The search for the perfect dress...Day 1

I think* that I have now found the dress, after 3 weekends and 4 days of searching. I went to 9 different shops in total, all in or around Edinburgh, and I have thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. Here is a quick recap of my experience on day 1 (days 2, 3 & 4 to follow).

Saturday 25th April:

I wasn't sure what to expect but by the 3rd shop, I was definitely loving it! It was so good to try on loads of different styles & fabrics to get an idea what suited me and what I liked, with all the veils & tiaras too.

La Novia - The first shop I went to didn't have a huge selection and the shop was quite small. They have lots of Ian Stuart dresses here which are a bit too wacky for me as well as some Pronovias & Mori Lee. Since this was the first shop I had been to I tried on 5 dresses in a variety of styles including a few strapless and others with straps. I had first wanted a really plain dress but after trying them on I realised they didn't look special enough. The assistant here was doing fittings for the first time and was really nervous, which didn't matter to me but she only held the dresses that didn't fit so I wasn't able to get an idea of the shape & style. I noted down a couple of dresses here for reference but I knew I wouldn't be back.

Alma Ogilvie - The second shop was lovely, really big and spacious with a large changing area and plenty space to walk around in the dresses. The woman here was able to get me into all the dresses which gave me a much better idea of how they would look. The fabrics of the dresses here were more what I wanted and much nicer than the first shop, however this was reflected in the price! Each dress was also kept in plastic which meant that they were all still very clean and in much better condition than most of the other shops. I tried on 4 dresses here, by Sassi Holford & Alan Hannah, which were all lovely. One was a favourite and I was able to try it on with the type of veil I want to get an idea of what it could look like before the assistant wrote down all the details.

Berketex - The third shop was a lot smaller than the others. They were having a sample sale on the day I went, as well as offering 20% off all new gowns, which meant that it was really busy. I tried on a variety here again, and was able to discount some styles. The assistant was really good at knowing what suited me which also helped. They had quite a few dresses but I felt they were all fairly similar. I did try on 4 dresses here and I felt that I had been able to narrow it down to the exact style and material I preferred. The assistant noted down my favourite 2 but they still didn't match my favourite from earlier.

So that had been 13 dresses today with 1 in the favourite list.

*OK, so the reason I said think is that there has been a new development on the dress shop where I found my dress, details to follow...