My mom and I had talked about taking a trip to NYC to look at dresses, but we had a weekend with no plans so we decided to shop around in Wilmington first. I made two appointments for a Saturday and she and I headed to take a look at dresses along with my sister, matron of honor Emma, bridesmaid Hillary, and a FaceTime with my matron of honor Sarah.
Before shopping, I didn't really have an exact style of what kind of dress I wanted, but I did specify that I did not want strapless lace... never say never. At my first appointment, I tried on a variety of styles of dresses and found one that I almost said yes to. I fell in love with it, but something kept me from being 100% sure about it. We grabbed lunch before heading to the next appointment, and by then, I had a much better idea of what I style I liked.
When I arrived at Coastal Knot, my consultant Kirsten had a pretty good idea of some of my favorite styles as I had shared my Pinterest board with her (you can read more details about my CK experience here.) She pulled a few dresses that were on the board, and I also told her that I had found a strapless lace fitted gown that I loved (haha) at my earlier appointment. She pulled something that was similar but had a little bit of a different look and I had a feeling I was going to love it.
While my bride tribe hung out in the gorgeous waiting area, Kirsten helped me into the first of the dresses, recommending the lace pick. Sure enough, as soon as I started to slip it on, it just felt right, before I could even look at myself in the mirror. When I walked out of the dressing room, my mom said, "Oh my gosh, that is stunning. Perfect. I absolutely love it." And those words were missing from all of the other dresses that I had tried. My friends may have even teared up a little bit, and I felt completely like myself in that dress.
I tried on around 6 other gorgeous dresses at Coastal Knot (in addition to the 6-8 I had tried on at my first appointment, and I finally narrowed it down to two dresses. I loved this low back beaded dress, but there was something about it that reminded me of a pageant gown and because I had done pageants, I wanted my wedding gown to feel completely different. I slipped on my runner-up dress, a beautiful low-neck flirty ballgown with an open back, but ultimately, I knew my lace gown was the one. Though I wanted to love it, and I wanted my mom and friends, and of course Stephen, to love it just as much.
The dress I chose is designed by Madison James and is created out of a cotton lace that is so incredible soft. It did not have any beading on it, but I think that's part of what I loved about it. It was very fitted until the knee before it bellowed out into a mermaid style, and featured tiny buttons all the way down the dress. We ended up ordering extra lace to create a cathedral length veil to match my dress. The veil was something I knew I wanted from the very beginning, and I loved how the veil turned out (the veil in the photos is a sample), especially on our wedding day.
More than likely, I could have kept looking and found dresses that I loved just as much as the one I chose, but I so loved the experience I had at Coastal Knot and I truly felt like myself in that gown, just a little more dressed up.
I think my experience was so easy and fun because we did it so early in the engagement process and I had no expectations from the day. I wasn't hung up on finding a dress immediately, so finding one on that day made it that much sweeter.
I asked Stephen what he thought about my dress, and I think it wasn't the exact style he thought I picked, but in his words, "It was even better than what I thought."
Though this textured ballgown wasn't very me, I loved trying it on and loved the gorgeous low back and unique shimmer the fabric had.
This lace-dress was the almost dress from our first appointment.
My sister's pick at Coastal Knot! All the ruffles weren't quite me, but I loved how fitted the dress was!
This dress was so stunning and one I had actually pinned, but ultimately, it just didn't feel like the right dress.
This dress was my second favorite at Coastal Knot. It was so different than the one I chose, but I loved how fun and flirty it was, and it was incredibly comfortable (and had pockets!).
This was the first moment I tried my dress on, and I think I literally said, "There isn't anything I don't love about it. I seriously love everything."
Stepping it up a notch with the veil.
