I need a dress GPS

OK, so the first attempt at BM dress shopping didn't go so well.  Thankfully, I'm not one to get bummed out at the first sign of failure.  Instead, I devote every waking moment to finding a solution until I can show that obstacle who's boss.  Maybe not the best method of coping, but it works for me.  So, I turned to my trust interwebs to find some BM dresses that would pass muster.  I scoured all of the various collections that my salon carried, hoping to find some winners.  Unfortunately, nothing really jumped off the screen at me.  I decided I just wasn't trying hard enough and proceeded to look at the same dress pictures over and over and over again, willing one of them to wow me.  Still nothing.

Then I took the alternate approach and decided to make everything a possibility.  Short?  Sure.  Long?  Why not.  Chiffon or satin... why not both?!  In a matter of one short mentality shift, I went from having nothing that caught my eye to having my eye caught by about 50 different dresses at once.  I will confess that a certain dress was kind of pulling ahead...

Image via Jasmine Bridal (Belsoie L3009)

(The catalog image is in Cobalt, but the image above is in Bordeaux.  To preview the dress in any of the available colors, click the color box and the "preview" button.)

...until Mr. Snow Cone let it be known that long BM dresses weren't exactly his cup of tea.  I know, I know... he's not the one wearing them, but it's kind of bold to say "OK, thanks dear... I'm going to do the exact opposite of what you just suggested."  The combination of my change in perspective and Mr. Snow Cone's feedback pretty much drove me to bridal insanity.

Image via Wedding-Inspiration

I began texting and emailing my mom every bridesmaid dress-related thought that popped into my brain... which was not just one or two.  I then took some good ol' motherly advice and stopped looking, stopped thinking... just... stopped.  I closed my computer, refusing to look at another dress.  I tried my best to shut my brain down to prevent the nonstop loop of dresses from parading through my thought bubbles.  I took a temporary hiatus from BM dress world.  And then, when I was ready, I employed two specific strategies, courtesy of mi madre. 

First, I picked up the nearest bridal magazine and scanned through as swiftly as possible.  Rather than debating about the miniscule details of any given dress, I scanned all the images rapidly, taking note of what really caught my eye.  And then I took myself (and just myself) to the bridal salon to try on as many dresses as I could stand.  Considering that I had no direction, I decided this would be the best way to go.  I could select a huge variety of dresses and try them on myself - I could get a handle on what I liked and didn't like without feeling guilty for asking one of my poor BMs to try on the 40th dress of the day.  Stay tuned to see some of the winners and some of the (ahem) losers of the bunch!

How did your BM dress search go?  Was it a headache or a breeze?