Weddingbee Blog

So there I was, owner of a J.Crew wedding gown I didn’t love. At some point during this saga, my parents visited DC. But first, let me come clean:

I went to the Saks Jandel Vera Wang in Chevy Chase a few weeks after I went to Saks. I asked to see their sample gowns and said my budget was $3,000 (fearing I wouldn’t be shown anything for less than that). The saleswoman asked the typical questions about my wedding size and location, noting that ball gowns weren’t “typical” for a wedding of my size. I felt a little silly, but still said that I’d like to try on one if they did have a sample.

Mr. Ribbons, step away from the blog post.

I tried on these two dresses:

(source)

I tried on the bottom one first because the saleswoman didn’t want to stuff a ball gown into my dressing room, fearing I’d drown in tulle. It was pretty, but I didn’t feel transformed. Then she let me put on the ball gown. As soon as I walked out in front of the mirrors, I felt like I was beaming. The tulle was dreamy. The skirt reminded me of a long tutu, which is exactly what I wanted from a dress. It was romantic and so me. It clicked for the lady too, that I was just a big dress kind of girl.

The dress was still $2700, so I waited until my parents could visit and we could make a decision together.

About a month later my parents were in the area to see the cherry blossoms and I dragged my mom over to the store. She agreed it was perfect and there was a brief time, maybe 30 minutes or so, where we all seriously considered purchasing it. But then we all started thinking rationally again and that was that. They left and I was Vera-less but not dress-less.

I wasn’t ready to give up still. I had the J.Crew and it was fine. But I knew there was a whole world made of tulle out there and I just needed to find its discount aisle.

Then, one magical day, I was just doing my normal blog reading when Mrs. Perfume mentioned one of her sample dress sources: Bridepower.com

I combed the entire site for the two dream dresses, the Vera and the Herrera, but they weren’t there. After reading a description of another Vera though, there was hope: it was from the Vera Wang store in Chevy Chase, i.e., where I found the marvel of perfect poof. I signed up for email notifications and then mostly forgot about it.

A few weeks later an email appeared. New Designer Styles, it said. I looked around the office for hoverers (we don’t have cubes, shudder), and followed the link. I clicked over to the Vera Wang section and scrolled down ever so slightly… what is this? MY dress?

And the price! A MERE $300 more than the agreed-upon dress budget (and nearly 1,000 cheaper than the store)?

I frantically called my mom. She needed to think. I went home absolutely delighted/ecstatic. The next morning she said it was obvious, as long as I agreed to pay the difference. I returned the J.Crew dress that weekend.

detail of bodice

Since you made it this far, I’ll go ahead and share some photos from my first dress fitting. I am a kind and just blogger, after all.

Did you shop around for the best price on your dream dress? What were the ranges of prices you found on the exact same dress?

*Photos by me unless noted