Wedding Blog

As I posted earlier in my fat dress post, I don’t have a dress yet. I’ll come back and post when I do!

there’s a local seamstress who does alterations, and caps the fee at $175. i COULD NOT believe this deal, and neither does my wedding planner.

Mine’s costing me a little less than $1000, but I’m renting it, so it’s a whole different story, I assume. Obviously I’m not paying extra for alterations, since it’s being rented anyway. I have no idea how much the dress costs and I understand that despite how much I’m in love with my dress, it will never be “mine”, but I don’t mind it at all- because afterall, you only wear it once, right? I highly doubt that I’ll have an urge to wear it again in the future… and where would I possibly wear it to? Selling would be another option, but I’m quite lazy when it comes to online business (I prefer purchasing over selling 100% of time.) so that really isn’t an option for me, which makes renting perfectly fitting in my case. Btw, I’m renting another one for photoshoot sessions for about $200. The entire package includes bridesmaids’ dresses, groomsmen’s tuxes, as well as the groom’s tux- all are being rented, of course. My fiance happens to be a close friend of the wedding shop’s owner’s son so she’s not charging us for the groom’s tux, which is a plus!

i’m assuming the only reason Kleinfeld stated that on the phone is so that brides don’t get caught off guard when they arrive for their appt.
most of the gowns i’ve bookmarked are quite pricey, but i’m hoping that i have some luck @ samples sales and such~

I’m sure Kleinfeld’s does it because they want to dissuade brides who aren’t planning on paying that much. They’re very famous, and I’m sure a lot of new brides go there first to try on dresses, although they have no real plans of buying such expensive gowns. Why waste a lot of time showing dresses to brides who have no intention of buying? I’m sure they work on commission.

As far as cost is concerned: I paid $720 for my gown. I was told that the list price was “$1040″ by two separate dress shops, although I’m not sure I believe it, as I saw it listed on online discount shops as an $832 MSRP. Which makes rather more sense that they’d sell it to me for $720–they were matching RK Bridal’s price (although I told them $20 less). After a LOT of research (and years of knowledge of what looks good on me), I tried on several dresses at RK Bridal, and I loved two different styles. The dresses from one style were both about $1050, and then there was the $740 dress. I tried not to think about price, but I couldn’t help it–and, besides, the gown I ended up buying was the only one I felt like a *bride* in, not just like I was wearing a beautiful dress. The lucky thing–when I went back to get measured, it turns out I fit pretty much perfectly into another dress made by the manufacturer (I ordered my gown from a shop that didn’t stock it because they’re closer to me than RK Bridal) even to the length, so we ordered that size and I’m hoping that when my dress comes in, I won’t need much, if any, alterations. And my mom, an excellent seamstress, has promised to look into creating a simple bustle for my short train.

my dress was originally 1300. i called around a found it at one boutique for 1150. then i checked online and ended up paying a little over 800! (i had tried it on in one of the boutiques that was selling it for the 1300 price, so i knew what color and size i wanted.

I saved 10% by buying the dress they had in the store instead of ordering it. It had been worn a few times by brides trying on gowns and they had to do some alterations, but I think it was worth it.

I used the money I saved to buy my veil!

I had the most horrible dress shopping experience at Kleinfeld’s! A saleswoman named Lea Taylor was sooo rude to me. Not only did she stare down at the size of my engagement ring, but she flat out said, “Honey, I’m just being honest with you, with your budget, there is nothing for you here!” I was so shocked and pissed when she said that-she had no customer service skills at all. Not only did she take away the fun of dress shopping, but she made me feel like I wasn’t good enough to own a designer gown. I want to warn all brides that Kleinfelds is all about the money. I’ve been to their sample sales and all suck. All of the dresses are in really poor condition with lots of rips, tears and stains and the decent dresses are still above $1,000 anyway.
Luckily, I found a gorgeous gown at the Vera Wang sample sale for $2,000. Its a brand new dress and I love it more than any other dress I’ve seen before. I highly suggest sacreficing sleep to check out the Vera Wang sample sale. Good luck ladies!