bridesmaid dress shopping

Buying a bridesmaid dress at Nordstrom was a big deal for me because 1. I'm a bridesmaid! and 2. the last time I paid full-price on something at Nordstrom was in 1998, when I bought a dress to wear to a wedding.

The bride Em had an outing for the bridesmaids to buy dresses at the awesome Nordstrom in downtown SF, which I wasn't able to go to. She had put together the outing after Maria and I finally decided on a date to see the "Cartier and America" exhibit at the Legion of Honor, which is also in SF. I was so close, yet so far away.

The following Monday, I spent my hour-long lunch at the mediocre Nordstrom in P-town hunting down that dress. Sadly, I forgot my camera at home and had to make do with my crappy cellphone's camera.

The bridesmaid's dress in its natural habitat.

The tag states "aqua", but that's not what aqua looks like to me.

I really am surprised that my crappy cellphone was able to capture the true shade of this dress. But then again, the cellphone camera made everything else in the picture purple.

The "petite focus" section didn't have this style dress in aqua, but it did have "spring orchid" in stock. So I picked out a 12P (the largest size left on the rack) and tried it on.

I was stuck using my cellphone camera to do the dressing room pic, and I made a pretty odd face.

The next day, after work, I headed to the nice Nordstrom in SJ. They didn't have the aqua dress in the petite section, either, so I tried on a 10 from the regular special occasion dresses area.

My pink camera couldn't capture the right shade to save its life, and I gave up color-balancing in Photoshop.

I ended up special ordering a 10P and having it shipped to my work.

Yesterday, it arrived, and I have yet to try it on to make sure it fits. I'll do it on Thursday, methinks.

By the way, the wedding is in January of 2011. I should think of random ways to style this dress in the meantime. I'm thinking raspberry tights, for some reason.