Wedding Blog

… when you dislike shopping.

Source

I’ll just go ahead and say it: I’m weird. I’m weird because (among other reasons) I do not like the experience of shopping. Going from place to place looking, being accosted, jostled, and pressured, etc. EXHAUSTS me. Maybe it’s because I’m old. And if I have to do it, I go shopping at off-peak hours, online and (on rare occasion) by appointment. And, of course, I also don’t like parting with my money.

This is fine most of the time, but horrible for when you’re looking for something you MUST try on… for that one article of clothing that (has been more than once dramatically characterized as the thing that) could be the most important sartorial purchase of your life (shivers): The wedding dress.

SO, I went to ONE store with my mother early on.

I tried on about six dresses, and thought they were all pretty decent. But I wasn’t satisfied that I had found the dress, and I certainly wasn’t happy about the prices. Also, the whole business of putting things on and taking them off, over and over, was really tiring. And, though the ladies at the salon were very nice… I felt a little pressure to buy something (but they didn’t allow pictures–why is that?). But didn’t.

After trying on the dresses and knowing what looks good and not so good on me, I spent months online to see if I could find something better… in terms of style and price. I didn’t want to go back to a salon because I didn’t want to get pressured into buying something outrageously priced (paying more towards retailers’ profit margins than the true value of the workmanship). Yes, I understand some things cost more because they are expertly crafted. I definitely agree that great quality is worth more. But sometimes you also pay for the experience or the process… something I don’t really care about (since I hate shopping and all). So, anyway, I was willing to pay a certain amount more (up to a limit) for a dress. HOWEVER I was also looking for a bargain… “great quality at a good price”, as the commercials say. That is, I was looking for value.

I wanted something simple, a sheath, preferably couture, with some sort of interesting element like fancy schmancy lace or some needlework. I drooled over Monique Lhuillier, Jenny Packham, and Claire Pettitbone gowns. And I looked at every online wedding magazine, blog, or outlet you could imagine.

Inspiration: 1930s sheath. Source

By now you’ve most likely heard of used wedding dress places like preownedweddingdresses.com; encorebridal.com; oncewed.com, etc. I was open to the idea of a once wedded dress, but I ultimately became very apprehensive. I had visions of a too big/small dress that couldn’t be altered or something that was way to soiled or damaged from use that it would never look fresh or right… that couldn’t be returned.

So I looked into sample outlets like Bridepower.com, bridecouture.com, dreambridalla.com, and yourdreamdress.com (Miss Hot Cocoa performed the due diligence on this already, so I won’t get into all the details). Each of these sells samples (dreambridalla.com also sells preowned dresses) that have been inspected, cleaned, and are ready to wear.

The problem was, every time I saw a dress I liked, it was a size 10, the standard sample size. However, it’s often difficult or even impossible to alter them beyond two sizes. So, I’d often see things that I liked, but never purchased because of this. Then, one day, I was doing my usual trolling and was really surprised to find a super simple, slim sheath by Vera Wang. It was a very odd sized sample: 6 (which translates to 0 or 2 in street clothing). I threw caution to the wind (thinking that the opportunity might not come again) and bought it from yourdreamdress.com, feeling secure that I would be able to return it within 24 hours if I didn’t like it. (They are a very courteous, customer focused, and friendly bunch, btw.)

I had low expectations and didn’t want to get my hopes up. But I was still really excited to see it. It was delivered to the Mr’s office (as I was working at a client site, which was notoriously leisurely with the mail) and he rushed it home for me. I tried it on (in private) and the thing fit!!!

It was indeed a very fortunate thing, since the odd thing about this particular dress is that, there is NOWHERE TO DO ALTERATIONS if you had to. It has one seam that runs down the center of the dress. It’s a very thin seam (no extra fabric). And over the seam is hand-embroidery. That basically means that you can’t let it out or take it in without destroying the handiwork, and basically the entire dress. Not only did it fit (save for the length), it was in IMPECCABLE condition… like it had never been tried on. No snags, no dirt on the hem, no irregularities, no smudges, NOTHING. I was shocked!

So, I was lucky that it fit through the body. But I wasn’t sure about the hem. At the bottom, there was a piece of embroidery as well. Note that it’s hand embroidery, meaning it’s stitched—thread by thread—onto the fabric. This is in contrast to appliques which are premade and simply stitched around the perimeter (it’s also different from machine embroidery, as it’s more intricate and has more texture/is not flat). So basically, the embroidery doesn’t come off. But it looked like if I got it hemmed right up to the embroidery, and wore stilettos, I’d be okay. So… I just went with it and hoped for the best. (More on the alterations saga later…)

It definitely met my criteria for a simple (unstructured) sheath, and bonus that it was 40% off the retail price. And the best part: I didn’t have to go into a store.

It was like a huge burden had been lifted and I could move on with the rest of the wedding planning. I sort of never looked back. I do see other dresses and wonder, should I have kept looking? Then I think, Nah, my dress is similar to, but unlike many I’ve seen; it could work in both a contemporary or vintage theme; and I don’t want to go through the trouble again!

Done. Relief.

Did you seek out your dress in other ways than going into a salon?