Wedding dress shopping is such a surreal thing. You have one hour to try on as many dresses as you can in an entire store filled with the most gorgeous gowns you have ever laid your eyes on and then hopefully, maybe fall in love with one. Overwhelming is an understatement here. But about a month ago I did just that. I found the one and I love it to the moon and my sister loves it, and my mom– well, if wiping tears from your eyes means anything (which I like to believe it does), then we got it right! We found a winner!
We took one weekend and went to 3 places. This worked for me, and I’m grateful– but it’s a lot of brain work trying on those dresses! On Friday we visited Anthropologie in Chestnut Hill where they actually have an entire section of the store dedicated to the BHLDN line. You must make an appointment online and when you do so you mention the names of the dresses you’d like to try on during your time there. I requested quite a few, but some of my favorites were The Persiphone Gown, The Penelope Gown, and The Daphne Dress. {Also, now that I’m browsing the website the Lucca Maxi is INCREDIBLE, but I don’t think this was one of the choices at the time of my appointment.} Looking at them again I’m completely googly eyed, but my thoughts on the dresses in person were actually quite different. I didn’t love them! THE TRAGEDY! I wanted to love them because Anthropologie is the definition of my LOVE LANGUAGE, but I just didn’t. I couldn’t! Try as I might I didn’t feel any feelings and this honestly made me quite sad.
And also a little bit nervous, too. WOULD I FIND A DRESS TO LOVE?
I want to be sure to mention that my experience at BHLDN was wonderful. We were helped by the nicest people {thanks, Olivia!} and everyone was so kind– the nicest. And! We were served champagne! How it should be, you know? I would definitely recommend it to others looking to find a dress. The bridal shop is gorgeous and their dresses are lovely– it just turned out there wasn’t one for me!
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The next morning I got up feeling good and ready to take on the day. Since my mom came for the weekend we spent the morning dreaming up a few wedding details and then we ventured to Beacon Hill. Ceremony is a little boutique tucked away on River Street and it’s interior is just divine. My heart felt a flutter a soon as we arrived and looking back it seems perfect that I found my dress here. Alix, the owner, opened the shop up in 2013 and her style on all things, especially Bridal things, is just exactly right.
{That’s Maura up in that photo. She works at Ceremony and helped me at my appointment that day. Thank you, Maura! Another lovely bridal boutique soul. God bless them all.}
Ceremony is everything a bridal shop should be and more. It is light and bright and filled with the most gorgeous dresses you could ever dream up. Perfectly simple, perfectly pretty. Appointments are one hour and for that time you literally have the entire loft to yourself. It’s a dream! I arrived a little early and as the previous appointment was coming to a close I was able to browse the sample sale rack a bit and found a few I liked. I also worked my way through a few other racks in the front of the shop, but prices are fairly steep here so I had to be careful! Nothing worse than finding your dream dress out of your price range I kept reminding myself. Once I had a good number of choices I began trying them on one by one. It is so fun to step into a wedding dress. Pure happiness, I tell you! Each time I would come out from the dressing area my sister would gasp with delight.
So. Much. FUN.
:)
It was here at Ceremony where I found it. I felt it right away and at first I felt joy and then I felt peace.
G L E E E E E, glorious glee.
We still had one more dress appointment that afternoon and Alix so kindly offered to hold the dress for 24 hours {it was a sample dress, so I really needed to make a decision!}. Our last stop was the Vows bridal outlet in Watertown. Our experience here was not as lovely or private {Saturdays are busy!} but they do have plenty of dresses and the prices are RIGHT. I felt like I needed to come here because I made the appointment and also just to be 100% sure that I’d found the dress for me. And of course, I just kept thinking of the Ceremony dress. It was in my mind the entire time. Every dress I tried on was nowhere near as magical, not-a-single-feeling!— It was crystal clear what I needed to do.
I dialed that Beacon Hill number and made that dress mine. ♥
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P.S. That last photo is not MY dress, but a pretty one indeed!
P.P.S. Find a reason to visit Ceremony. :)
You’ll be so glad you did!
Email: hello@ceremony-boston.com
Phone: 857-277-1669
Instagram : @ceremony_boston
Oh my goodness, that final dress – STUNNING!!!
I got to do this same circuit of wedding and bridesmaid dress shopping with my sister in the fall. Such different shopping experiences at each place, which you captured beautifully. (And your post reminds me that I desperately want one of those sparkly belts from BHLDN for my MOH dress!). Hooray for magical dresses!
My dress is a little bit similar to that one— and that’s all I’m going to say! :)
And yes, they are so different! And The sparky belts! I LOVE THEM!!
UGH I CAN’T WAIT TO SEE YOUR DRESS LEMME SEE NOW. PLZ. I only went to JCrew when I was looking for my dress. My appointment was right after the 2013 marathon and all the aftermath, so I didn’t have a whole lot of emotions left for my dress. But I put it on and I was like huh this is nice. Tried on some other ones, put The Dress back on and just said to myself ok. I handed out my credit card to the girl helping me and my mom was shocked! It’s so different for everyone, but I will tell you I went to BHLDN a week before my wedding and had a mental breakdown because I loved the dresses there so much and I thought I made a mistake with my dress. My poor mother haha!
BUT YOUR DRESS WAS AMAZING AND PERFECT!!!!!!!!!! Honestly, it really truly was. No mistake made by you, my friend!
xo
OMG I need to hear about your experience at VOWS!! My Mom made an appointment there for my very first dress trying experience, but my sister and I vetoed just because we knew it would be so overwhelming I would likely quit dress shopping all together! LOVE these pictures!! xoxox
VOWS was intense. Rows of dresses in plastic bags. Lots of people. You are in charge of finding dresses to try on so it’s a lot of picking through the carts of dresses and looking through the bags. You share a dressing area with other brides and it’s all just very busy. A good place to go to at the end and helped me really appreciate the other experiences even more! The prices are really reasonable, though and I can see why that is important now that I am in the thick of it!
I didn’t go to Ceremony but I did look at dresses at Vows! We went on a day that was snowing, so maybe it kept some people away because it was pretty quiet. It was still overwhelming! I found the prices were great, but some of the great deals were still out of my price range – a $14,000 gown for $3,500? I wish!! (I may have fallen in love with one…) But my favorite part about the open dressing areas was seeing other brides’ styles. It was so clear we each gravitated to a certain LOOK and it helped me refine exactly what I was searching for once I realized that!
I also bought a couple BHLDN dresses (hit up their sample sale in Philly!) and while I loved them, none were THE dress. As pretty as they are, most end up feeling a little casual on! Just right for some brides, but not for me in the end.
I ended up picking out a vintage gown I had partially remade for me. By coincidence, I have a post going up about it today :)
I know, right! Prices be crazy! And for one day it still boggles my mind a bit. I was so lucky to get a sample sale dress– I could hardly believe my luck actually. :) :)
I love the idea of a vintage dress! I’m sure it was lovely!!
yayyyy so exciting!!!! I loved my dress too – such a good feeling! :) My alterations ended up not quite right – I was living in France at the time, so when I came home I had a million things to do and looking back I wish I paid more attention to whether the alterations were being done well. But it was still the best day EVER, as I’m sure your wedding day will be for you! :) xox
I will keep that in mind as I get mine altered!
Would love to see a pic of you if you have one! xo
ah so many pretty dresses! congrats on finding the one! i know what you mean about anthropologie. i unfortunately didn’t even know they sold wedding dresses when i was getting married. i found out from a friend and her dress was GORGEOUS.
They are gorgeous! And isn’t it just so fun looking and trying on? I was exhausted by the end of the weekend but would easily do it all over again. :)
I totally had that same moment when I found my wedding dress. I just knew. I had a flash of what my now-husband’s face would be when he saw me in it for the first time. I felt giddy. It was perfect. And it was a sample too! (I also refused to try on anything outside my price range.) It was about 8 sizes too big, but they assured me the seamstress they had for alterations wouldn’t have a problem, and she didn’t. And after 7 years, my dress is one of two things I’ve never wished I could change after seeing all the wedding possibilities on Pinterest and Blogland. (The other thing I wouldn’t change is my groom :D)
PS Congrats on finding THE dress. I’m excited to see your wedding unfold here on the blog. I know it’s going to be gorgeous and magical!
So so exciting! I cannot wait to see which one you choose! You will be a stunning bride!
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