Adventures in MOB Shopping

Now that I have a dress and my bridesmaids have their dresses, it's time to talk about the other two women: Mama Warbler and MIL Warbs! Both of these lovely ladies have been way too in regards to the dress. Every time I see one of them I get the same questions: "What color dress do I have to wear?" "What style should I wear?" "What do you want me to wear?" Even though my answer each time is basically: "Idk. Wear whatever you feel comfortable in, I guess?" they inevitably ask me again. I think it's the same situation as the bridesmaid dress search, even though they may want the freedom to choose, they want guidance more.

Last weekend, Mama Warbler came to town so we could shop for her dress. I quickly realized that our ideas of how the day was going to turn out were completely different. I thought we would browse a few stores, she would try on a few dresses in each store and it would be an easy decision. And at the end of the day we'd both feel like this:

Fun and flirty we were not / Image via Health.com

Since Mama Warbler moved to Seattle a couple of years ago, I have forgotten what her SOP are during shopping. Instead of thinking about what style she wanted to look at beforehand, she just wandered around each store waiting for something to jump out at her. She kept saying, "I don't have to look really hard. I'll see the dress and just know." Now, that's not how I operate at all. Hell, many of the clothes I do end up buying I wouldn't normally buy if I hadn't tried them on just for fun. We hit up all of our favorite stores: JC Penny, Macy's, Express, New York & Company and a few more that I can't remember now. At the end of the day, we went to David's Bridal as a last resort. Up until this point she hadn't tried on a single article of clothing and I was getting pretty frustrated. Didn't she always make me try on a ton of clothes when I went shopping as a kid? I wanted payback!

I tried to get an idea of what kind of dress might "jump out at her". I held up dress after dress and she shook her head at most of them.

Me: "What don't you like about it?"
Mama Warbler: "I just don't like it."
Me: "Yes, Mama. But what don't you like about it?"
Mama Warbler: "The whole thing!"

I swear we could have been on a TV sitcom.

After much teeth pulling, begging and a lame attempt at reverse psychology, I finally got her to try on three dresses. I was beyond ecstatic, even though she wouldn't even come out of the dressing room with the first two dresses on. Seriously. She finally came out for about 30 seconds in the third dress to see herself in the mirror. I took this opportunity to jump into the dressing room with her so that I could grab a quick photo. Sorry for the weird camera angles, I was on a mission!

Personal Photos

While I thought the dress looked great on her, she wasn't happy with the way it fit. By this time we were both tired and starving so we decided to throw in the towel and grab some Korean BBQ. She's coming back into town next month so we're going to try again. I never thought that we would have more trouble finding her dress than mine, but you gotta love my mama. I probably get my stubbornness from her. It was a fun day, but I hope next month we'll both be better prepared. 

How was your experience shopping for MOB dresses? Was it easy or more difficult than you thought?