This past Saturday, a day and a half after getting back to San Francisco from Peru, I decided I wanted to go wedding dress shopping.  I hadn’t made any appointments and most salons are appointment-only so I was limited in where I could go.

But, I remembered that my planner Jessica had mentioned Glamour Closet in addition to Bridal Galleria and a couple of other places months ago.  I went to Bridal Galleria back in March and again in the beginning of April to try on a few of my favorites one more time, but nothing was exactly what I was looking for.  Bridal Galleria is a super nice salon with really great consultants (I worked with Hailey there who was sweet and wonderful) and all the newest dresses from the best designers.  I think I got the “first time trying on wedding dresses” experience I wanted from Bridal Galleria.  

Glamour Closet is a different type of store entirely.  It’s still light and bright and filled with beautiful dresses, but these dresses are crammed onto their wall-to-wall racks.  I’m not exactly sure how Glamour Closet gets their dresses, but they only have one of each dress, everything they have is out on the racks, and brides are allowed to sift through the dresses themselves.  Their gowns are also marked down mostly 30-40%.

I actually like being able to look through the dresses myself just so I can see the selection and feel the material.  I know the consultants are experts and have seen dresses on bodies hundreds of times before, but I feel like I still know what I like best.

One downside?  Everything they have is out on the floor and has been tried on dozens of times so the dresses can look a little tattered.  I was lucky in that my dress had just arrived and I was the first person to try it on there.  My dress is also almost exactly my size.  Basically perfect.

Here are a few I tried on.  Michael, none of these are my dress, just to make it explicitly clear. A really beautiful hand-beaded, entirely detailed Reem Acra dress.  Way too “much” for me and didn’t flatter my body the best, but it was so gorgeous.  I loved being able to try it on.  Retail was about $12,000.  Yikes.A Junko Yoshioka ballgown.  Beautiful, but not me.I forget who the designer is on this dress, but that back was fabulous.  I actually really loved this dress, but it felt somehow too mature for me.  And the train wasn’t exactly right.  But how awesome is that back?!

I didn’t expect to find my dress at Glamour Closet, I just felt like looking, but the very last dress I tried on did it for me.  I put it on and just went, “Wow.”  When I came out of the dressing room, my mom went, “Wow.”  It looks nothing like any of the dresses above and it’s actually nothing like what I expected myself to wear, but it’s perfect.  It’s a Romona Keveza dress – before I bought it, I had no idea who that was, I actually still don’t know who that is – and I am so excited to get it altered and tailored perfectly to me.  That’s still probably half a year away, but right now “the dress” is just hanging on my closet door.  Michael, no peeking when you get back from Peru when I can’t stop you because I’m in Dallas.

The shoe hunt might start soon.

xoxo,

Jenn