My Mom is one of the most important people in my life and I really want her to be an honored guest at our wedding. I had nothing specific in mind when we started looking for her dress, just that she loved her outfit and might be able to wear it again. She wore skirt suits for her entire career and wanted something knee length with a jacket. Oh and her dress couldn't be black as we didn't want her to blend in with the bridesmaids.
Our first stop was Park Royal Mall, a large shopping centre in North Vancouver with many designer stores. We went through the mall in detail, combing the racks in The Bay, BCGB and Melanie Lynn and found only one possibility. It was an off the shoulder knee length taffeta with horizontal pleating and crystals along the neckline. A flattering and elegant dress but the charcoal colour was too drab for a spring wedding.
We then met during my lunch hour at Oakridge mall to visit After Five, a designer dress store popular with a large selection of designer and bridesmaid dresses. This store definitely had the traditional mother of the bride outfits, sheath dresses with tasteful jackets in a range of pastel colours and metallic taffetas. They all seemed too serious and dowdy for my Mom and we weren't happy about the $400 to $700 prices.
Bridesmaid K suggested we return to New Westminster's bridal row as these stores carry a larger selection of wedding appropriate dresses than your average dress shop. No appointment was necessary, so we made a leisurely day of it one weekend. We started with Lisa's Bridal Salon because I remembered their large collection of bridesmaid dresses and thought they'd have a similar inventory for mother's. Nope! Actually they're in the process of discontinuing their mothers' dresses and many of them we not available to order. Although we saw a couple of possibilities in the mothers section, most of these dresses were long and not what my Mom had in mind.
K and I searched through the bridesmaid racks and pulled about 10 dresses for Mom to try. Our consultant Harmony was a big help in listening to what Mom liked and didn't like about each dress. She tactfully weeded out some of our suggestions and brought several choices that we all really liked. Mom picked out a knee length satin dress from Allure Bridals with a one shoulder sleeve and rhinestone detail. It looks amazing!
Now we just need to pick a dress for J's Mom and our bridal party is good to go.
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