A bride tried on 8 gowns before finding her dream wedding dress in New York City

Kiaya and Aaron, who are both 28, went to rival schools in South Carolina. They were introduced by Kiaya's cousin at a varsity basketball game when they were in seventh grade and became fast friends.

They remained best friends throughout high school, and they finally took things to the next level during their junior year of college in 2012. They've been together ever since.

The couple managed to get married before the coronavirus pandemic shut down the United States, though the day did look different than they originally planned.

Kiaya started shopping for a wedding dress a few months after the couple got engaged.

She didn't have an exact idea of what she wanted, but she knew she loved the designer Pronovias and that she wanted a balance of modern and classic in her gown. She also gravitated toward A-line dresses.

Kiaya planned on buying her dress herself, so she set her budget at $2,500.

The first gown Kiaya tried on had a transparent lace top with a plunging neckline that she liked, but the heavy bottom wasn't her favorite.

"My sister prompted me to try that one on," she said of the gown. "But the skirt was heavy."

"If I'm dancing, I will get hot in like two seconds, and you'll know it," Kiaya added. "You can't miss the fact that I'm either hot or sweating."

"So I was like, 'Nope, that's going to make me be on fire,'" she said of the gown.

It was time to keep shopping.

"I really liked that dress," Kiaya said of the sleek A-line gown.

She liked the plunging neckline and shape, but the dress had cap sleeves, which she tucked in for the photo, and she just couldn't get past them.

"It needed a little bit more to it," the bride said.

After the experience, Kiaya decided to head to New York to shop at bridal boutiques in the city. She scheduled a trip for August, seven months before her wedding.

She headed to the appointment at the RK Bridal boutique with her mom, sister, godmother, and best friend.

The first gown she tried on at the store was a strapless trumpet gown with lace detailing.

"I really liked the shape," Kiaya said of the dress. "It wasn't as heavy as all of the other ones, surprisingly, because it wasn't super mermaid-y."

She also liked the long train, but something about the gown just didn't feel right. "I just didn't like it that much," she said. "It wasn't the one."

Kiaya was drawn to the shape and transparent bodice on this A-line Willowby gown that cinched at the waist.

"It was perfect," she said of the gown. "It was light but still very huge and super fun while being classy at the same time. It seemed like something I could go with, but then in my head, I was like, 'Ehh. It's still poofy-ish.'"

The full skirt ended up being a deal-breaker, so Kiaya headed to Kleinfeld Bridal.

While researching wedding dresses, Kiaya said she "honed in on spaghetti straps," which is one of the reasons she liked this gown when she first saw it. However, she realized she wasn't a fan of the style once she finally tried it on.

"I love the simplicity of it," Kiaya told Insider of the gown, but ultimately the dress wasn't right for her.

"It was just so gorgeous, but the bottom was so heavy," Kiaya said.

"I pictured myself trying to move in that dress, and I was like, 'Nope, not going to happen,'" she said, adding that all of the layers were going to cause her to either trip or have a heatstroke.

Kiaya was a fan of the gown's intricate bodice, as the combination of the lace and low neckline were exactly what she was looking for. But the full skirt was too much.

While she tried it on, the consultant "tucked part of it in between my legs" because of how heavy the skirt was, Kiaya told Insider.

"It was hot just putting it on," she added. "I just saw myself as a Disney princess bride, and I was like, 'This isn't gonna work for me.'"

Kiaya told Insider that she's been a fan of Pronovias since high school, and she looked at a myriad of their dresses when she was researching wedding gowns online.

She fell in love with the head-to-toe lace of this gown months before she went shopping, and when she tried it on in person, she knew it was the one right away.

"It was just perfect," she said. "It was elegant."

"It was just the best dress that I could wear that would be me in a wedding dress," Kiaya added. "A little bit of fun and flirty up top, but very traditional. And it's very contemporary at the same time."

"Aaron actually picked out my wedding dress, but he didn't know it," Kiaya told Insider.

She showed Walters a few of the gowns she was looking at on Pinterest to see what he was imagining her in. He didn't take much of an interest in any gown — except for the Pronovias dress she ended up buying months later.

"That's the only one that he gave a single word to," she said. "All the other ones, he was like, 'Meh.'"

The dress cost $2,200, which was within Kiaya's budget. But her mom surprised her by buying the gown, so she didn't have to spend her own money.

Doing the alterations locally allowed Kiaya to save money, which was helpful because her gown needed a lot of changes.

"I was super worried about how much it would cost," she said, as her curves made for different sizes on different parts of her body.

Bridal sizes are not the same as normal dress sizes, which can make shopping and alterations both difficult and expensive. Kiaya told Insider she was a size 20 for the bottom half, a size 12 around her bust, and a size 14 around her waist.

"It was basically a custom-made dress," Kiaya said.

But despite all the changes, the alterations only cost her $800, bringing the total cost of her gown to $3,000.

"Honestly, I was very surprised that I even wanted a back similar to that," she told Insider.

"I always pictured myself having a fully open back," Kiaya said, adding that she has a tattoo she would have liked to show off. But the small cutout ended up being perfect for her.

"There were at least five other Pronovias dresses that I think I adored separately," she said. "But in that one dress, all of them combined into one."

And although Walters technically picked out the gown, he didn't remember it when he saw his bride-to-be on their wedding day. "All I see is you and this really pretty dress," he told Kiaya. "And I just want to get married."

Kiaya said the Kleinfeld experience was ideal, particularly because of how much detail she got about the dresses from their website.

"It was the best setup," she said. "I could look on their website. I could see all the dresses they had, which ones were in my range. I knew what styles, the designer, and just kind of what I liked."

She went into her appointment feeling prepared.

"I completely questioned everything about what I liked and what I didn't throughout the whole wedding process," she told Insider, as the chaos of planning a wedding made her listen to others instead of herself first.

"Being a bride plus being engaged for me — and I think it's this way for other people — you really get a sense of who you are as an individual," Kiaya said. "It's your last chance to understand you before you spend your entire life with somebody else."

"It really didn't hit until probably when I picked out my dress," she added. "I finally accepted I'm this full-grown adult about to do this whole life-changing event."

"Don't listen to the haters, listen to your gut," Kiaya advised brides. "Don't let anybody tell you what's good."

You can follow Kiaya on Instagram here, and you can see more of her photographer Sacia Matthews' work here.

If you are in the process of shopping for your wedding dress or have photos from when you shopped and want to talk to Insider for a story, get in touch at sgrindell@insider.com.

• Read more:
• A bride only had to try on 2 wedding dresses before finding a gown that's fit for a princess
• A bride tried on 12 dresses before finding the one. Here are the gowns she looked at — and the one she chose.
• 2 brides shopped separately for their wedding dresses and ended up choosing styles that were the perfect match
• A bride tried on 6 dresses before finding the one, but then she had to postpone her wedding