What could be more exciting than choosing a wedding dress?  In true anti-bride fashion, Katharine probably would have preferred to stick needles under her fingernails than encounter a room of fluffy white gowns, but somehow last January she ended up at the famed bridal salon Kleinfeld with an entourage of 13 in tow (including a professional photographer!).

From Emily: I’m going to go ahead and start this post, because I’m pretty sure Katharine actually blacked out from the moment we stepped into Kleinfeld until the minute we were safely back on the sidewalk.  I kid, I kid.  But there was a reason I sent out a tweet from the cab speeding towards West 20th Street asking for a paper bag for someone to breathe into.  And it wasn’t me.

From Katharine: Wedding dress shopping  is tough.  Wedding dress shopping with thirteen (yes – count ‘em – 13!) is something else entirely.

What started out as a father-daughter trip to the Big Apple quickly evolved into something much bigger – and better!  With Dad and little sister/MOH, Bissy, all set for the trip north, we decided we couldn’t make the all-important dress selection without input from the experts.  Enter Lara + Emily.

Our quiet little threesome quickly had grown to five.  Add in Dad’s girlfriend, NYC actress Marie Marshall, Emily’s Randy Fenoli-crazed younger sister, our Florida-based assistant, Sandi, and suddenly we were planning an eight-man excursion to the magical Kleinfeld’s.  But what’s an SW outing without a professional photographer to document our travels?  (After all, if it doesn’t appear on the blog, it never actually happened, right?)  With Jeff Holt and his trusty camera, we were nine strong.

With help from Lara’s good friend, Randy Fenoli, our consultant Debbie, and the unbelievably nice owners, Ronnie Rothstein and Mara Urshel, our band of shoppers had grown from three to thirteen… and we were ready!

Or so we thought.

Emily: Right, so somehow all 13 of us get into the back.  Seriously, they had to clear out four dressing rooms for us.  Randy appeared in our midst, and the crowd parted as he made his way to Katharine.  Y’all, he is fabulous.  Side note: can we pause for a moment and take a look at my sister in the top right photo below?  Kim just might be the world’s biggest “Say Yes to the Dress” fan, and I’m pretty sure she also blacked out for the entirety of our visit to Kleinfeld, but for an entirely different reason than Katharine.

Katharine had brought along some print outs of dresses she liked from the Kleinfeld website.  She was a bit worried that with so many people her preferences might get drowned out, so I took notes beforehand on my iPhone for handy reference in case things got dicey (am I a good bridesmaid or what?!).  You can see below that Randy took a look at both the pages and the iPhone, but it turns out he wasn’t too sure about our choices.  Since he is the dress whisperer, we went along with his suggestion.  A few minutes later he and Debbie, our official consultant, were back with the first armfull of dresses.

Katharine: Like so many brides out there, what I thought I would be wearing on my wedding day and the gown I’ll actually be traipsing down the aisle in couldn’t be more different.  The list I sent to Emily, who, by the way, totally won the award for most helpful bridesmaid that day?  Fitted mermaid gown, with a touch of glamour.  No satin, no shiny fabric, no beading.  Lace was okay.  Poofy, princess-worthy gowns were not. 

But Randy didn’t ask me what kind of dress I wanted to wear.  Rather, he asked the one question that, in the end, lead him to pick the style – and exact dress – that would fit the bill: “How do you want to feel on your wedding day?”  My response: Elegant and timeless. I wanted to look back on my wedding photos and not feel that my dress was dated or fussy.  With that, and a few bare bone details of our black tie Harvard wedding, Randy was off.

The first dresses he came back with were beautiful and classic, but not quite right.  Why, exactly, I couldn’t quite put my finger on, but I knew they were not what I was envisioning.  For a brief moment, I prepared myself for the realization that I may not find a dress I truly loved like all the other brides I’ve worked with.  Instead, I’d look for something beautiful and appropriate, and be happy – even if not thrilled – with my selection.

Then Randy returned with this Amsale beauty.  With its defined, natural waist, and full, silk skirt, it was the exact princess-worthy gown I had crossed off my list months ago.  But the moment that dress was done up, I knew a full-skirted gown with a defined waist was the right dress for me.

Emily: We had found plenty of dresses that looked stunning on Katharine.  The Amsale Serena came close, but wasn’t quite “the one.”  Randy thought a bit more, and then said, “You know, I never have brides try on dresses that I haven’t seen on someone before, but we just got this dress in and I think it might be perfect.  Would you be willing to try it on?”  I’m sure you can see where this is going.

Katharine: What Randy came back with was the Amsale Blakely.  And it was the one!  As it turns out, the entire 2010 Amsale line had my name all over it.  Clean, simple lines with rich, sumptuous fabrics and modern embellishments, Amsale had it all – and then some.

How did I know I’d found my wedding dress?  Did I have that wonderfully amazing, incredibly rewarding aha moment brides promise follows the selection of your dream dress?

Definitely not.

I just don’t think I’m that kind of girl.  But considering it was the dress my co-workers, the expert consultants at Kleinfeld’s and my very different father and sister all agreed was the one, I knew there must be something to it.  Trust me: it’s a magical – and rare – moment when Dad and Bissy both agree on something, and it just so happens they agreed on my wedding dress.  Turns out they both were very, very right.

Emily: And see that photo at the end?  Wha-bam!  That’s the Dad-look we were going for all afternoon. I know I speak for all of us when I say we can’t thank Mr. Jeff Holt enough for these beautiful photos.

We’re saving the full reveal of Katharine in her dress until after the wedding, but I hope you enjoyed following along on our Kleinfeld adventure!  Up next? Paper, paper, paper.  I’ll just say this: traditional brides, you’re going to like her picks.

Weigh-in: Which was your favorite of the gorgeous dress rejects?  (We have a few!)  What dress will you be wearing or did you wear to your wedding?

Previously:

Intros + Inspiration Boards

The Bridesmaid Dress

The Photographer

The Wedding Website