The story of shopping for Mary’s wedding dress goes like this…. 

First shop…  Have to wait a few hours to try anything on.  Bad dresses.  Snobby staff.  Not helpful.  Loads of puff.  Dresses all jammed in.  Cheesy.  Girls looking at horrible pink dress with polka dots, they were NOT making fun of it.  That says everything.  Bad choice of shops.  

Second shop… Liked one dress… $500 for dress with a torn sleeve, could be repaired…  Mary’s quote… “still a lot of money for a torn dress”.

Third Shop… Go into show room area, from dressing room, to look full on at yourself.  Other people out there.  Peanut gallery looking on.  But nice shop, and a dress there Mary liked.  Would’ve had to of had a specially made bra at the cost of like $200.  Curtains didn’t close, stand there half naked while they try to throw you the bra they say you should wear.  Mary put it on because she was caught up in the wedding dress trying on machine.  Then they have to cinch you up and into the dresses.  Loads of people in there, people going in and out of little changing room area.  Quite a production.  Nice sales people.  

And the winner is… Local woman, designer, hand made dresses, 100% silk, fair trade, dresses were unique and beautiful.  Complete long silk gowns, nicest silk you’ve ever seen.  Tried on six dresses there.  One was so much nicer than all the other ones.  Dress fits perfectly.  If anything only minor taking in.  Staff was wonderful.  No need for a fancy $200 bra.  Wedding dress purchased after leaving the shop, a dinner discussion at Typhoon, and then a return to the shop.  

Best quote of the day by Mary after returning home…  ”So long as I haven’t had a baby by then because Weston ate my birth control pills, everything will be fine.”