Yesterday, I had an appointment at Browns Bridal. I’ve seen Monique Lhuillier’s dresses online and this store is the only one in London that stocks her brand. When I first made my appointment, the woman on the phone said curtly “Do you realise that our dresses start at £3,000″ I found that a bit rude as women are prepared to spend quite a lot on their wedding dresses and a brand like Monique Lhuilliers would be reasonably expected to be quite expensive. Perhaps I need to put on a fake posh accent when I make these calls. Maybe Im just over reacting and they dont want to waste their time. I still think its extremely rude for sales assistants to say that. 

When I turned up at their Bond Street address, an assistant opened the door and asked me to come in. YES SHE LOOKED AT MY RING. I think its a given fact now that all sales assistants check out the ring. A few minutes later, a group of women came in and the assistant had a completely different response. She gushed “Oh its all of you” and giggled with the rest of the girls. One of the women in that group was dressed chavvy and I thought that perhaps they still think non-white people cannot afford their dresses. 

Anyways, I’ll stop my complaints now. My assistant was actually very nice and she took me to a different room to choose the dresses I wanted to try on. Browns Bridal is almost like a house with different rooms where they store dresses and where they try it on. I really wanted to try on the Scarlet dress as it looks absolutely gorgeous online: 

Unfortunately, they only had the Scarlet dress in size 12 which is about 3 sizes too big (in the UK, the sizes go Size 6, 8, 10,12) So when I tried it on, it was too low and the assistant said that the back was a bit too daring. I think I would be afraid of someone seeing my bum crack – sorry to be so explicit. Also, as a petite Asian woman, its harder to carry off this dress as there is no bra, its just a petticoat under neath. 

After trying loads of other dresses, I finally found another one that suited my body shape. It also has this beautiful French lace and a beautiful cut at the front and back. It looks very elegant and with a beautiful veil, it looks breathtaking. 

The price of the one above is  £3,410, the fittings costs £350 an the raindrop veil (slightly puffier) is about £320. This makes the grand total of £4080. 

I didnt get a chance to inquire about the Scarlet dress but it is about $5,200 in the US so that works out to be about £2,600. Probably around £3,000 when you factor in alterations and postage etc. Unfortunately, these are not made to measure so it wouldnt suit a smaller framed woman. However, I think in the US, they do make these dresses for those who are sizes 0/2/etc… which means I would probably need to get this in the US if I wanted the original or get one made by a dress maker here in the UK.

I asked the sales assistant if they had sashes. I’ve seen some brides wear a green or brown sash. I was thinking that perhaps I could have a sash that matches our colour scheme or one that matches my fiance’s tie. The assistant said that Monique had gone past the sash because everyone copied her afterwards – Vera Wang, Carolina Castiligiano etc and now she’s not doing them anymore. However, if you still want a sash, they can put it on for you. 

Another interesting point is that the assistant asked me if I was bringing anyone to the second try. I said I would see if my sister in law was free as my best friend is out of the country. She said I should be very careful who I pick as she’s seen many friends choose the wrong dress for the bride. I’m shocked at this comment because I think a bridesmaid is someone the bride should really trust and love. My fiance said its a very London attitude where everyone is quite selfish and competitive. It reminds me of another comment that someone once told me. She said that women choose horrible outfit for their bridesmaids to make them look ugly in comparison with them. I think these comments are actually quite hurtful. Having studied gender at university, I think these comments just demonise women when we should be making allies with each other. Sorry about that rant. 

So I have decided not to show my fiance how I look in the wedding dress as I want him to be out of breath when he sees me walk down the aisle. I have a feeling this dress will just do that Any suggestions which one I should pick would be most welcome and greatly appreciated. I do feel like I have found THE DRESS (es)