The Dress
Speaking of dresses, I recently found my wedding dress! After explaining the harrowing process of wedding dress shopping here.
I decided to check out three more boutiques, thereby extending the painful process. I wanted to make sure I’d really exhausted all my options. Bad decision. You can visit all the wedding dress stores in NY (& NJ) and never exhaust all your options, nor find “the one” for that matter. I fell in love with a few dresses (my prior top two contenders, plus two more...), so I finally had to pull the trigger and just choose one. In keeping with tradition, I can’t disclose the dress's details at this time. But it's beautifully made, comfortable and just “bride-y” enough. And a sweet perk? I got it in New Jersey, so there was no tax.
The three final wedding dress locales:
Adriennes is old-school. You get to peruse the racks which is a treat. You don’t get to know the designers of the dresses you’re looking at, or anything about the dresses except for the price tags. It is a little off-putting how extremely paranoid the store is about patrons potentially running off with a dress design and getting it made elsewhere. And that hypothetical was so beyond realistic for me. No photos of the dresses allowed? I’m used to that rule. No knowing the names of the dress designers? A little much. (And as I've said before, I don’t even care about this designer vs. that.)
This place is for the anti-bride. I’m not exactly “bride-y” but I don’t consider myself a Stone Fox Bride either. Still the store is exceptionally cool and worth checking out if you're a bride who happens to think "f*** weddings." I’ll let the store's website do the talking:
Stone Fox Bride is a laid-back, high-fashion, punk-bohemian bridal showroom in downtown New York City that offers gowns, bridesmaids dresses, veils, rings and a personal concierge service designed to help you plan your wedding and make your transition into marriage meaningful and amazing.
Exquisite Bride is an absolute delight, despite having to schlep to NJ to get there. In fact, I found my wedding dress there. The store is spacious (of course, being in the burbs and all) and clean and has a lovely ambiance. And again, you get to browse the racks yourself! The sales staff is helpful and assertive without being pushy. And the store carries quality frocks. I was sold :)
A