Wed 20 Jul 2005
Sarah Hart ‘02 needs our help.
i forgot to mention that i went wedding dress shopping this past saturday. nothing too crazy — my sister and i just went to 2 stores that were fairly local (raleigh) and i tried on maybe 10 dresses, total. nothing jumped out at me as ‘the’ dress, unfortunately, but i did like a couple that i tried on. i’m just wondering — how long do i make attempts to find ‘the’ dress before giving up and realizing that ‘the’ dress may not exist, at least in my price range? (readers with experience, i’d love some guidance here.)
Kleinfeld is the answer, although perhaps not convient for Sarah. I clearly recall a pleasant three hours spent reading a book outside their Brooklyn store while my lovely wife shopped like mad 13 years ago. She did indeed find “the dress.” Sarah also mentions that there are
10 months and 12 days until our wedding and we’re already worried about finding a photographer. i tell you, wedding planning-world is an insane universe unlike anything i’ve experienced before. new lingo, new values — and i feel like such an idiot in a sea of well-trained brides who have been planning Their Big Day since they were in kindergarten.
Not that there is anything wrong with that! Indeed, I am already collecting anecdotes and pictures for my daughters’ rehearsal dinners. My wife has also decided that, whatever else might happen, there will be fireworks.
One serious piece of advice I have is to get a videographer. It may seem weird and strange, but you will be glad you did.
July 20th, 2005 at 10:09 am
thank you for the advice - though i don’t know about going all the way to nyc :)
we WERE thinking about a videographer, actually, but weren’t sure — so it’s good to hear opinions on whether it’s worth it!
sarah
July 20th, 2005 at 10:57 am
God, just elope. Seriously, just do it.
July 20th, 2005 at 12:38 pm
bad news…Kleinfeld, a Brooklyn institution is moving to Manhattan. Not sure when, but maybe it’s good news. Maybe there is a clearance sale.
July 20th, 2005 at 12:45 pm
In Boston Filene’s basement wedding dress sale…grown women physically fighting over dresses while in their underwear. My mother brought me here at the age of 9 and I got lost…needless to say I’ve never been the same.
You however can find a killer deal on a dress. Just make sure to bring your running shoes and a posse of tough women.
July 20th, 2005 at 9:54 pm
My advice is don’t spend more than 6 months planning. I planned my wedding in 11 weeks and wouldn’t change a thing. When you don’t have much time you make decisions efficiently and move on. No second guessing or driving yourself, your family, or your future spouse crazy.
Pick a few things, not more than three, that really matter and concentrate your resources in those areas. For us it was the food. People took pictures of our food, and still talk about it, more than two years after the event. We let our caterer choose the date (the only one she had open in the timeframe we were looking at). We made everything else fit around her.
July 22nd, 2005 at 9:20 am
Destination wedding + wedding planner = the only way to go! I did it and it was perfect. The only work I had to do was to call my wedding planner every now and then. But the best benefit was that I had the best excuse for only inviting the immediate families without offending anyone.
As for finding wedding dresses, I tried on a bunch before realizing that the one my mother liked the best was truely the best one. How do mothers know?
July 22nd, 2005 at 2:34 pm
Wow, I used the word “best” a lot. Shame on me. I’m usually a better writer than that. How embarrassing for my first comment on EphBlog.
July 26th, 2005 at 2:01 pm
Yeah, I go with the “Just get it done” comments. When my wife and I got married we were both software product managers; I shipped operating systems, she shipped e-mail products. Hence, we were really good at herding cats and organizing projects. However, rather than doing it ourselves we went with a package deal and concentrated on the goal of, “Let’s make it a party!” Now, 17 years later, nobody remembers what the gowns looked like or what music was played — but they do remember that they had a good time.