Wedding Dress Shopping!

So the big weekend to go wedding dress shopping arrived quicker than I expected. This will probably be a long post about the weekend, but I offer an incentive at the end to those who make it through. Friday I met my mom and we headed down the road. I dropped my pickup off at my brother and sister in law's place, so I would have a way home on Mon. We met my dad in Philip (the nearest town) so he could take some stuff home and we were on our way. We stopped a couple times to eat, visit my aunt, and were to my friends house by 9PM Friday night. Jon and Nichole have been married 2 years and we planned to spend the weekend with with them and Nich is one of my bridesmaids, so she was going to take us to the dress shops.
Sat. morning we were up early and headed to a quilt shop in another small town. It was pretty cool and had Lazy Girl bags made up, so I got the towne purse and summer tote patterns. Then we were off to the first store Interlude. It was a nice shop with huge private rooms. I really enjoyed trying on dresses there, but didn't find anything I remotely liked. My friend Angie (the other bridesmaid) and her one year old son Carter joined us. They live in Albert Lea MN, so had about a 3 hour drive to meet us. We went to the second store, Ido2 which was in the same strip mall. It had dresses that were no longer being made and couldn't be ordered. I had my heart set on a white dress with straps. Those were my only two qualifiers, and reasonable priced. My friends brought me lots of dresses and I finally tried on an ivory one and although I wasn't crazy about it, it looked really nice on me. It was a little tight, but could be altered. Angie loved it and I called it the rope dress. It had big loops of cording that reminded me of rope. She even made me realize I look like a ghost in white and ivory was a lot better color on me. I tried on a few more and was tired. Since it was noon their time (we had changed time zones so were an hour ahead), we decided to go eat. We had requested a place that we don't have in Rapid. They have Panera bread which was awesome. My mom's cousin Sue and her mom Vi met us there and ate. Since I was kind of disappointed in what I had seen all morning, I decided I needed a break. We went to the mall and walked around, looked at the western store, and went to places like Yonkers and Macy's that we don't have. My mom looked at the fancy dress section of Yonkers and found a dress she loved, but it was 2 sizes too big. It was on clearance, so I said well it doesn't hurt to ask if they have it in your size. She did and they had one in Omaha. She didn't know if she should get the first dress she found, but she loved it, so I told her go for it. Purple is the color, that won't change and it won't matter what shade compared to the girls dresses. It is on order and should be shipped to my parents this week. After we left the mall we went to a place called Kathryn and Co. When we walked in they asked if we had an appointment. I didn't, because Nich called to check if we needed one and they said no, so I didn't make one. Well they might be able to find time for us, but they did close at 5. It was like 3:15! I think I tried on 3 dresses there and was ready to leave. I was not impressed. I mean seriously, we just wanted to look and try a few on, not take over. This was the only place they wouldn't let us take pictures. By this point my mom was looking at dresses on the clearance rack that we could use the train and make a new top to go with them! We ended up having enough time to go to the Dutch Rose quilt shop. It was an interesting little shop, but not many samples and not real welcoming. We only had 15 min. so we went through fast. Then we went to David's Bridal. I had a 4:15pm appointment and we spent a good hour and a half trying on dresses. Lots of them were neat, but didn't have all the elements I really wanted. We finally ended up leaving. My mom went to spend the night with her cousin Sue who had come out from SF and Nich, Angie, Carter, and I went back to Nich's. She had made supper for us and we all relaxed and caught up on our lives. It's been a year and a half since we were all together. I emailed pictures of the rope dress to my dad to see what he thought and later called and he liked it as did Jim. My friends met Paul at Nich and Jon's wedding and then they came out last summer and spent a weekend here with us which was fun, but that was before Carter. He is such a cutie and was so good while I was trying on dresses! We played with him and just had a relaxing night. Angie is a very well prepared, great parent and I have so much respect for all her mothering skills. Nich and I met in college our sophomore year at SDSU and lived together our Junior year, Angie and I met our freshman year in 4-H and she ended up getting an apartment with Nich and I and her roommate Sarah our senior year. Since we graduated 5 years ago, you can tell we've been friends a long time. Angie even set Nich up with her husband Jon and Nich tried to tell me he was interested in me when we were living together and he would come over all the time. So anyway, we stayed over and because of the time change were up at 6 the next morning.
We took our time getting ready and I took Angie's measurements. Then Angie and Carter had to head home about 9. Nich and Jon headed another direction to visit a high school friend, and I headed back to Sioux Falls to pick up my mom and have breakfast with Vi's family. By noon we hit the ground running. Mom and I had discussed the dress situation and I wanted to look at the possibility of making it. We found patterns and looked at fabric. We started at Mills End Fabrics and found a lot of fabric, some for my table runners, some for the landscape cross banner for the church, and some for coasters for the guests. I also found the LGD pattern City Bag. Then we headed to Joann Fabrics, since we don't have one, this was major for us. They have tons of lace and stuff to put on dresses. I also found a really cool ivory fuzzy fabric to make a jacket out of. While there we found purple satin, lining, and a sparkly satin to make the dresses for the bridesmaids. It was 60% off!!! We also found more fabric for the church banner. We really looked at all the possibilities for making my dress too. Then it was on to Michaels where we found the heart shape grapevine wreaths I wanted to decorate with and the invitations. We don't have one of these either so it was fun for us. We went back to the mall and did some more looking too. Then it was back out to Jon and Nich's for the evening. We discussed the day and took Nich's measurements for the dress. Mom also installed the My Label software program on her computer so we could do the 3D model of the girls measurements. When Jon got home from Symphony, we discussed the music for the wedding. He is going to play the cello for a couple of the special parts.
Monday morning mom and I got going again early. We went back to the Dutch Rose quilt shop and found a few things we needed. Then on to Heirloom Creations. I would call it the Cabela's of quilt shops in SF. They have a ton of gorgeous fabric, but also sell Janome, Bernina, and Viking sewing machines. I found the Miranda bag pattern! I was so excited. I also got the perfect colored thread to quilt my YBR quilts. Then we had to stop at Mills End again for a few more pieces of fabric. I found the coolest fabric there, but if you want to see what it looks like you'll have to email me your snail mail address so I can send the first three people to email me a little piece of it. It's awesome!!!
Then we went on to the dress shop Ido2. I tried on the rope dress again and finally decided that with a few alterations from mom, the price was right, and I liked it, that it would be my dress, so we brought it home. Since I'm not showing Paul until the wedding, you'll have to email me if you would like to see the pictures. I'm not posting them until after the wedding. We were ready to head home by then, so we got on the road about noon. We stopped in Mitchell and went to the Pin Cushion where I found the perfect fabric for another gift for the wedding. Then over to Cabela's. I needed to pick up a gift for Paul for X-mas. I just happened to walk by the shoe section and find purple cowboy boots, on sale that were calling my name! I had to have them, so I got them. I am so pumped that I finally found them. I had been searching all weekend for them. Then on to our next stop, Chamberlain, where they have the most incredible shop for a tiny town. I got some more gorgeous purples and drooled a lot! We also stopped at the western store there, where I found two cheap pairs of jeans/dress pants that fit perfectly.
We made it back to my brothers about 6:30 and he fed us supper and we looked through their wedding pictures. I left his house about 7:30 and made it home at 9. I was completely exhausted, but Paul was asleep, so I just went to bed too.
Last night after a long day at work, I washed all my fabric and weighted it. I brought home 16 pounds of fabric! My stack was probably 2 feet high of just the quilting fabrics. I spent time rearranging my sewing studio and getting ready to sew for tonight. I also worked on taking out the quilting on the baby size YBR. Tonight I have to stop and get batting and then I need to make the tubes for the class I have tomorrow night. It's going to be a fun one, as the weaving makes a bag this time.
I'm still not adjusted to the time change since we gained an hour coming home, so I am still trying to get into the swing of things. I'll try to better at posting, so it doesn't get so long next time!