The other day, I told you about my trip to Hitched in Georgetown and how I added Jorge Manuel to the list of designers I liked after seeing his name on the salon’s website. I started gobbling up everything I could find online about Jorge because his dresses were unlike any I had seen before. While many of the silhouettes were traditional, the details were so different! I thought his dresses looked like pieces of art.

I had been searching for dresses with quirky or whimsical details and while many of the dresses I tried on were beautiful, none seemed to have a very special or original look. The Jorge Manuel gowns had me excited. The fashion lover in me liked them a lot and I also felt excited about them. Perhaps I was feeling the emotions that many brides feel when they find their dress?

Look at the detail on that train! / The Indus by Jorge Manuel

I tried on The Emerald gown at Hitched and it was a wee bit too slinky for me since I’m a little self-conscious about my hips. I kept searching and reading whatever I could about Jorge and his dresses.

The Emerald by Jorge Manual

A post on the Completely Unveiled wedding blog got me really excited. Jorge was giving away one of his gorgeous, one-of-a-kind dresses! I couldn’t imagine being lucky enough to win the Star gown, but I started to daydream about it a little bit. Finally, I decided that I would regret not trying to win and wrote a little essay to submit as my entry. I heard that there were over 250 entries, so I wasn’t too hopeful.

Image from Jorge Manuel’s blog

A few weeks later, I woke up to find out that I was one of the five semi-finalists in the Upon a Star Contest! Just getting picked for one of those five spots was a thrill. I put the contest out of my head for a couple weeks.

On the morning that the winner of the gown was announced, I groggily checked my email and didn’t have any messages about the contest. Oh well. It was nice to have been a finalist and I realized that the contest made me decide that I wanted to be a Jorge bride since I hadn’t been as excited about any other designer’s gowns during my search.

I figured I’d check out which of finalists was the winner. One of the pictures on the front page of Jorge’s website had changed. I was one click away from finding out who won one of his beautiful wedding gowns.

Image from Jorge Manuel’s website

I clicked and screamed.

He can do wonders just wrapping fabric around a form! / Image from Jorge Manuel’s website

Junior Mink seemed to think I was injured. I ran over to Mr. Mink and threw myself into his arms, probably making unintelligible sounds. He thought I saw a spider. He knew I had entered a contest to win a dress, but I wouldn’t let him see it or tell him too many details. He couldn’t possibly be as excited as I was.

So, my dress search came to a very unexpected and abrupt end with a one-of-a-kind, dream dress. Later that morning, Jorge Manuel himself called me at the office and said that he was flying me down to Charleston to pick up my gown at Maddison Row, the bridal salon that helped sponsor the contest. He promised me that the dress was better in person. I had only looked at a few pictures of the gown on a dress form, but I thought he was selling it a little short. It looked beautiful to me! I hope you’ll agree! Tomorrow, I’ll share pictures from my trip to Charleston, including ones of me trying on my gown for the first time!

Have you ever won anything from a blog contest? What was it?

This article was originally posted onWeddingbee.

I’ve been sharing quite a bit about shopping for my bridesmaids recently, and it’s probably time for me to revisit my wedding-gown search, which had started online. My first dress-shopping excursion wasn’t really my idea. A fashion-blogger friend of mine was writing an article for a regional magazine’s annual wedding issue, and she wanted to have a few pictures of a bride shopping at a local boutique to go with it. So, I made an appointment at the small bridal shop in town and invited a couple other friends along.

This was just going to be a fun shopping trip with some friends. I knew we weren’t going to find my dress at the shop. A lot of what they had was embellished and sequined with layers and flounces.

Closeup of Maggie Sottero Saige / Photo by Dana Holler of CvilleFashion.com

Now, I love bridal fashion. During Bridal Market, which is the wedding industry’s version of Fashion Week, I hang on the blogs of the people I know are attending. I have a hard time pulling myself away from Twitter, where I can see pictures from the shows. I can look at almost any dress and find something positive about it. So, I can objectively say that the dresses I tried on were lovely. They just weren’t the kinds of dresses that I want to wear myself.

I have three regrets about how I started my dress search:

1. My first stop should have been to a full-service salon. This salon had a hands-off approach. My consultant pointed out the racks and told me what designers were in which section and told us to pull six dresses to start.

Dress name unknown / Photo by Dana Holler of CvilleFashion.com

2. I should have shopped with a smaller group. I tried on dresses the others picked first and was exhausted by the time I got to ones I liked. What’s more, even if I put a dress on and knew it wasn’t going to work, I had to parade out of the dressing room to show it to everyone. I probably could have tried on more dresses if I had been alone. In the end, this little trip was about getting images for my friend to use with her article, so this wasn’t a big deal.

Why did this one already have a bustle? Why do so many salons have green carpets? / Photo by Dana Holler of Fashionable.com

3. I should have been open to all silhouettes from the start. I went into the shop intent on finding a lace A-line dress with straps. Such a narrow scope meant I probably passed over some dresses when I first got there. As you can imagine, most of the dresses were strapless, there were a variety of silhouettes, and lace was not dominant in their inventory. In fact, I don’t think I tried on any lace at all! The others convinced me to try on some other styles.

Just for fun, I tried on the full-length version of Justin Alexander 8465, the dress that I called “the blog dress” because I saw it on several wedding blogs early on in my planning. I’m not crazy about the angle of the photo of me in the dress, but that dress does wonderful things to your waist! It’s a beautiful dress. It wasn’t for me, but I can understand why it’s so popular!

Justin Alexander 8465 / Photo from Justin Alexander Bridal

Even though I tried on about 10 dresses that didn’t interest me, I learned a lot at that appointment. I learned that fabric and workmanship can vary a lot, even among dresses in the same price range. One of the gowns I tried on looked pretty in the mirror, but the dress didn’t feel good on me. After a few minutes of wearing it, I realized that the fabric was the problem. One of my friends quietly pointed out that the stitching and hem work was not done well, either.

I realized that strapless gowns feel almost nothing like the strapless dresses I’ve worn in the past. If fitted properly, they feel great and there’s no need to tug on the top to keep the dress in place. I also added modified A-line and trumpet dresses to the list of silhouettes I like.

In the end, we had a fun time and my friend got pictures for her article, so it was a successful day.

Maggie Sottero Saige from afar…look at that frothy bottom. / Photo by Dana Holler of CvilleFashion.com

Anyone else have a first appointment that was just a prelude to the real search? Did you start your search with a very specific kind of dress in mind like I did? Did you expend your scope as well?

This article was originally posted onWeddingbee.