The first shop we went to was called Heritage Brides, and was in Hatfield House. It's a beautiful barn setting, and is very private. Sam (the bridal consultant) was lovely, and I would highly recommend this shop to anyone looking for a wedding dress! We very almost bought a dress from here, and we did buy my headpiece from here. Obviously, most of the dresses were not a perfect fit, but a lot of them did up which was a pleasant surprise! And now, without further ado, here are some of the dresses I tried:
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This was the first dress that I tried, and it was a nice start! I liked the way that it brought me in at the waist, and the neckline was also really nice. It was just very surreal being in a wedding dress!
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This was really similar to the first dress - it had the tulle skirt that I loved, and I really liked the plunge neckline. However, I didn't like the t-shirt sleeves as they felt too informal, and the back was completely see-through, and I wasn't comfortable with the way it showed my back (which is crazy when you consider the dress I ended up with!)
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This dress was when we realised that I needed a ballgown shape. It really showed off my waist, and was so comfortable to move around in! But I didn't like the type of lace that was on the skirt, and the top felt a bit too plain for me. But definitely the favourite at this stage!
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| This one was hilarious. I'd made it clear from the start that I didn't want a satin dress, mainly because my prom dress was satin and I didn't want to feel like I was at prom on my wedding day! But once we put this one on (mainly so that we could confirm that I definitely didn't want satin - I didn't think I wanted a ballgown and was proved wrong there!) there were about 100 other reasons I didn't want satin. It wasn't as comfortable, it felt cheaper and it didn't really do anything for my figure. This one didn't stay on very long at all! |
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| This one was a wild-card. It was a sample dress so I could have taken it straight away rather than it being ordered in, and it was chiffon which I liked. I'd mentioned in my original description of my "dream dress" that it was a Grecian-style. This dress was nice, but again, the t-shirt style bothered me. |
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| This theoretically was my dream dress. In my head, I wanted strapless with lace on the top, and then a chiffon skirt with a short train. Obviously in this particular dress, the top doesn't fit, but something just didn't feel right. I liked the shape it gave me at my waist but my bottom half just didn't look right, I felt out of proportion. It was a little disheartening to try my "perfect" dress and be so underwhelmed. |
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| This is where myself and Sam disagreed. She was so sure that I was going to love this, but it is a two-piece, not a dress! And I knew that I definitely wanted a dress. I did love the skirt, but I tried on a couple of corsets with it and just didn't feel bridal at all! I was so sure that this wasn't what I wanted, and after we'd tried a couple of different tops, we knew it was time to move on to the next one. |
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| This one was special. Mum cried, I was breathless, and I felt incredible in it. I loved the neckline, as I felt it was sexy but also really respectful - I knew we were getting married in a catholic church and I didn't want to have too much on show! Mum was ready to get it on the spot, but I didn't like the underlayer on the skirt. Sam had said that it could be removed in alterations but it seemed a bit risky to me to order a dress when you haven't seen what the finished article will be. So we said that we would continue shopping at the other places and come back if we couldn't find anything better (which actually, we didn't think we would!) |
The next shop we went to was The Wedding Gallery in St Albans. I cannot recommend this shop enough! Alice was so phenomenal the whole time, and actually I think it was her who picked out the dress I ended up wearing! Maureen the Seamstress was also an absolute miracle worker, and made my dress fit like a glove. The shop itself is incredibly private, from the front it is literally just a door, and then the shop is out the back. Though there's no natural lighting in the actual dress area, it's still so beautiful and light. And the selection of dresses were stunning! I don't think there was a single dress I tried that I didn't like.  |
This was the first one I tried on here, and it was SO booby! The pictures don't do it justice. I'm not adverse to showing a bit of boob, but this was borderline inappropriate, particularly for a catholic church! I also didn't like the pattern of the underskirt and I don't like the illusion necklines either.
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| You may recognise this one! This was a really tough decision, as the sample size was a size 8 (hence why I'm holding up the straps, it felt like I was losing the circulation in my arms when I put them on!). Mum, mother in law and sister all loved this one but I took some convincing. I LOVED the lace pattern, the flowers on it were so beautiful and the neckline was stunning. We added the belt as I felt it needed something, but I wasn't a huge fan of this particular belt. I decided to keep trying dresses and potentially come back to this at the end. |
This one is really similar to mine, and the main reason I put it on was because it was my size, so gave me an idea of how my actual dress would look in my size. Again, I really don't like the illusion neckline but the back on this one was really pretty and very similar to the back on my dress.
I'd mentioned to Alice that I wasn't sure how comfortable I would be with so much of my back on display, as it's always been a bit chubby and I didn't want to have to work ridiculously hard to make it look good. So she showed me this one which has a beautiful back, but unfortunately I couldn't stand the front! So my dress was still a winner.
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This dress was almost the one. I LOVED the shape, the neckline was so flattering and the top of it was so perfect! The shape of the skirt was amazing, but the only thing I didn't like was the underlayer of the skirt. It's really hard to see in the photo, but there are loads of massive chiffon roses, and I really didn't like them! They possibly could have been removed but this one was a sample dress so it would have had to be an alteration rather than removal in production. It could have altered the shape of the skirt, and it just seemed too much of a risk. I still love this dress though!
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| This was the first really fitted dress I tried. I like the way that it looks in this photo, but I still have insecurities about my stomach and even though this is really structured around my waist, I was less comfortable in it. It was also really hard to walk because it was so tight around my legs, but if I could just stand still all day, then this would be a contender! |
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| I love this one, but it really didn't suit a winter wedding. This is the sort of dress I would choose if we were having a beach wedding in the summer somewhere tropical. As mum said as well, it is so much less "wow" than the dress I did pick. It's also very similar to the style of bridesmaid dress I wanted, so overall it just didn't suit our wedding. It is so beautiful though! |
After trying this one, we put my actual dress back on and worked out whether I was comfortable enough to risk it - I had no idea what it would look like if it actually fit! But I was so in love with the back of the dress, and everyone else there loved it, and as my family's opinion is so important to me, I decided it was the front runner so far. However, I still hadn't had that "the one" feeling, and we had another appointment with a shop the day after, so I decided to hold off buying it until we'd had that appointment. Over the evening we had dinner and drinks (quite a lot of drinks!) and the more we talked about it, the more confident I became that it was the dress I should have.
The next day we went to Dress In Love in Hertford. The consultant in this shop was lovely, and the dresses were nice but none of them came close to any of the other 3 I loved. I was also slightly bothered by the large window opening onto the street, as people kept peering in and it made me feel a bit self-conscious. The other two shops were so private, I hadn't realised how much I'd appreciated that! We didn't take photos of all the dresses here, but here are the photos of the three that we did take photos of:
This was the first one I tried, and was so different to any of the dresses I tried in the other shops! But if I thought the fitted one in The Wedding Gallery was tight, it was nothing compared to this! I was waddling to get to the mirror, and before I even saw the dress, I knew it was not the way I wanted to walk down the aisle! It made my bum look pretty good but just wasn't worth the discomfort.
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The colour of this one was really interesting, and I liked the lace trim at the bottom. But the shape was just wrong for me, I didn't like the way it made me look.
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By the time we got to this dress, I did notice a definite theme to the dresses being picked for me! But this again was just not right. I didn't like the style of the lace at the bottom, it had too much gold on it, the belt was slightly too low and I didn't feel pretty.
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In this shop, I had both my bridesmaids, and we knew we were going back to The Wedding Gallery to look at bridesmaid dresses. Amy hadn't seen my dress yet, so I was waiting for her reaction to finally make up my mind. And it sealed the deal for me! She loved it, I loved it even more putting it on again and everything just felt right.
Here are the photos from the final fittings, and I'm still so happy with my dress! I wouldn't change a thing about it.
That's all for now, I don't know what the next blog will be about, or when it will be, but I'm so glad this one is finally out! Dress shopping was so much fun, and it's nice that I can now share it properly.
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