I Said, "Yes to the Dress!"... Twice

After having Carter, I wasn’t anxious to try on anything, let alone a wedding dress. I’ve heard stories where women gained 50+ pounds or kept on that weight after birth. Like I said, Carter is truly a blessing, because his mama lost 40lbs and was ready for these dresses! Now with this newfound body, I felt like I could leap into the pond of dresses I would’ve never foreseen me in, prior to having a child.

Rewind back to March 2018. First stop…Kleinfeld. I just had to get this experience. I’ve watched Say Yes To Dress every Saturday afternoon for months, to get an idea of what I wanted my dress to look like. So my mom, sister and I took a trip over to Kleinfeld one Friday afternoon to get the “Experience”, look for a dress and hopefully get on the show. Okay, we didn’t really want to be on the show, but we weren’t against it.  This was my first time trying on wedding dresses. While it was an amazing feeling, I was overwhelmed and these dresses just weren’t for me.

Next stop, Pantora Bridal. Pantora Bridal is a Black owned wedding boutique in Brooklyn’s BedStuy area. I just can’t enough of BedStuy huh? Pantora is owned by Andrea Pitter- a Black woman, with a great niche of wedding gown designs. So far, so good. I have seen many of her wedding gowns on Instagram and I was sold on heading out there to see them in person.  So, my mom, sister, Carter and I all trooped to Brooklyn.

 We were greeted with champagne and smiles. SOLD! Okay, maybe not yet, but that was definitely a plus on their end. I tried on three dresses. All of the dresses were beautiful, but two were the favorite among us. My consultant added a veil and handed me a bouquet and we were convinced. Insert “I SAID YES TO THE DRESS”.  We all then celebrated and went to dinner.

A couple of days later, I was uneasy. I had said yes, but something didn’t sit well with me. The image of me in the other dress still lingered in the back of my head. My mom and sister came over to my house and my mother insisted that we needed to troop back to Brooklyn and bring a second opinion.  Insert my cousin Keisha, a fashion guru in the family.

Now back at Pantora, I tried on the top two dresses of my liking. I tried on the dress I said yes to and it didn’t do it for me this time. I tried on the second dress and came out of the fitting room. Instant tears! “I said yes to the RIGHT dress this time!” No second guesses about it!

When you know, you know. And I knew that second dress was the first and only dress for me! It also doesn’t hurt to have a mom who always knows what’s best for her daughter either. Thank you mom. Speaking of mothers, Insert a Mother’s Wrath: Wedding Edition, coming up next!