The big bridal stores vs. the private stores

As a bride I observed the big bridal stores vs. the much smaller, private ones and it was really interesting.

I had heard from many brides to avoid David's Bridal for my wedding gown - mainly to their dresses not accommodating tall girls well and being very expensive to alter to add length.

Therefore, I went to a much smaller bridal store south of where I live. It only had two dressing rooms, one being so small I actually didn't even know it was there until it was pointed out to me later. There weren't a huge selection - but they had enough where I got a good idea of what looked good on me, and what didn't.

Most of all, the customer service was exceptional - although it helped that I was the only bride in the store and you had to have an appointment. The lady that owned the store was the only one there at the time (she also had an assistant), and it was fabulous. My bridesmaid and I were definitely treated like royalty.

At that cute, little dress boutique I found my dream dress.

However, I could not imagine all my bridesmaids fitting into the little dress shop and there definitely weren't enough dresses for everyone to try on.

Therefore, for the bridesmaids dresses we ventured to two places: David's Bridal and a popular local boutique. The local boutique was more expensive and most sizes were 6-8 (which would fit some, but not all the girls).

So, we ventured to David's Bridal and had the most fabulous experience. I have heard many not-so-great things about David's but I must say we went there twice, once on Friday and another time on Saturday, and had awesome service! It's not that they weren't busy - they definitely were - but they still cared about us. They had a ton of different sizes (between 2 - 24) and lots of colors.

We said yes to those dresses.

Serene dresses and Midnight vests

So another "problem" with the gorgeous serene dresses is that although they came from David's Bridal, they did not have exact coordinating tuxes at their "brother" company, Men's Warehouse.

Therefore we opted for the Midnight at Men's Warehouse. My fiance and I personally went and looked at all the vests, and this was by far the best match (aside from just silver, gold, champagne, or black).

I would definitely recommend these vests.

Serene Dresses and Flowers

I haven't updated this in forever, but I definitely will start (hopefully) at a little bit more of a regular pace.

First off, I had a hard time finding tuxes and flowers online that matched my girls color - Serene from David's Bridal. Therefore, if any future bride finds me through google, here are good options.

Flowers for Serene: Orchids, purple or pink roses, white/ivory roses

Here was another suggestion: "a combination of roses and lilies. Both are beautiful and summery flowers and their contrasting shapes are very striking in a bouquet. chose white, blues, with hints of yellow and coral/peach. I thought bringing in yellow was a nice was to compliment and brighten up those blues."