As The Dress Twirls (Part 2)

On my continued search for a Wedding Dress - Mama Frenchie, Sister Frenchie and Bridesmaid F (she has an English Bulldog) all went to La Soie Bridal in the Tustin Market Place.

Side Story: I found out about La Soie because of a friend from school. We were all sitting around on break talking about where we work and she told me she worked at a Bridal Salon, I asked her what they carried, she told me and I went home and looked at those dresses (I know nothing about most dress designers). I liked what I saw and made an appointment. I didn't end up meeting with her, which is probably for the best since I she really doesn't need to see me in my bra & panties.

At La Soie we meet with Staphany, a totally sweet girl. Stephany pointed us toward the A line dresses, let us go through the racks and pull out anything to try on. I pretty much decided to try on anything the entourage showed me. One thing I noticed when going through their racks was how reasonable the dresses were priced, all around $700-$1000.

Once in the dressing room (yes this time it was big enough to call a room AND it had mirrors! I forgot to mention that DB does not have mirrors in the box) I tried on the first dress Stephany had picked out for me and really liked it, plus I was also pleasantly surprise to find out I fit in their sample size - YAY! I walked out to show Sister Frenchie and BM F who weren't outside the room looking at BM dresses, everyone kinda liked it but like me there were things about it they didn't like - mainly the corset/lace-up back I didn't want and the weird fabric under the boobs.

Again with the weird face, WTF camera operator? OOOR Maybe I should take this as a sign that I don't really like the dress... hmmmmm. As you can see the sample fit but was still too small the back didn't lace up right and my boobs are coming out - pretty no?

After this dress I trired on a BUNCH more (sorry no pics of those) and then Stephany pulled out a dress I didn't really want to try on, but agreed to anyway. Well once I got it on I LOVED it! I made me look skinnier, it kept the girls under control, it could still made into a sweetheart neckline, and it was soooo light (organza's like that you know). But, I didn't want to stop trying dresses on because I wasn't completely sold, so I tried on a few more and then decided to try on the first one again and the organza one... AND take pictures!

Sister Frenchie armed with my camera and BM F on the look-out

we took the picture above and my picture in the organza dress. (Of course we found out later the pictures were totally allowed HAHAHA!)
Oh LOOK! She has a face and its a happy one! (So happy it looks like I invited my chins to the party). This dress is still too small, so the girls are still kinda pushing out but you get the idea. So, this is the dress, when I tried it on the 2nd time I knew this was the dress, so we bought it... or put in the order for a size bigger and paid half... and so the search was done right? Ummm wrong, nothing is that easy!

Monday night I went school and saw my friend who works at La Soie Bridal (we'll call her D). I told D I had found and purchased a dress (YAY) but I couldn't find the dress on Maggie Sottero's website (Booo). This made D nervous which, in turn, made me nervous... she said that could mean the dress has been discountinued! I brushed it off and thought "no Stephany knew what she was doing and plus she put the order in today, surely she would have noticed then that the dress had been discountinued".

The next day while as was at work, ironically emailing with some friends about my wedding dress, D called me from the Salon. She checked and sure enough Cherelle (my dress) had been discontinued. I wish I could tell you how upset I was, because then I wouldn't feel so silly that I bought a dress that I didn't really want. At first, yeah, I was bummed but I was never upset - D felt horrible and I just told her not to worry about it and THANK YOU for checking so I knew sooner. I even tried to find the dress somewhere else and I did, in Maryland about an 1.5 hours from my Aunt & Uncle, but I didn't feel the MUST HAVE need to call the Maryland store and track down the dress. Honestly I realize now I was just trying to make Mama Frenchie happy because she loved the dress so much and she was crushed, when I told her.

I knew I really like the fit of the Maggie Sottero dresses, after all they have been voted "Best Fit in the Business", and I figured if the discontinued the dress they must have something similar, but better so I went to the website and found Anastasia.

She is A line and organza, like Cherelle, but already has a sweetheart neckline, like I wanted. I had to try her on so I called around to all the Maggie retailers in my area to see if anyone had Anastasia in their store. Unfortunately no-one did, but I did find the largest Maggie retailer on the West Coast (45 min from my house), so I made an appointment as early as I could and tried to round up the entourage again.

* I would like to point out that La Soie Bridal was great and I would recommend going there to anyone, and have. What happened with my dress could have happened anywhere

Did anyone else order a dress only to find out it was discontinued?