Searching for My Dream Dress
I went to MJM Wedding Services in Surrey on my first stop. Myrna, the owner of the business, built a small separate cabin next to her residence to run the shop. Her off the rack selection for immediate purchase is huge, so it took us a while to find the right sizes and styles. I made an effort to visit her shop all the way in Surrey (about a 45min drive from where I live) only because she offers big discount on her off the rack dresses. I tried about 8-10 gowns with only two I really liked. Myrna was super nice and helpful. I told her it's important to me that my mom thinks the dress is pretty on me. She allowed BMM to take photos of me in the dresses so that I could show my mom. Myrna didn't want me to feel pressured and insisted to schedule a second appointment with me to bring my mom along. The prices of the two gowns were amazing, both much lower than I expected.
As I was struggling to decide which dress I should buy from MJM, to make matters worse, my future mother-in-law bought me a wedding magazine. As soon as I looked at the designer gowns, I couldn't restrain myself from craving for a nicer dress. After reading several magazines, I realized my favorite brand is Simone Carvalli. The designs from Simone Carvalli are very elegant and absolutely gorgeous. Unfortunately, this brand has no distribution in Northwest US or anywhere in BC. Please don't get the impression that MJM doesn't carry designer dresses, it wasn't the intention of my visit so I didn't look beyond the ordinary styles. At last, I canceled my appointment with Myrna and went to the bridal wear district located at New Westminster.
Design by Simone Carvalli
I was introduced to two other brands, Ella Rosa and Maggie Sottero at my second stop, Bliss Bridal. Both brands fit my body perfectly in many styles without any major issues, except they all require hemming. The designs from Maggie Sottero are generally more mature, whereas Ella Rosa seems less fancy with a younger vibe.
To keep the long story short, I won't mention other shop visits in the New Westminster or Richmond area. Bello Wedding World, located in Vancouver, was the last shop I visited. We narrowed down to three favorites from this shop. Aside from selling wedding and evening gowns, Bello also offers pre-wedding and wedding day photography, bridal hair and makeup, as well as Chinese wedding dress rental. We spent hours at Bello to discuss a complete package deal including all of the above, except wedding day photography since we have already made arrangement for this. We went to Bello three times and twice at Bliss before we made the final decision.
In order to have better leverage to bargain with Bello for a complete package deal, I placed an order of my wedding gown there. Also, I found an evening dress I like from the store, so end up purchasing two dresses altogether, that's a story for another time. I don't want to disclose the details and the exact style of my wedding dress until after the wedding. The wedding gown takes 5-6 months to complete and the evening dress will arrive in about 3 months. I will talk about the details of the package on the next post in Part 3.
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