One of the most fun parts of wedding planning was wedding dress shopping. It was also one of the most stressful. Though I went in knowing what silhouette I wanted, being thrown into a store with so many beautiful dresses made it hard to zero in on just one.

Every store I went to (I went to 4) had dresses that I really liked but I had a hard time finding one I loved. I had an interesting idea to let my bridesmaids pick a dress for me to try on from each store we went to which was fun and got them involved in the process, but it also opened my mind to images other than my original idea and made me feel very stressed and confused.

I felt very blessed that pretty much every dress I tried on looked good on me, but that also made it challenging to eliminate options from my decision set. Over the years, I’ve watched so many episodes of “Say Yes to the Dress” where brides made it seem so easy to go in and find the dress of their dreams with tears streaming down their faces.

My moment was at my 4th location over about a month, in a beautiful showroom and amazing dresses. Ironically the dress that I ended up picking isn’t even one I pulled… My mother did. *insert eye roll* maybe in some cases, Mother knows best. My experience was enhanced by being able to customize my dress so I really feel like it’s my own. I’m so excited to walk down the aisle, but more excited about starting this new chapter of my life.

Of course, I’m not going to show you all what I did pick but here are a few I didn’t choose.

– L