Bought a dress!! YAYYY...

This marks the end of my 4 months search for a dress.. YAYYYY this definitely need some celebration...

For fun , let's list out the stores that I have gone to since November 2010:
1. Vera Wang NY, reallly the dress was probably the 4th dress I tried on
2. Mark Ingram NY
3. Monique Lhuillier
4. Saks Fifth Avenue
5. Vera Wang LA
6. Impressions Sawtelle
7. Mon Amie
8. Erin Cole
9. Priscilla of Boston
10. back to Monique Lhuillier
11. back to Vera Wang
12. back to Saks Fifth
13. Lili bridals Tarzana
14. Panache bridal
15. Winnie Couture
16. David's bridal to check out White by Vera Wang
17. Glamour Closet
18. back to Glamour Closet
19. Finally Vera Wang (twice in two days).

Ok so 13 individual stores and a couple visit back to the same stores. Yes I am an undecisive person, but really... really... it's not because I'm indecisive..

Let me tell you about my wedding dress story. I have two weddings... one in LA in September 2011. and another one in another country in December 2011. My wedding in LA is at an art Museum, it's an outdoor wedding for 150 guests. My other wedding is in a hotel ballroom for 1000 guests. (Really that is an average to smaller guest size in my country). So anyway, my grandma wants me to get two dresses. You can't wear the same dress twice, don't ask me why.. it's some traditional thing.. So I wanted to get a mermaid style dress, more fitted to my body and all the wedding in the other country has to be big ball gown and I don't want a ballgown wedding gown for my Los Angeles wedding.

I was havign a hard time finding my dress for my LA wedding. I just can't seem to find the one. I wanted a mermaid/trumpet tulle, organza, something soft and romantic. For my second wedding, I haven't tried a lot of ball gowns..

Anyway so after 13 stores, my mom told me I can get one wedding gown for both event , partly because the mermaid dress I liked is way over my budget and it's such a waste of money. So last week she told me this and I just knew I want to get a Vera Wang..

Went to the trunk show and yay... we got the dress now :) Ok keeping the dress huss huss for now...

my inspiration board...

50 dresses tried, none I loved

I've been looking for a dress since about three weeks after I got engaged. I've been every where in LA that fits my champagne taste (on a beer budget). My first two stops were in NY when I was visiting my bridesmaids. Vera Wang: it was prety good, I had a couple I liked, Farrah, Diana, Eliza. Then next to Mark Ingram, unfortunately nothing that blew my mind away.

Back to LA, and I've revisited Vera, went to Monique Lhuillier, Impressions bridal in Sawtelle, Saks Fifth, Winnie Couture, Panache, Mon Amie, back to Vera and Monique, Lili's bridal in Tarzana. Along the way , I have a couple like and the falling out of love (Vera Wang Farrah).

Now I'm almost in that limit of pushing the timeline on picking a dress and I don't have anything I really love... there are a couple strong contender..

I'm going to check out the White by Vera Wang line at David's bridal this weekend, will revisit Saks Fifth ave and then my last resort is the Vera Wang trunk show at Melrose on February 24th. The Hillary Duff vera wang wedding dress looks pretty awesome with a price tag of $6,500 ( my fiance thinks I'm crazy and will probably cut down my budget on other things if I pull the trigger on this one ).

1st pic: Ethel , strong contender
2nd pic: Fall 2011 Vera Wang, similar to Hillary Duff's dress
3rd pic: Farrah, the dress I fell out of love with

4 months into wedding planning in Los Angeles

I figured i should blog my way to the unknown world rather than yapping away to my bestfriends or fiance all the time.

So I got engaged in late 2010 and I'm in the midst of wedding planning. I'll update you all on how I'm doing in that front and any frustration I have.

What have I learned from 4 months of planning:
1. Yes, it is worth it to have a wedding planner. At least, book a Day of Coordinator. Granted I have not been married before so I don't know for sure, but a lot of previous brides told me you'll be so busy during the day of that you SHOULD GET a DOC. 4 months into planning, I wished I had gottan a partial planning too on top of DOC. This applies to me because my MOH and BMs are not in my city, my family is not in my city either, I wish I have someone who I can talk to/complained to/ get their opinions on random things
2. It's never too early to look for your wedding dress. I've been looking since November, and I have not found anything I love.
3. Try to involve your fiance as little as possible. I used to complained about this, but silently enjoy making my own decision
4. For LA, book your photographer really early and then book your DJ really early
5. Join the community boards to keep your self sane

That's all I have for now and I'm also going to share some of my inspirations boards bit by bit.

Ciao