I Went Wedding Dress Shopping + Said Yes to the Dress!
If there’s one part of the wedding planning experience I was most nervous about, it was buying my wedding dress.
To be honest, the whole wedding planning process has been a bit dizzying. Since I have no siblings and none of my friends are married yet, I’m entering uncharted territory. It’s proven to be quite the education lol.
Hopefully, this little peek into my dress shopping experience will help another bride-to-be feel a little less anxious about her upcoming appointment. Keep reading to find out how I planned for my wedding dress shopping trip and what happened when I actually went!
Crème Couture in Guelph, ON
I did a lot of research prior to my dress appointment.
First, I needed to determine what I actually envisioned when I saw myself in a wedding dress and translate that to something I could present to a wedding dress consultant. This was actually quite a long process!
If you rewound the clock to five years ago, you would find me dreaming of ball gowns with full skirts and layers of sparkly tulle. Basically anything that resembled a Disney princess. Given that I originally planned to be married at Disney World, this was a pretty intentional choice.
Now, I truly cannot imagine myself in a big poofy dress. Oh, how the times have changed.
I ended up falling in love with more romantic silhouettes, lace motifs, and off-the-shoulder straps. I spent months scouring the Internet (thanks, Pinterest!) in search of dresses that matched the image in my mind.
Next, I had to find boutiques in my local area where I could shop for my dress. Luckily, southern Ontario is a very popular location for weddings and there was no shortage of options. I narrowed down my search to Crème Couture in Guelph, Stolen Hearts Bridal in Waterdown, Michelle My Belle in Waterdown, and Heirlooms in Dundas. Spoiler alert: I only made it to Crème Couture.
These options were all highly-rated shops that I found on WeddingWire or Vineyard Bride (a resource for Ontarian brides). While I can’t speak to my experience at the others, I can say that Crème Couture gave me a lovely experience and I’m sure the others are wonderful, too!
I set my first appointment at Crème Couture for March 2022, as they were a Madi Lane retailer. Madi Lane Bridal is an Australian wedding dress designer that sells gorgeous, high-quality gowns for the modern bride. Each dress comes with beautiful lace appliques and their silhouettes are oh-so-dreamy.
After doing my research, it was time to try on some dresses. Off to Crème Couture I went!
Arriving at Crème Couture!
The big day: heading to the bridal boutique.
For a while, I wasn’t even certain that I’d make it to my wedding dress appointment. After two years of successfully evading COVID, my fiancé and I were both struck down by the virus only three weeks before my appointment. I was quite ill for a couple weeks but luckily, I bounced back in the nick of time and made it to my appointment without a hitch!
My party consisted of my mum, my future mother-in-law, and my maid of honour. These gals were so supportive and wonderful from start-to-finish and it made the appointment so much fun — not to mention, stress-free.
Crème Couture is located in a mall in Guelph. Can I just say that it’s the most beautiful shop ever? Our whole group was shook when we rolled up lol. Straight away, the team at the bridal shop were super lovely. They quickly got us setup in the bridal room, which was an entirely separate room and experience from the rest of the shop. Just when we thought the shop couldn’t be more beautiful, we saw the bridal room… Wow!
I met my bridal consultant, Michelle, who took care of us for the two hours that we were there. After introducing herself, she asked me what style of dress I was interested in and after giving her a description, she immediately pulled a Madi Lane gown for me to try on.
Little did I know that the very first dress would be The Dress…
Despite myself and my group (and my consultant!) falling head over heels in love with the first dress I tried on, I ended up trying on about a dozen dresses. Almost all of the dresses were Madi Lane. But I did try on a wide variety of gowns including ball gown, mermaid, strapless, long-sleeve… It was a lot of fun and I’m really glad I got the full experience.
Here are some of the dresses I ended up trying on that weren’t “the one”:
Elora-Mae gown
Bronte gown
Calissa gown
At the end, I had two top contenders that I tried on once more to get a better comparison. It was so difficult to narrow down my choices, they were all so beautiful. After trying on both dresses, it was a super close call… But the first dress I tried on was the obvious winner! I wish I could share it here with you, but of course, that’s a secret I’ll be keeping until the big day 😉
One of the (many) dresses I tried on
Overall, the day was magical and everything I ever imagined it to be. Although I never expected my wedding planning to be in the middle of a global pandemic, the mask mandate was lifted the very week of my appointment which was so lucky. While I continue to wear my dress as a personal choice, I did feel comfortable enough to try-on dresses which made the day feel more normal.
I’m so excited to continue planning for the big day and now that I’ve picked my dress, it’s all feeling so much more real. And I can’t wait to share the process here with you. If you’re a future bride- or groom-to-be, or just feeling a bit nosy (no judgment here!), make sure to check out all my wedding-related content here!
