Weddingbee Blog

So after countless other dresses, and our 45 minute adventure at Filene’s Running of the Brides, during which I realized that the past 5 months of wedding dress shopping had all served to confirm I had in fact already found the dress I wanted to wear, I immediately called the bridal salon that had my dress and made an appointment. Although at the time I felt like I’d been pushing it to wait so long after finding the dress to make a decision, I’m really glad I spent that time looking at other dresses and drooling over expensive creations in magazines. The experience only served to reassure me that I was naturally drawn to all-lace dresses - it wasn’t just a weird fluke that made me hallucinate that this was a good idea. It seemed so opposite to what I (and everyone else) expected, that I think it threw me for a loop at first!

In the end, I was so confident going into the bridal salon to buy my dress that it was sort of easy for me to negotiate with them on price. I think having so much time to ponder (OK, agonize over it) made me less prone to the giddy “oh my gosh I have to have it!” where a store knows you are willing to pay whatever price to get the dress. I walked in completely calmly, asked to try on the two dresses in my ’file’ (their record of dresses I liked), then said about the lace one: “I’d love to buy this dress, but what’s the best price you can give me?”

Although it was technically within my budget already, I didn’t let on about that and calmly negotiated with the saleswoman - who initially said, “oh, I can’t give discounts, that can only happen when the manager is here,” to which I responded, “I’m sure you can call the manager?” - As luck would have it, suddenly she remembered some discounts she could give me! As much as I hated the shady practice of not letting me take pictures of the dress before I bought it, not telling me the real designer’s name, and pretending she couldn’t give me discounts, I really wanted this dress! Patience won out in the end, as I negotiated a 10% discount after taking into account the added cost of extra length (custom ordered to exact measurements so I don’t have to get it hemmed, yay!). While not a huuuge difference, it made me feel better that I tried my hardest to get the best deal even though I’m not usually good at asking for a lower price, and those savings will help pay for some alterations!

I’m sure that by now all you are thinking is, ‘enough already, show us the freaking dress!’… So without further ado, my dress! First, here’s a photo taken by my lovely cell phone, since I had forgotten that once you actually buy the dress, they let you take pictures of it, and had not come armed with my camera… {sigh} ah well.

(Concentrating on taking the photo - I was happy, I swear!)

Hooray! It’s such a pretty lace… and so lightweight, which means it will be easy to move around and dance! These photos show it with a dark brown/black sash around the waist, but that was just a stand-in for what I’m going to wear there. I haven’t exactly determined what that will be yet, but there will definitely be something! I like the look of it with a sash better than without, and I’m considering wearing an ivory colored ribbon for the ceremony and switching it out to a blue one (from the same material as the BM dresses?) for the reception. Here’s a photo of it without the sash from last week when I actually picked up my dress at the store and took it home with me (eeep!):

(much better quality photo, puckering at waist because it’s pinned in the back - can you tell I am excited?)

More photos from when I ordered it:

(Short dress alert -in bare feet! - plus random fake flowers)

I am so excited to wear this dress; it will match our outdoor ceremony, the flowers that have sprung up everywhere, and most of all, it makes me feel comfortable and like a bride!

(who knows why she took it at this awkward angle)

I’ll be getting a few alterations done to it: I’d like a more pronounced sweetheart neckline, and we’re going to shorten the satin underlay in the train so that the lace is about 6 inches longer than the satin, so that it looks like the train that stole my heart in the last post:

(Lace overlay longer than the satin underneath)

I love imagining the lace overlay behind me on the grass as I walk down the aisle!

Finally, the conclusion to my dress shopping journey! Sometimes I wish I had saved myself all the hassle and just bought the dress back in February! But then I wouldn’t have had nearly as much of a fun (and drawn out!) a story to tell you. I am so excited to wear this dress and also to see the look on Mr. Guinea Pig’s face when he first sees me! I’m sure it’s not at all what he’s expecting, mostly because I’m not normally a ’lace’ girl!

Did you buy your dress as soon as you found it? Were you able to negotiate the price for it?