A Tale of Two Gowns...

Once upon a time, there was a girl named Stacey who was fair and honest and good. She was going to the ball and needed a dress fit for a princess...would she find it?

Ok...so K and I went to see little Evan yesterday morning! Yea! He is just precious...soooooooo tiny. He has a head full of very dark locks and makes the sweetest noises. Hehe...Rockey and Brenda couldn't identify him while he was in the nursery....that was pretty funny. They seem so excited and so happy....I'm so happy for them...what exciting times these are!

So, after the hospital visit, K and I were off to Atlanta. M.Sweet kept calling for opening appts as it seems the social elite of the Atl don't like to come out when the weather is sour. So, we hit Bridesmaid Bowtique first and had an appt at M.Sweet a few hours later. First and foremost, I have to say that the name Bridesmaid Bowtique is a horrible one...don't judge this place based on that name. Don't go to the website, either. Just take my word for it...if you like Watters bridal gowns, then you will like this place. They pretty much have the whole Watters line. Soooo...I tried on, I dunno, maybe 8 or 10 gowns/dresses...and I fell in love with two of them. Yes, two. I wish I could put the pics up here but I'm afraid that Ben would accidentally see. These dresses are black and white...night and day...yin and yang...can I think of any more cliches? Umm...not at this late hour, no. One is a poufy skirt....with a huge train...fitted strapless regular neckline bodice that opens up into that wonderful skirt. The dress is silk shantung or silk organza or something along those lines, and the full skirt has random gathers all over it. It's amazing in its princess like feel. I think you can see it on the Watters website - I think it's style 5053B...but I could be wrong here. In contrast, the other "the one" could be mistaken for a prom dress...it's ribbon taffeta with spaghetti straps. It is super low cut in the front and shamefully low in the back...I LOVE IT! It's exactly the sexy dress I've been looking for since I've begun dress shopping. It's so sexy and low that the size 8 that was ginormous on me was showing my underwear even with the pins...thank goodness for boyshorts...otherwise, I would have been obscene in the store. :-)

So, what to do? I felt so hot in the sexy dress, but felt the pics look like I'm just going out for a night on the town. I felt like a princess in the big dress and the pics were absolutly gorgeous - but at the same time, the dress was a little "not me". What to do...what to do? I'm so confused.

I can say this...most people are saying they like the big poufy dress. I had the pics developed (for some reason, I just HAVE to have my prints made, even though it's all digital...there's just something about having a real copy...I dunno why...I just like having them). Anyway, when I went to pick them up, the girls at Wolf said "Ok...we weren't trying to look at your pics, but we noticed they were from wedding dress shopping and we just wanted to tell you that this big poufy dress is perfect for you....you better buy it!"

Here are the votes as of right now: K, Hayley and Terry vote for the slinky dress. Jess, everyone in the store where I was trying them on, Big Al, Rockey, Brenda and the girls at Wolf all vote for the poufy one. If I went by votes alone, the big one would win by quite a bit.

Anyway, so after that, we went to M.Sweet. It was really interesting...I mean, it's so freaking expensive and nice. It's between Lenox/Buckhead and midtown and amongst all this cool stuff is this old mansion. You go in and everything is just so perfect. You try on your gowns in your own personal room complete with plush chairs and couches with your own personal assistant in front of your own personal 10 feet by 10 feet or so mirror. I have to say, though, that I didn't really like any of the gowns that I tried on there. The Lia I mentioned in another blog looked just *eh* on me. There was one called the Theodora that was pretty darn amazing...it had ruffles. Who knew ruffles could be done in such a cool way? I mean, having ruffles on a cute Anthropologie skirt is one thing and having them on your wedding dress is quite another. But this dress was amazing... I felt really beautiful in this one. But, um, I would have to be an idiot to spend $3200 on a dress! Yeah, um...I'll go back to Bridesmaids Bowtique where my Watters dresses are less than half that.

So, having said all of that, now that I have it narrowed down to two dresses, I'm perplexed. How do I choose? I really don't know. There are plusses and minuses to both. I guess I'll get it figured out, though...and then I'll live happily ever after...