I Did It! I Found A Dress For The Wedding!

Tresa picked me up at the train and we stopped back at her condo for a few minutes before heading downtown. When we were getting ready to leave, I put my hat on and then I couldn't find my little knit gloves. We looked all over the condo and couldn't find them, so I assumed they were either in the car or I dropped them on the street when I got out of the car. Nope....neither. Where the heck were my gloves? Oh, that's right....when I took my hat and gloves off at the condo...I stuck my gloves in my hat so I wouldn't lose them. Yep! There they were, in my hat....ON TOP OF MY HEAD!

I thought...oh brother...if that's the kind of day it's going to be...I am in BIG trouble. This was the Dreaded Dress Shopping Day, and if I was ever going to find a dress to wear to my daughter's wedding I needed to be calm and things needed to go smoothly.

We actually had a good laugh at my expense, and headed on our way to the bus stop. Tresa decided we would try Macy's on Michigan Avenue first. She thought it might be less crowded than the State Street store. We rode the bus downtown and headed into the store. UGH, the dress selection was really poor and I started to sweat. My plan was to take all kinds of pictures of me trying on dresses, and there wasn't even a dress there that I wanted to try on!

Tresa decided we better head on over to the State Street store. On the way we stopped at a store called Filene's Basement. It isn't in a basement. In fact, we went up a very long escalator to get up to the store. I guess Filene's is suppose to have great prices, but it looked like a big garage sale to me. Definitely not my kind of store. I like things hanging neatly on racks in proper size order and maybe even color coordinated. I was not impressed. It isn't that I don't appreciate great prices, I just don't have the patience to search for things, especially that day. I was on a mission and I was not going home until I had a dress for the wedding.

We headed to State Street. It was still pretty quiet in the city and that was nice. No crowds yet. It was easy to get around. You just have to watch out for ice falling off the sides of the buildings...really!

The dress department at the State Street store was wonderful, and it was huge. I felt pretty confident that I would find something.

We both started going through the racks pulling out anything that was a "possibility". The sales clerk was great and put everything in a fitting room for us as we continued to look. Tresa and I don't really have the same taste in dresses, but she quickly figured out what I liked and our fitting room started to fill up quite nicely.

I had a vision of the dress I wanted when we started. I wanted brown for sure, and something comfortable and a little fitted. We are all doing cocktail length. We found some really cute brown dresses I liked, and also a couple in a neat gray. I passed up the bright colors thinking those might not be appropriate for the mother of the bride.

I started trying dresses on and figured out really fast that brown was not my color no matter how much I liked the dresses and the color. They did nothing for me. The gray ones were the same. Tresa went out to grab a couple in different sizes and came back with some really cute dresses in.....royal blue! I told her I didn't think that was a good color for the mother of the bride and she didn't agree.

So, I put on a royal blue dress. WOW! Royal blue was definitely my color, and a couple of the dresses were really cute. She went out and came back with others in blue. There was one that she loved that had more of a chiffon, full skirt in a darker blue that I nixed really fast. It was not "me". I felt like I was all "hip" in it and I don't mean "hip" as in "cool"....I mean "hip" as in "hippy"...not "hippie", but "hippy".....

Then I put on this dress.......this royal blue dress.....it was really cute, it was kind of fitted and it fit me really well. I was pretty excited! I was 99% sure that I had found THE dress! Now this is another place where Tresa and I differ. Tresa would have said, "Ok this is the one. Let's go". I said, let me try on the other cute ones one more time just to be sure. I got this look, and I knew she really didn't get it, because that isn't how she does things....but I did need to be sure. This is a really BIG deal, you know?

Well, of course I didn't change my mind, and I bought the really cute royal blue dress. I think it was a great decision. No, it didn't come off the clearance rack like I had hoped, and I didn't find it in the first store which was my other hope...but the price was reasonable, I had a $25 off coupon from the paper and we were out the door, dress in hand within two hours of starting.

I do need to get the straps taken up a little bit and still have to figure out shoes and find some kind of a wrap, but that is all minor. I'm thinking silver shoes.....what do you think?

We grabbed a cab and went and had a great lunch at a little corner restaurant and talked about the dress and the wedding and hair and shoes and all kinds of things, and then it was time to catch the train home. Traffic caused us to miss the train I was supposed to get on, so we sat and talked and chilled out in the car for an hour waiting for the next one.

What I have been calling the Dreaded Dress Shopping Day turned into an absolutely wonderful day with my little girl. I love you Tresa and thanks so much for helping me find my dress.