You're welcome. No one should be subjected to being stuffed, paraded, and strapped into itchy tulle and beads, let's not make it worse than it has to be shall we?
I grew up with my mom being an amazing seamstress, she would let me and my brothers pick out fabric at Joanns (my sanctuary at 7-12 years old) and a pattern and make us a cool outfit for School, or prom or whatever, she was awesome at it and I remember the rhythmic sound of the sewing machine always reverberating the kitchen table, chug chug chug, while we sat at it and messed with all her bobbins and thread. I learned that my idea of sewing (crazily pinning fabric with no pattern, cursing at the needle loader, and ending up with crooked and misshapen designs) and hers (cutting very precisely with a mat, patterns perfectly aligned, fantastic backstitching )were very different. Mostly I learned about seams, fabric quality and how to spot a good cut before even trying something on. All this is great when shopping for clothes, let alone a wedding dress. I had high hopes, the shops had.. well, I'll list them here so as not to waste any time.
Shop 1
The Best Location and Vibe
Wow, stunning redone church in Downtown SD, soo cool to hang out, sip drinks, and have the gals over. Dresses are unlined, thin, flowy, unstructured and comfortable, machine washable and dress gal was epic, super awesome and sweet. Prices were pretty high and there's a ton of price caveats for rushed shipping, ordering your size, what are considered "new" models and it still needs altering afterwards. Given how simple the dresses are the prices seemed a bit steep. Perfect for a casual beach wedding.
Shop 2
The Best quality for price and nicest most educated dress guy.
So many dresses and styles and he is excellent at fitting with a great eye. Prices were really really great, and quality was very good. We actually had a lot of fun here and I ALMOST got my dress here.
Shop 3
The Worst
Please girls don't go here, save yourself the curiosity I had. These places are probably what birth bridezillas, I think I saw a cage of them all trapped in the back room.
If you want more details than that?
Salespeople who seem like they hate their job and just want to go home, the itchiest cheapest Halloween costume fabric, fluorescent lighting and no mirrors in old dressing rooms, seems like a lot of dresses at first but they are all essentially the same, oh and the prices!! They were the second most expensive dresses I tried on.
Davids Bridal
Shop 4
The One
If I hadn't of found my dress here I would have still said the best selection and quality, and stress-free environment. I even got to meet the designer from Turkey and honestly could have worn 3 of the dresses from there easily. ( as opposed to the "designer" at Davids that was probably an actual turkey). This place is a gold mine of European-made cuts, fabric and design. They also name the dress after you if you are the first one to buy it, so I now have an "Aja"! Prices were amazing, so glad I didn't discount going because it was in Del Mar.
Altering
I went to the place that Jana Ann's suggested and these ladies were punctual, creative, highly skilled and very sweet. Dress came out amazing, and they really had to do a lot of work on it that could have gone very wrong. Be ready to fork out a lot of dough.
