Church Street Bridal

If you are a bride on a budget and want to help a good cause consider making a trip down to Lynchburg, VA to check out Church Street Bridal. All of the dresses there range from $200-300 and all the proceeds go to help fund projects at the YWCA and the Domestic Violence Shelter there. The dresses are brand new and are donated from other bridal stores and bridal designers. Previous donations have come from Jim Hjelm, Kleinfeld Bridal in New York, and over a dozen local bridal stores.

They also sell veils, hairpins, tiaras, formal gowns, and tuxes. All for SUPER cheap.

And for after the wedding let your bridesmaid's know about their Prom Dress Project. Gently used and new dresses are sold at a discounted price so girls can afford to go to prom. Your bridesmaids could make a donation so that at least someone else might wear that dress again...plus they could write it off as a tax deduction.

Dress Ordered!

Well, yesterday I ordered my wedding dress! No turning back now without losing out on a bunch of cash so I think I'll stick with the dress. I went back to Promise for the Savvy Bride in Bethesda to try on the dress I liked the most out of the 40 or so I've tried on since starting the hunt. The previous attendant who helped me on my last visit, Kori, is getting married this weekend so she wasn't there, but the two women in the store this time were equally as friendly and easy to be around. I can't rave enough about the warm feelings at this place.

I tried on a few more gowns that were new since I had been there last and they were nice but when I tried on my favorite one again I knew for sure that it was "the one." No use wasting anymore time. I've tried to find a picture online of it but haven't been able to so far. I would post pictures of me in it but my fiance knows I blog and although he doesn't regularly read DCNearlyweds I don't want to take any chances.

The dress is made by a Chicago based design house called Vwidon. A husband and wife duo, Carla Hwang and Kenneth Park , are the designers behind Vwidon. They are both graduates of the Art Institute of Chicago and have been designing gowns since 2001. Most of their dresses have a very modern feel with contemporary silhouettes. Their main boutique is in Chicago and there are only three other stores in the country that carry their dresses. Promise for the Savvy Bride is the only store in the metro area that carries Vwidon. I wish I lived in Chicago so I could have tried on their entire line :(

What I love about my dress is the high quality of the fabric (silk), the simplicity of the design, and how light and soft the dress feels. A lot of bridal dresses can feel heavy or itchy, but I just want to roll around on mine.



^My dress is most similar to the above design, but if y'all know me at all you know that I don't do poofy. So imagine the top part of the dress but with a close fitting, non-poofy bottom. It's very sleek.


Below are some of their other designs:

^As you can see they mostly do modern cuts with great fabric


^I love the cap sleeves on this one. Great quality.


^Even when they do poofy they make it look contemporary.

And now for the bad....

When I first set out to go dress shopping I expected it to be a horrible experience. Why? Well, I had heard a lot about other bride's bad experiences at snobby stores and attendants that made them cry. So I just prepped myself for that. I went to at least a dozen stores and honestly the vast majority of them were really great. Overall it was a very positive experience. I've already blogged about some of my favorites but we all know that not every trip could be perfect.

Today I'm going to talk about the two places that I did not have good experiences at. Just like with the favorites I know that not everyone will agree. So much depends on what you as a bride expect from your shopping experience and it also depends on the attendant you get and what type of day they are having so if these stores were your favorites then you can ignore my reviews.

1) Hannelore's of Old Town- When I went to bridal stores I made it a practice of never supplying my mailing address. Why? Many bridal stores will sell your address to junk mail lists and soon you start receiving a million pieces of junk mail relating to all things weddings. Not all stores do this but I didn't want to take any chances, and I also didn't want to get mail from the store itself. Every store I went to had no problem with this and completely understood. Except Hannelore's. Before I started looking at dresses the attendant asked me why I wasn't giving an address so I told her. She said that they didn't sell their lists or send brides any mail. So I said that if they didn't send any mail they shouldn't need my address. She told me that "Hannelore will not allow us to work with you if you don't provide any address." I told her that if that was the case I should leave the store now because they weren't getting my address. She didn't say anything to that but led me upstairs and "allowed" me to look at their dresses even without an address! I tried on a few dresses and even found one that I thought was "the one" for a while, but the attitude of my attendant really spoiled the shopping trip and I knew after that I'd never buy anything from them. As I left my attendant told me that if I ordered from them I'd have to supply my address then. Well yeah, of course! I drove about 45 mins out of my way to another store that carried the same dress just to try it on again so I wouldn't have to go back. It's a good thing I did b/c I ended up not liking the dress as much as I had in Hannelore's. Despite my bad experience you might still want to go to Hannelore's because they have a very large selection and are the only carriers of some designers in the area. Prices start at $1,500 (as they will remind you when you call to make your appointment). Just hope you get one of the nicer attendants.

2) Bridal Salon at Saks Fifth Avenue, Tysons (no website)- I arrived at Saks on time for my appointment to find that they only had one attendant and she was still helping the bride that had the appointment before me. The bride decided that she was going to buy the dress so they were starting the financial dealings. No problem, I looked at the dresses they had on display and the attendant even said I could go into their backroom and pick all the dresses I would like to try on. So I went back and browsed for a while giving every dress a thorough examination before I decided to try on 2 that I liked. The attendant was still busy with the other bride. She apologized for being busy and said she was trying to get someone else to help me. She showed me to the dressing room, said to get undressed, and that someone would be with me shortly. So I got undressed and waited. And waited. And waited. There wasn't even a bridal magazine to look at. Just naked me, a mirror, and my 2 dresses. This was my last bridal gown shop so by this point I knew how to handle the gowns carefully and I knew I really didn't need an attendant. So after twenty minutes of waiting in my skivves for an attendant to help me during MY appointment hour I just tried on the dresses myself. There were only 2, after all. Neither worked and when I walked out there was no one around so I just left. Honestly, I really expected more out of Saks. To her credit the attendant was very apologetic but I knew they'd rather spend time on the girl buying a dress then the girl who might be buying a dress. The selection wasn't very large and other stores in the area carry the same designers so there isn't really a need to go unless you just really want to.


What does the below picture from Boutwell Studios have to do with my ranting? Nothing, but after having bad experiences I like to self medicate with candy.

Carine's Bridal Atelier

I've already blogged about my first and second favorite bridal gown salons and next on the list is Carine's Bridal Atelier in Georgetown.

I found and tried on more dresses at this salon that fit my style then in any other bridal store in D.C. They have a great selection of elegant gowns with simple/clean lines. They have a few of the poofy princess Cinderella gowns too but most of the gowns were of a more current silhouette. So naturally I loved it. They carry Angel Sanchez , Carolina Herrera, Jenny Lee, Melissa Sweet, Platinum Collection, Pronovias, Reem Acra and St. Pucchi.

What I liked about Carine was that she wasn't afraid to give her opinion. Too many times bridal store owners and attendants try to tell you what they think you want to hear. If you like a gown then they like it. If you hate it then they hate it too. Carine had no problem saying what worked, what didn't, and why or telling you which veil looks better then the other. I highly appreciate this when trying on gowns.

This probably would have been my favorite shopping experience and I found my second favorite dress there but I gave points off only because the other bridal attendant did not seem as knowledgeable about the gowns/store as Carine. Obviously Carine is the owner so she is very knowledgeable but the other attendant was unsure about a lot of the details of the gowns (i.e. what colors they come in, what the fabrics were, how some of the dresses were supposed to fit...where certain bows should go, how some dresses should zip, etc.) She was very nice and this is no reflection on her personality but I think bridal store attendants should be very well versed on the dresses they are selling (even trying them on themselves as they come in so they understand the fit and how things should look, etc.)

Other then that I highly recommend stopping by.

Harriet Kassman

In continuation of my reviews of Bridal Salons that I had good experiences with I have to mention Harriet Kassman. Not many people know that this Washington institution for special event and inaugural wear began selling bridal gowns in January. They carry Reem Acra, Badgley Mischka, Anne Barge, Stephen Yearick, and Romona Kevesa. This store is definitely for the bride looking for a more expensive gown (think around $4000 and up) but I have to say it was a really wonderful shopping experience. Even though is was an upscale salon, no mention of money or budgets was ever made and no snobbishness at all from my attendant Leeza Isaac. All of the dresses are out on the floor so you could browse through them if you wanted but I let Leeza pick a few dresses for me. She has excellent taste, understood what I wanted, and was extremely knowledgeable about the gowns. She seemed really genuinely excited when I tried on gowns that worked. I particularly liked Romona Kevesa's gowns. I didn't find "the one" here but I had a great time shopping and I'd recommend them to anyone.

Promise for the Savvy Bride

I've spent the last couple of weeks bridal gown shopping around the D.C. area. I've probably been to ten stores in all so I feel like I now know the D.C. market pretty well. I have two more stores to visit but I wanted to start blogging about some of the stores I liked the most.

I know that store recommendations are a highly personal thing and it all depends on the type of shopper you are and what your budget is - one girl's "attentive" is another girl's "annoying." Some don't like to be bothered while others want attention lavished on them during their "moment." So my loves might be your hates.

So far my favorite store hands down has been Promise for the Savvy Bride in Bethesda. They have a small but varied selection of gowns from unique designers ...I like the idea of wearing something from a designer that isn't all over the place (no offense Vera and Monique). On average their dresses are b/t $2,500-4,500.

I worked with Kori who was very down to earth. No snobbishness here. She was very comfortable to chit chat with. Most important to me, though, is a KNOWLEDGEABLE attendant. What colors does the dress come in? What fabric is this? Can this neckline be changed? Kori knew off the top of her head and she didn't have to look at the dress tag to know. I really appreciate attendants who know their merchandise.

They were on time for my appointment, I didn't feel rushed, I was allowed to browse through dresses myself and with Kori, and try on as many dresses as I wanted. Kori made suggestions and when I asked her opinion she gave it honestly.

So far my favorite dress was from this store (a Kori recommendation) and it is my front runner. Like all things weddings it is "a little more" then I wanted to spend on a dress which is why I've continued to look around. If I do find something I like this weekend at a better price I might have to forget getting my dress from Promise but I can honestly say if I buy someplace else I'll be disappointed I couldn't have bought from them.