Dressed for Success

Today was bridesmaids' dress shopping! It started off a little rocky (did I mention that I barely slept a few hours last night due to terrible storms & "stray bullets" in our area?), but turned out GREAT!  I couldn't be more thankful that God has placed these girls in my life, to say the least!!  

I guess I'll just start from the beginning.  At 12:30, we met at Chili's in Loganville for lunch...me, my mom, Haley, Kera & Katie.  Mandie wasn't feeling well so she wasn't able to be with us, but I think we did pretty good picking out a dress for her. :)  Plus with so many BMs & so many busy schedules, 3/4 isn't too bad!  

After a really yummy meal, we headed off to Lorna's Bridal (also in Loganville).  To say the least, it wasn't the best experience.  We made it fun, but there weren't nearly as many dresses from the line I wanted, & everyone only liked one of them.  This is a problem when it was the same one & they were all going to pick different dresses.

Instead of wasting a whole day on a bust shopping trip, I gave everyone the piece of paper that had all of their possible dress choices (all the same designer & fabric so the colors would match) on it & told them to star which ones they wanted.  After that, I called a couple different stores to see if they had every single dress...I wasn't about to waste another appointment & more of everyone's time & gas.  

Finally, Charme Bridal in Buford had every. single. dress. that we wanted to look at/try on.  A couple of them were the long versions of the short styles that I wanted (everyone's will be short & chiffon fabric since it'll be really hot outside), but we were able to see what the tops would look like.  That was great because Haley & Kera ended up choosing those two dresses!  They all loved the first dress they tried on, which is pretty crazy if you think about it.  All three of them were able to get their dresses ordered today, which is really good because they apparently take 3 months to come in & 4-6 weeks to alter (after you have your alterations appointment).  Yikes!  I guess I should have figured it would be a long the because my wedding dress was estimated to take SEVEN months to come in, then about the same amount of time or more to alter.  

I don't want to post any pics of the dresses they chose because that should totally be a surprise!  But...here is a dress that I tried on as a possible for Mandie.  It's the perfect color, which is why I'm so eager to show it off :)  

I can't wait to see everyone's dresses all in this color, matching the ties I've picked out exactly.  Not to mention, the styles will all go together SO perfectly & I'm so glad that everyone got to pick their own style!  I love mismatched but coordinated BM dresses.  & everyone got to get a dress that they really liked instead of having to settle!  It's just so exciting because BM dress shopping seems like one of the wedding things that is more like pulling teeth for most brides.  This was just fun!!!

After we got back in town, just the girls decided to go to Bruster's for ice cream, which we had all been craving.  It's little bonding moments like these that I appreciate so much & am glad to see that we all get along so well.  I can't wait for everyone to continue getting to know each other better in the coming months because it will make the actual day all the better!

Gotta say, I'm super thankful that they didn't mind driving 40 more minutes (& Haley Rae didn't mind using her gas) to have another hour-ish appointment & driving 40 minutes back!  I know Saturdays are a rest day, but they were really great about everything!  Just so awesome. 

Look for another post tomorrow because it's the 4th! :)