To think choosing your wedding dress is not the magical experience I have been peddled?!

[HarrietKettleWasHere]

I chose my wedding dress this weekend.

I don't feel joy. I feel relief that I may never have to go through that experience again

I went on my own because I always shop on my own. I am no virginal slip of a bride that I thought I required a chaperone (32 and well...I had a lot of fun in my youth ) and I know what I like. Also I'm NC with my mother at the moment and my best friend just blindly says I look lovely in everything, even the time I looked like a Creme brûlée at our sixth form prom.

I paid £10 before I was permitted to look upon the dresses. This was supposed to include a glass of fizz, but the lady had run out, so I had a tap water.

The lady was nice, but even though I told her what I wanted, she brought me lots of netty monstrosities 'just to wow' me they did not wow me. I looked like the toilet roll lady my Nan used to have in her loo.

I normally wear a size 10. Some of the dresses in a 14 wouldn't do up why do they cut them so tiny?! I have a little bit of Christmas pork to lose but still...

I found the dress I loved. The price tag was £1800 I'm wondering whether to just put a down payment on it, which seems like a good ideajust so I never have to repeat this process ever again I am horrified at that amount of money, but it was truly the only one I thought 'that looks amazing even though my hair is stuck to my face, I'm not wearing the right underwear and I've just bloody well had enough'

It looks like it's a lovely magical experience on TV!

When my friend got married last year, she went to a place where you ring a little bell in your changing room, to signify you had found 'the one' (dress, not fiancé, I presume ) and all the other brides to be would come and ooh and ahh at you.

I unfortunately burst out in scoffing laughing when she told me that, and she didn't speak to me for the rest of the day. So while that was not the experience I was aiming for, I was hoping for...oh, I don't know a bit of enchantment! fizz would have helped

Was I expecting too much?

I quite liked dress shopping, but that's because I delegated to my MOH. She had done all the homework the year previously when she got married, researched all the shops so I just booked appointments in the shops that she liked and avoided the ones that were awful in her experience.

She's also brutally honest, and really good at judging what looks good on you so she came with me. She also made me try on some hideous expensive ones for the laugh. Then took me for prosecco.

The shops I did go to were quick to tell me if a dress didn't suit - even if it was a dear one. And when I found my dress, they put me in similar-but-cheaper ones to see if I could find something less eye watering.

This one is similar and is in London

www.ebay.co.uk/itm/192302404505

I was living in London and various wedding dress shops said they were taking appointments for about 6 months time.

I didn't even want a weddingy wedding dress.

Wandered round some nice shops on Old Bond St and a few department stores, bought a lovely dress off the rack then drank champagne to celebrate.

It was lovely.

Beautiful dress!

I didn't go dress shopping at all. Just found a design I liked on ebay and sent them my measurements. Cost around £150 in total and fit me like a glove. I kept the dress in my wardrobe for years thinking I'd take it out occasionally and reminisce about my wedding day. Never did and ended up donating it to a charity shop.

9 years later and very glad I didn't spend more.

I had an amazing experience. Told them my budget, likes and dislikes, they had a rail with dresses they thought I might like and let me look through all the other dresses. I ended up with the first one I saw and I knew it was the one straight away. Tried one on and they suggested I didn't even look in the mirror😂 do I knew they were being honest! If you're in the south east then let me know and I can suggest a great shop.

@HarrietKettleWasHere I had a Ronald Joyce, also am long legged so agree with that! What I can tell you is I saved £500 off mine just by driving the 15 miles from kidderminster to Wolverhampton!

I planned to visit loads of shops and try on lots of dresses, but in the end I found my dream dress in a magazine and only tried on one other. I'm not particularly into clothes anyway and if I do shop for clothes it's through necessity.

Er...op....that dress makes the model look all backside, and she isn't. It really is ' look at my huge arse'

Are you sure? Its pretty otherwise but most unflattering!

I loved shopping for mine. I went to a vintage wedding dress shop in Geeenwich with my DM and BF. The owner was so passionate about her dresses. I tried on about 20 gorgeous frocks and actually ended up with two It still came to less than a grand though.

However I have always envisioned shopping in a more traditional bridal shop to be a bloody nightmare. Plus 95% of modern dresses are hideous imo. I can't believe they wouldn't tell you the price op! That is sooo sneaky.

And at then giving you water. There's nowt like making a girl feel special!

I don't think it's all backside but except in a positive Pippa bridesmaid type way! If it's one of your good features it's very flattering.

Model probably has a very good arse but I suspect it is not the size of the proverbial small country as that dress makes it look.

And is that really the feature anyone wants emphasised?

I have a nice bum

Really appreciated all the suggestions and hearing the stories about how you found the one/simply acquired a dress you really liked!

I'll have a further look about. I love the dress but it does seem crazy to throw all that money at it without at least shopping around a bit.

Try the oxfam wedding dress shop. I hated wedding dress shopping as they all expected that I'd spent years imagining my perfect dress. So at a friend's suggestion, I went to an Oxfam shop to try on various styles. And accidentally found one that I loved. (And it was £400 complete with original tags, when I looked it up online, it was originally more than my yearly wage)

Ahahaha this has reminded me of a wedding dress shop - sorry, boutique - I went to.

The woman made me close my eyes and imagine my "Prince Charming" waiting for me at the altar and how stunned he would be to see my magical princess dress etc etc

Effect slightly spoiled by my mum sniggering in the corner . My mum then wasn't allowed in the changing room with me, presumably because she wasn't enraptured enough.

Luckily the other dress shops I went to were much more normal and I ended up with a sale rail dress I loved.

And this is why I bought a Roland Joyce from a shop on eBay, I cant bear to be fussed over. That said I my need to make alterations so will grin and bear it!

There is an oxfam shop in Cambridge! I could take a little trip.... (even if I go round every branch in the country to find one I like, it may well still end up costing me less than the £1800)

Really surprised that people actually pay to look at dresses and also make appointments! You are doing them a favour when you buy their product not the other way around. When I chose a wedding dress I just went around a few shops with a friend trying on dresses. Admittedly, they did make a fuss about the fact that it was "only" three months before the wedding and suggested that they would need to order stuff in and alter but my attitude was that if they didn't want to sell me a dress, I was happy to take my money else where.

I am totally with you op! I find the snobbery from some of the sales women in those shops awful.

I pain £800 for my wedding dress and that was at sale price! I'm divorced now and if I do get married again it will certainly be a Monsoon trip or just a simple dress that doesn't cost a fortune.

There's a massive snobbery on second hand dresses too. I tried to flog mine about 2/4 years after I got married but the second hand bridle shops only either want Vintage or dresses that are less than 2 years old and no one on Gumtree/selling sites were interested. I was selling an £800 dress (which was originally about (1400) for 200 quid and no one was interested. So now I have a beautiful dress hung up in my closet that no one wants

Yanbu I hated the experience. One shop I went into gave another bride the champagne bells and whistles treatment and didn't even offer me a glass of water. They made it abundantly clear I was too fat for their dresses and made a point of saying they only order samples in a size 10. I have massive boobs and need a 16 for them alone! I left that shop in tears.

Went into the next one was treated marginally better but because of my first experience just picked the first dress that fitted to get it over and done with. I looked awful.

I feel like that first shop robbed me of an experience.

Dungeon yes! I found that too about it "only" being 3 or 4 months until my wedding. I went round a wedding show at my local exhibition centre and the panic on their faces when I said I was getting married in 3 months! It was hilarious!

Wedding shows - now that's another thread altogether!

OP I went to a wedding dress outlet warehouse just south of Leicester. I had been to bridal shops so knew what I wanted. You could just pull them off the rail, 4 at a time, try them on in a "winner stays on" fashion, and swap out different ones for rejects until you'd found what you wanted. All the dresses were £400. I walked out, with my dress, an hour after arriving. Done and done.

They made it abundantly clear I was too fat for their dresses and made a point of saying they only order samples in a size 10. I have massive boobs and need a 16 for them alone! I left that shop in tears.

Ironically I was a very standard size 10 and they still tried to tell me that they had to order the dress in an alter it etc as none of the samples would fit me.