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As mentioned in Part I, in addition to brand-new gowns (which can be sold with sales tags (”NWT”) or without (”NWOT”), there are 4 distinct categories of wedding gowns that show up again and again on Ebay. Each presents a few considerations worth noting:
+ Bridal Samples: Ever wonder what happens to the sample dresses that brides-to-be try on in salons across the country? Once they are pulled from the designer’s line, many of the sample dresses end up on Ebay. If you wear the sample size (often a bridal 10-12) or know a good tailor, you’re in luck!
Richard Glasgow Mikado Silk Gown, size 10, retail price $3,925, listed at $850 fixed price from seller Scarlett’s Closet.
Courtesy of "Britain’s Youngest Brides." I don’t know how to shorten the video clip, but if you watch from roughly 6:30 to 3:30 (as it counts backwards), I promise you won’t be disappointed! Watching them squish that bride into the limo was the funniest thing I’ve seen all week….
One summer in college, I worked as a country club banquet waitress. Most weekends were spent serving weddings, and I have no doubt that the brides at those weddings spent many months and many thousands of dollars to ensure that every last detail of those weddings reflected their fantasies of an absolutely perfect day.
What did we staff members do in the back room during slow times? Trash talk every last detail of the weddings!
Granted, at this country club, many people acted as though treating “the help” poorly would somehow enhance their social status, and it did little to turn us into well-wishers. But everyone has different tastes, and any bride’s idea of perfection won’t always be equally beloved by all her wedding guests. Also, even if everything is planned with the precision of a military campaign, things inevitably go wrong. Thinking of the last several weddings I personally attended, there was The Freezing Outdoor Wedding, The One Where They Ran Out of Cake, The One With the Fainting MOH, The One Where I Got Food Poisoning…. You get the picture. Luckily, people who love you focus on the joy of the event and the wonder of seeing you and your beloved start your married lives together, and the little bumps in the road generally glide by unnoticed. But there’s always some flaw for anyone who’s truly determined to find one.
Ebay can be a fantastic source for well-priced wedding gowns, with choices ranging from under-$50 bargains to couture gowns with prices in the thousands. However, there are a number of potential pitfalls to buying a gown you can’t try on, so it pays to understand the system before you look.
As it turns out, I bought not just one wedding gown on Ebay, but three! (There’s the probable actual gown, the one that was such an amazing deal I had to try it, and the vintage beauty I found while writing Part II of this post….) Guess that makes me about as much of an expert on the subject as any bride, so I wanted to share what I’ve learned.
Featured on Weddingbee
Unique Wedding Favors
“Add a memorable touch to your wedding with unique favors that match your theme.”
I’ve never been a fancy shoe girl. My feet blister if you even look at them wrong, and in my experience the prettiest shoes are always the least comfortable. And I walk everywhere, and apparently through puddles or something, because most of my shoes last 6 months, maybe a year at best. So generally my solution is to find cheap shoes, understanding they won’t last long. That way I’m not heartbroken when they’re gone.
As a result, I have to admit I don’t exactly “get” the whole designer wedding shoe thing. Some of the shoes are extremely pretty indeed, but mostly my reaction is “Wow, that’s expensive!” Like with most of my other shoes, my main criterion for my wedding shoes was a good price. As so I present:
Well, it appears my little wedding magazine addiction isn’t going away anytime soon…. In the meantime, this weekend I discovered another new UK title called Wedding Ideas.
Although I’m supposed to be cold turkey from all wedding magazine buying at the moment, after much pleading, several applications of over-the-top doe eyes, and many justifications of why it would help our wedding planning and therefore our entire lives as a couple, Mr. Tulip basically just gave up the battle and let me purchase a copy.
This magazine is a bit more “approachable” than the other UK mags I’ve read — in US non-wedding terms, more Family Circle or Good Housekeeping than Vogue or Elle. Although fewer of the featured ideas suit my personal tastes, it’s rather nice to have a different set of items to look through. (And there are lots of photo arrays — oh, how I like to look at photos!)
Create the honeymoon of your dreams.
Washington, DC is a magical place when its cherry blossoms are in bloom. Every year at the end of March or beginning of April, just when winter has ended and we’re feeling most desperate for spring, this ordinarily somber city comes alive for one precious week, maybe two.
So when I started to think about planning our wedding, I immediately thought of a cherry blossom theme in hope of capturing some of that magic.
My parents more than approve of Mr. T, but we discovered that my father is the old-fashioned type when it comes to engagements. Like, really old-fashioned — he demanded three cows as a dowry in exchange for my hand! Every time we brought up our upcoming engagement, Dad would say it couldn’t become official until he received his three cows….
Well, as with all problems in life, I turned to Ebay for the solution. I picked up this winning trio of ladies for $1.00 ($5 after shipping):
(The cows enjoying their new life in Iowa — photo vignette courtesy of Dad)
Martha Stewart was my gateway drug.
I don’t know, she seemed harmless enough. I guess I figured everyone else reads her. The wedding blogs are always showing off her ideas. The local library stocks her wedding how-to videos. Many of the craft tips can be applied in real life — you know, outside the wedding context? — and there are even recipes. Everyone can use new recipes, right??!?
Sometimes, the things we learn about ourselves while planning a wedding can be surprising. Mr. T and I are very early in the process, but already I’ve been surprised by my change of feelings on engagement rings.
The tradition of a bride carrying “something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue” comes from the wording of a Victorian rhyme, and each phrase has a particular meaning:
+ Something old is meant to symbolize the bride’s connection with her old life and her family,
+ While something new represents good fortune in her new life,
+ Wearing something borrowed — ideally something worn by a happy bride at her own wedding — is intended to bring good luck to the marriage,
+ And carrying something blue dates back to biblical times, when the color blue represented purity and fidelity.
Wednesday, August 8th began as more or less a regular Wednesday. DC broke a temperature record, hitting 102 degrees. My new roommate and I went grocery shopping, and Breyer’s ice cream was buy-one-get-one-free. And Mr. T came over for dinner, as he does most Wednesdays….
Mr. T. and I have yet to set our exact wedding date or to find the location, but we’ve already tackled lots of the smaller details…. (As he puts it, we skipped Steps 1 and 2, and went right to Steps 27, 43, 48, and 72!) And being a girl, and one who loves new clothes, of course one of the first things I took care of was buying my wedding dress.
(Nope, not mine! Read on….)
No, not those wedding crashers… (Image courtesy of New Line Cinema)
These wedding crashers! (At a wedding to which we were invited, thank you very much….)
My name is Tara, otherwise known as Miss Tulip, and I am so excited to be the latest Bee to join the Hive! You might think of me as the Bargain Bee. I’ve been a bargain queen since childhood — always making a game of finding the nicest things possible for the smallest amount of cash. There’s nothing as exciting to me as the thrill of the hunt … following the elusive trail of a fabulous item at an unheard-of price. (Anyone can find something expensive and beautiful. But to find something cheap and beautiful – that, my dears, takes skill!) Now planning a wedding has kicked everything up a couple of notches. But instead of hanging my trophies on some wall once I track them down … I plan to “hang” them here and share them with you!
Mr. Tulip and I have dated since I first moved to Washington, DC in 2004. We are freakishly similar, to the point that we have been known to blurt out exactly the same words at exactly the same times. Yes, we’re one of those couples…. We’re both something of the homebody, and a typical evening together will find us watching Netflix, side by side on the couch with our laptops open. We’re both big blog followers, except that he reads news, politics, and things with actual content, while I like to look at pretty pictures on craft, design, and wedding blogs. Mr. T. (hee hee) works from home, which means lots of flexibility to see one another. And also lots of time with our adorable Sheltie puppy and 4 cats!
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Mrs. Tulip, DC Age and Occupation: 36, Retired Fiance's Age and Occupation: 33, Counsel/DOO for Small Gov't Contractor Engagement Date: August 8, 2007 Wedding Date: March, 2008 Venue: Still Looking! About Me: In all my dreams of the man I'd someday marry, I never pictured anyone as perfect for me as Mr. Tulip. So now we just have to make it through the craziness of the wedding and the moving in together! I love crafts, sewing, jewelry making, and photography, so am looking forward to this chance for DIY fun. When not wedding planning, I'm playing with our dog and 4 cats, Ebay shopping, or watching too much TV (often simultaneously!).
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