The Next Time You Say “Forever”

On dress shopping: I only wanted to go to one store.  I knew which dress was mine.  There were a few backups to try on, at the same store, just in case.

I coordinated with my mom and bridesmaids for the perfect Saturday morning to visit the JCrew at Northpark.  They had recently renovated their store and expanded to where the Men’s Store was across the mall street (it’s a street, right?) and the big store was all womens PLUS a bridal suite (by appointment only).  I made an appointment for a Saturday morning in January at 10:00AM when the store opened.  Bridesmaid Erin and I sat on a bench outside the store at 9:55AM (she’s a good friend).

They sample the dresses in a size 8 (which is my size, lucky me!) and I was worried they’d only have the latest dresses, but they had some past seasons too (that may have been unique to my visit).  I wanted that Nadia dress, but I made a list of about 6 that I wanted to try and my stylist, Spencer suggested 2 more.  JCrew’s dresses are simple and modern and well made (I wasn’t sure what to expect, never having seen one of their dresses in person).

I tried on all of them, with the assistance of my patient mother (because who else do you feel totally comfortable getting dressed and undressed in front of?) and maybe only one didn’t make it out for bridesmaid review.  Then there was the Nadia dress–the dress–I got it on and…it was not the dress (the center dress).  Maybe someone was too hard on the sample dress, but the bust was not working.  It had a wrinkle to it that was not coming out.  On top of that though, it has beautiful chiffon fabric gathered in different places which was lovely and soft.  It didn’t seem right to me.  I’m not soft.  I’m hard core, rock and roll, and edgy (that’s why I shop at JCrew).

We tried on one of my backups and my second place, the Carson dress (good vibes thinking of my dear Mr. Carson from Downton Abbey).  That was it.  We were done.  I didn’t think my face showed a giant change of expression, but according to everyone else, it did.  I wasn’t too surprised that I ended up with a dress with sleeves (I was actually relieved to have the undergarment shoulder support and being a little more covered up).  I also wasn’t surprised that I ended up with a very low cut dress–I love a vneck, it makes my neck all long!

We went to lunch after our hour long appointment was up.  I didn’t purchase the dress right then.  I don’t know why I didn’t.  Maybe I was just took fearful to make a decision that quickly (within the last 15 minutes of our appointment) even thought it was obvious that was the dress.  I emailed Spencer on Monday, she signed me up for the JCrew credit card so that I would get 20% (!) off my first purchase, so I was all, “Throw in some fantastic silver flats wtih that dress!”  It arrived soon enough, I picked it up after work one day and drove it straight to Mom’s house to keep it safe!