Playing dress-up, part 2

At the end of my first dress shopping experience, I decided I wanted to look for dresses with a mermaid or trumpet skirt, but I still didn't know where I would end up finding a dress like that. Most of the dresses I had seen at Michelle's were a-line or ball gowns, so that option was out, and I didn't have much confidence in the other local shops. So I decided I'd look iat shops in the Chicago suburbs in July when my mom was coming to visit.

In the meantime, I was scouring the internet for some dresses in the mermaid style. I came across this dress by Watters that I absolutely loved. I've always adored the beachy casual feel of Watters dresses, but never thought I'd find one appropriate for our formal wedding. However, this dress, in my opinion was just perfect. Unfortunately, it was part of their newest line and wasn't in shops yet. I made plans to see the dress at a Watters trunk show in August at Michelle's, but in the meantime, I was shopping with my mom!



The first place we headed to was the House of Brides in Schaumburg. We had gone there to look at bridesmaids' dresses for my sister's wedding, so we knew they had a lot of dresses at a variety of price ranges. For those of you who don't know about House of Brides it's sort of like an upscale warehouse environment. Sort of like a David's Bridal with more variety of dresses. Our experience there was like a lot of girls' experiences at David's. We had a consultant, but she wasn't really around. She kept leaving us, meaning my sister had to get me in and out of the dresses, then scolding us when she got back and saw the makeshift jobs we'd done of clamping up the dresses in the back. It was a little obnoxious, but didn't bother me too much. It was sort of fun to just have a free-for-all with the dresses, not worried about the consultant being too pushy or bossy.

I did find some dresses I liked at House of Brides, but nothing that I absolutely had to buy right that second. One thing that is really nice about House of Brides is that they have such a great variety. If you're looking to try on a lot of different shapes or styles, House of Brides might just be the place for you.

Here's one dress that we snapped a quick picture of in the dressing rooms.

This dress only cost $399! That alone almost made me buy it!

We left House of Brides that day knowing we had another appointment the next day at Wolsfelt's Victorian Bridal. Little did we know, that would be my last dress shopping stop! Stay tuned for THE dress, coming up next!