Featured Bride, Anna T. Wedding Location: Inver Grove Heights, MN | Wedding Date: May 19, 2012 Of all of the bridal shops Minnesota has to offer, our brides choose us to help their wedding day dreams come true, and we could not be more flattered! Featured Bride, Anna T., is back to tell us all about her journey to find the perfect dress.

(Photo courtesy of David Grube Photography.)

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When I was living in Fargo, ND, I worked as a bridal consultant at a bridal boutique. So, when I got engaged, everyone asked me if I already had my “dream dress” picked out. I always said, “No,” which made them all confused: why would a person who worked with wedding dresses for a living have no idea which dress she would choose for THE dress? My reasoning was simple: designers can discontinue dresses and I didn’t want to risk falling in love with a dress, only to have it be gone by the time I got married. Luckily though, I knew the style of dress that I would like, approximately how much beading I wanted, etc., so I at least had a good base to start with when I went wedding dress shopping. My fiancé, Wayne, was bummed about not being able to be a part of this detail in the planning process, but I want his first time seeing the dress to be on our wedding day! It was going to be a very long Saturday in August, as we were going to four different bridal shops for me to do my wedding dress shopping. It was my mom, my sister (who is going to be my maid of honor), my grandma, and Wayne’s mom. We all piled into the car to make our trek around the Twin Cities in search of my perfect dress. The first bridal boutique was okay, but they wouldn’t tell you the designer of the dress until you purchased the dress. Having once been a bridal consultant, I couldn’t get myself to purchase a dress from them without knowing who the designer was first.

Wedding dress shopping and narrowing it down...

(Photo courtesy of Chelsey Marie Photography.)

The next couple bridal shops were a blur; there wasn’t anything I was in love with. The last stop was quite fantastic, though. I found two dresses that were by far my favorites. I liked them equally because they were both so different from each other. I decided that I couldn’t make a decision on my first day out, so we went home. After a couple days of tossing the two dresses back and forth, I decided I needed to go check out a few more shops to see if I could find “the dress.” My mom and I visited a couple local bridal shops, but still no luck. I liked the other two better, but I just couldn’t decide. The final bridal boutique I went to visit with my mom and sister one Monday evening was the Wedding Shoppe in St. Paul. I don’t know why I just didn’t go there first, as they had almost all the designers I wanted to look at, but I was afraid it would be too overwhelming to have such a large selection. We started pulling a bunch of dresses when we got there. I had already figured out the style I liked, so we were able to sort through the dresses pretty quickly. They even had the two dresses that were my favorites from my first day of wedding dress shopping, so I would be able to compare them to any other dresses I found (or, maybe just putting them on again would help me make my decision). So the dress trying was on again in full force. I was quickly discarding dresses, putting some in “try on again” piles, and fine-tuning what my style was.

Finding THE dress at the Wedding Shoppe.

After I tried on all the new dresses, I went back to my original two favorites. I put the first one on, and I hated it. I put the second one on, and I hated it. The poor bridal consultant looked a little frantic at first, but then she said that she had a dress that was unlike any other one that I had tried on, so I told her to go grab it for me. She came back with it, I put it on, and BAM! It was “the dress!” I couldn’t stop smiling. It was just perfect. We got the order started that night and it came in a short eight weeks later. Trying on MY dress was magical! It fit perfectly and I was so happy with it! My mom and sister came with me when I went to try it on for the first time, and they were both in awe over how beautiful it was. I can’t wait for May 19, when Wayne gets to see me in it for the first time—I’m sure his jaw will drop!

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Thank you so much, Anna! We are sure you will be stunning on your big day. As always, we are looking forward to hearing how the rest of your planning goes!

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