Nothing’s more fun that going on the David’s Bridal website and making fun of the dresses you didn’t wear to yours, especially after you’ve just been to a wedding where the bride wore a dress that you didn’t wear to yours. This process is called “rationalization”. You should try it sometime. It makes you feel better about your own choices, and it’s loads of fun!
But what’s even more amazing is the incredible insight you can gain into the bridal mind from browsing this site. Our informal methodology:
1. Find the poufiest, corsetiest, touilliest, laciest dresses.
2. Make fun of how ridiculous they are.
3. Get curious and start reading the customer reviews.
Our discovery: In more than 50% of our sample reviews, of a variety of styles of dresses, brides said at least one of the following (paraphrased):
1. “This was the first dress I tried on!”
2. “I didn’t think I’d like this at first, but when I saw myself in it, I cried.”
3. “I knew this was the dress for me the second I tried it on; I didn’t need to try on any other dresses!”
4. “I didn’t even like this dress, but my mom made me try it on…”
Our conclusions:
1. A bride will tend to fixate on the first dress she tries on, since that is the dress in which she first sees herself as a “bride”, and comes to instantaneously associate this dress with her identity as such. This feeling seems to override her regular preferences and/or good taste.
2. A bridal sales person could easily steer a person to an a) more expensive and/or b) less popular, and therefore harder to move, dress, by forcing the bride to try it on first. Case in point, this review excerpt: “The lady at davids bridal made me try it on last even though i already knew that i was going to get [sic].”
Some samples: here (check out the first review), here, and our personal favorite.
This finding will herewith be called the “Cupcake Phenomenon”. It’s corollary is the law that makes all brides, regardless of their rationality or good taste in other areas of life, choose hideous and unwearable bridesmaid dresses (also pushed upon them by the bridal industry), otherwise known as the “Bridesmaid’s Dilemma” (for an example use the third link above to read Nangielee’s review of her bridesmaid dresses; and the picture! I would have killed her…at her own wedding…if I had to wear that dress!).
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