress that I had seen online but as soon as I put it on I did not like the way it fit me. Rosa the owner was very sweet & tried to help me in my search by showing me catalogue but I could not find anything that I liked. If you like Maggie dresses you should definitely come here because Rosa had the best prices.

Another day that week I made the trek out to Glendale to Karoza Bridal. They had a huge selection of dresses, but the only problem was they were all in their plastic bags so it was difficult to get a good look at them & hard to get through the aisle...I literally was stuck amidst a slew of dresses and could not get out! After a few minutes I managed to crawl out. 


Again, I did not find the dresses on my list but I did try on a Mon Cheri dress that the sales lady picked out & I again thought it maybe my dress & it was only $600!!!  I loved the way the top was sculpted and the mermaid fit, the only thing I was not sure about was that the crystal belt was already attached & I kind of wanted something that was detachable. The picture on the site does not do it justice, it is a very flattering dress for women with some curves & the model does not have any so it kind of looks like a plain dress. It also looks A line in the picture but when I tried it on it was very much a mermaid shape. I left thinking that was another contender.

Thinking about the dresses I had as "contenders" I realized I had lost sight of what I had wanted, I was so overwhelmed with dress shopping, so stressed about finding "the one" and so tired of looking that I was beginning to settle. All the dresses were completely different!!!


Once I realized this I asked mi amor, "what is our theme?" traditional or modern? he replied "modern but get whatever makes you happy :-) I love a man who loves emoticons as much as me :-)  So I got to thinking, there was one dress that I had seen in a magazine that I loved, but I knew it was WAY out of budget so I had not bothered to try it on for fear of falling for it. On two separate occasions, my mom & mi amor happened to come accrross the dress in my bridal magazines and pointed at it & said "wow". They had not said that to any other ones. So my plan was to go try on the dress so I can stop thinking about it. I called R Mine Bridal & as it turned out they happened to have the dress even though it was for 2010 because they were having a fashion show of the 2010 dresses. My bridesman/BFF who started off the first day of shopping that week with me also offered to go with me on his day off to make the trek out to the Valley so I could try on the dress and so he could offer his honest opinion. R Mine Bridal had so many gorgeous dresses all in the beautiful satin I had imagined existed, apparently my problem this whole time was that my taste far exceeds my budget. They had the beautiful Kenneth Pool Sophisticate dress I had been keeping in my wedding folder, it was even more beautiful in person, but it was freaking TINY! I looked at it then looked at the sales girl & asked the girl why it was so small & that there was no way a piece of me was going to fit into it. She explained the dress had been worn the night before by a model during the show & they only happened to have the dress because of he show but were returning it in a few days & were suppose to get their own sample dress in a few weeks, she also assured me I could fit into it - bless her heart! Well she was right I managed to shimmy my way in the dress but it did not zip at the top. I loved it! Did I get the crying feeling? no but I'm not a very emotional showing person so that did not surprise me. Was it everything I wanted? No, I wanted buttons & wanted the belt to be straight & removable. Was it "the one" - it was the "inspiration" for "the one".  My bridesman/BFF loved it too & that is just what I needed to hear & make my decision to have my dress made! And how sweet & amazing is my bridesman/BFF to put up with me & be there from the very first day of dress shopping, to the first day of my operation find a dress in a week,  and right to the very last last dress shop place I went to and where I found my inspiration dress & made my decision on "the one".

So there it is ladies, I am having my dress made. I promise to post about that asap too! 

Ibex Bridals
836 S Los Angeles Street Los Angeles, CA 90014

Rosa's Shop 
4352 Sepulveda Boulevard

karozabridal.com
618 E Colorado St # A Glendale, CA 91205-1753

rminebridal.com

12242 Ventura Blvd Studio City, CA 91604