How I found my wedding dress: Do we have a winner?

Previously:
Part I: Having my doubts
Part II: Breaking the rules!
Part III: A swing and a miss

I didn't come out of the fitting room right away in my third dress, my long-time favorite. I really looked at it first.

(source)

I hadn't been sure the first time, but I was sure now. Yes, the dress was many sizes too big, but the giant clamps were used appropriately, and she explained to me how the fit would be different in the appropriate size. Amazingly, in a less beat up sample and with more skillful handling, the dress looked beautiful on. It looked perfect.

And I loved the dress. It's kind of hard to get away from that fact, sometimes.

I stepped out of the dressing room, decided and determined, no matter how my mom reacted. And it was a good thing I'd braced myself, too, because I got more of the same: cool calculation and unwelcome criticism.

I tried on two more dresses while I was there—Maggie Sottero's Dierdre and WToo's Eva (what happened to the other five I'd marked? I don't know, but it didn't really matter). I liked Dierdre quite a bit, but that's a useless feeling when you've already found the perfect dress (and it isn't Dierdre!).

We talked price a little bit and asked the manager to match the House of Brides price of $987 before we left for lunch, and she said she would just call to confirm the price while we ate. So off we went to California Pizza Kitchen to share a Moroccan chicken salad and discuss our plan for the rest of the day...