Wedding Blog

When we got engaged, I remember thinking to myself, “How can a dress possibly cost $5000?” But then, I flipped through the pages of In Style Weddings and Modern Bride, and I quickly got schooled.

One day, while searching for gowns online, I found an incredible Vera Wang dress that I loved, and immediately went to a bridal salon to try it on. I just wanted to know what it felt like to put it on! It hit me in all the right places and made me feel pretty, but unfortunately, it was out of my price range.

Imagine my delight (read: an ecstatic, frantic OMG moment) when I saw my dream dress for 1/3 of the price at a sample sale in San Francisco! It was still more than I had planned to spend, but I hardly ever spend money on myself. It felt nice knowing that because it was heavily discounted, that I might be able to buy it. I also felt like a bride in it, which was something not one single dress had done for me before that day. That dress just did something to me.

Here she is, with a champagne colored sash that I added.

As usual, I wasn’t ready for the picture to be taken. At least my eyes were open, though.

You’re probably thinking, “That’s fantastic!” right? Well, no. Not so much.

I was with FMIL Dumpling that day, and we found the dress on a Saturday afternoon. I needed to leave the store to have lunch and think about the amount of money I was about to lay down before I made a final decision. I try to step away and think about big purchases before I make them sometimes. In addition, I was in a Vera Wang haze and couldn’t think clearly. So, we left the store and I thought about it. After eating my walnut prawns and chow fun, I finally decided that it was indeed, the dress. We decided to go back to the store the next day to make the purchase.

Well, silly me—we went back the next day, a Sunday, and the store was closed, and I was scheduled to fly back home to Vegas that night. Luckily, my generous FMIL said she would go down to the store when they opened on Monday and buy the dress since I wouldn’t be able to do it myself.

So, she went back on Monday and they still had the dress. WHEW!  Since they don’t hold sample sale dresses, we were in luck. She called to tell me the good news, and I asked her to look the dress over once more to make sure there weren’t any major problems with it. I was in my Vera Wang haze the day I tried it on, so I didn’t think to closely look it over.

Here I am, in my haze and not paying attention.

In la la land…

What. An. Idiot. (Said with Hermione Granger’s accent, of course.)

Turns out, there was a mark on the dress in a very visible spot that would not come out. And I totally didn’t see it. The only way to disguise it was to put a “pick-up” in the front of the dress. While I think pick-ups are gorgeous, I felt like it would take away from the intended design of that particular gown.

It’s a small spot, but I would be staring at it all day.

This is where the pick-up would have gone.

I thanked FMIL Dumpling and she headed home, without the dress. In the end, I couldn’t spend that much on something that wasn’t perfect, especially before adding in the cost of alterations. So, no Vera Wang for me.

I do, however, have a new friend named Priscilla. She’s from Boston. Do you know her? I’ll bring her around later for everyone to meet and we can all be friends.

Does anyone else have a crazy story about their dress? Do you think it’s worth it to spend money on designer you love for your wedding day?