Bridesmaid Dress Shopping in Fatih: Every Disney Princess' Cupcake Dream

About a year ago, my colleagues and I went to the area of Istanbul called Fatih on what one might call a field trip for grown-ups, to visit the Fatih Camii (mosque).  Fatih is known to be one of the most conservative neighborhoods of Istanbul, where most women veil, and there is a mosque on just about every street.

While we were walking around the area surrounding the mosque we noticed a lot of bridal dress shops, this may or may not have anything to do with Fatih being conservative, who knows, but anyway!

So when my friend Ashley said she needed to go bridesmaid dress shopping for her friend Danielle's wedding this summer, we knew where to go.  and we knew who to call, Fatma!  Zac's wonderful, funny, motorcycle-riding, metal-listening, Turkish-speaking girlfriend.

We decided to meet up at Fatih Cami and go from there...

Now keep in mind, Fatih is a very conservative neighborhood. Most of the women not only wear the veil, many wear the full black garb (not the full burka which covers the eyes) but none the less, a stark contrast from the type of clothing we were in the market for.

Fatih has a TON of dress shops.  This is probably due to the sheer number of life-marking celebrations that occur in Turkish culture.  Apparently you need a dress for every separate occasion...and there are a lot of occasions...but we were looking for a rather specific dress: blue purple (not magenta pink purple), not strapless, not too gaudy/sparkly, which is harder to find than you might think.

and what did we find?  lot's of cupcake dresses

  look at that poof

the moment Ashley found the dress for her

mmm dresses of every color

after trying on many a dress, we decided it was time for cay: tea and cake break! the favored mid-afternoon custom of every culture

After perusing one or two more dress shops, we decided it was time to call it a day.  Fatma invited us over to her apartment in the neighborhood, where we could relax and play with her cat Bella's new kittens.

Kittens!

playing Tabla

and Fatma made manti (imagine really small ravioli with a yogurt sauce on top, drizzled with spiced butter), because she is amazing.

It was nice to have an excuse to go to Fatih, which is not a neighborhood most of us visit regularly, and seeing as we didn't find a dress, we will likely go on another excursion shortly!