The Dress

The search for just the right wedding dress was a pretty insane experience.

It started with Pinterest, as most of my searches do. I had been pinning, and pinning, and pinning tons of amazing bridal looks. And so I figured, it would be pretty easy to find a dress in the style I wanted. What I was looking for seemed to be all over the internet already.

But, boy, was I wrong!

Going into bridal boutiques and telling the sales people that you don’t want a white dress or a train pretty much eliminates 90% of the options available. Which, by the way, seems weird to me because one of the biggest trends in bridal right now is colored dresses. All kinds of colored bridal gowns have walked the runways recently!

But the sales people at boutiques were crafty and hungry to get me to “say yes to the dress” ASAP. So they tried to convince me otherwise; that what I wanted was really not what I wanted.

That’s when they started pulling dozens of white dresses from the showroom. All had trains. All had tons of stiff crinoline underneath for extra princess poof.

But when I tried to describe the more “boho” and “rustic” wedding aesthetic I was going for I was met with confused looks. That’s when the sales rep would immediately rush to a display filled with sparkly headbands to complete my “boho” look. Frustrating to say the least.

Boho chic is NOT a poofy mermaid dress with a headband #justsaying

— Melissa Behrens (@meltr0n) November 30, 2014

After deeper analysis into my past Pinterest pins, I discovered that most of the amazing ones I wanted were from BHLDN; Anthropologie’s sister bridal store (of course!). My mom was able to call and convince the sales manager to let us in for an appointment over Thanksgiving weekend. A feat really only my mother could accomplish. And I finally found the dress, shrug, and headband at their downtown Chicago location.

I left that same day with my dress in hand, the last one in my size, and feeling pretty great about the whole experience. Success!

*Credits:
Photography by Laura Zastrow
Hair and Makeup by Alice Ezrow
Floral by Daffodil Parker

Melissa's Style, Style, Wedding