Wedding Planning: The Dress Part III

I'm a tortured soul!

I have been to David's Bridal twice already and now I know the dress I want: the one next to the last one I tried on.

It fit perfectly and it looked beautiful. It had nothing in common with the other dresses I had tried because it was:
a) a mermaid style and
b) out of my budget

David's doesn't carry many mermaid styles, that's why I hadn't had the chance to try one on, and because the three mermaid or "trumpet" dresses they carry all cost more that $1,000.

I had been trying to stick around the $600 price tag dresses, but those dresses are mostly A-line which look ok on me, and anything with a bigger skirt only made me look fat!

So on my second visit, after trying on all the dresses I had picked in my price range and not loving anything, I decided to try on "just for fun" the two most beautiful ones I had seen but I had mentally discarded because they cost $1,150.

And my reasoning for not trying them on before was also "why should I go for the most expensive ones? - they have plenty of other dresses for a lot less money". That's why I tried them on last. Just because. Just for fun.

Of course, the more expensive dresses turned out to be the ones that looked fabulous on me! Story of my life.

But let it be a lesson to anybody still looking or about to look for a wedding dress: try all different styles on! If you think you love the way a ball gown looks on paper but hate the way it looks on you, try also something completely different. Try the mermaid, try the A-line, try them all!

I thought I liked something like this:

I ended up looking best in something like this: 

So my quest for the perfect dress is over, but does it mean I'll go out there tomorrow and buy the dress? Of course not! It would be too easy and I don't do anything easy!

Thing is, I like the dress but I don't want to spend the money, or at least, I'm still not convinced about spending the money on it. And I hate the pressure of having to buy NOW in February for a wedding that's going to take place in August.

When I was at David's last Saturday the person helping me asked about the wedding date, so when I said August he gave me a warning look and said "you know it takes 15 weeks to order?" And now I'm going to go on and rant a bit...

Soapbox please!

15 weeks?!?!? Seriously??? Why???

They are not ordering a custom made dress, but only a catalog dress in the size I need. Why does it take 15 weeks to order/make??? There were so many women in there that I have no doubt they can move their inventory without a problem. You want to tell me there is no size 8 in inventory anywhere? I don't buy it.

At this point I'm pretty sure it's all a brilliant scheme... but let me explain.

Every bridal brand has their winter and summer collections, and they always have new dress models substituting old ones, which is a bit of a waste since you will probably only need one dress in your lifetime, so it would probably be just fine if they had a main collection sticking around for a few years or so. But that wouldn't be smart of them, and I'll show you why.

Say, the dress I liked, model 123 from David's, it's a new model from the summer 2011 collection. It just came out now and I have 15 weeks time gap if I want it, which means I have to buy it by April. What it also means is that if anybody buys it right away today, it won't be delivered until June. So before we see this new model 123 on a bride and most importantly on eBay or on "used wedding dresses" websites it will be at least June or July.

Now, if my wedding is in August, waiting until June to buy the dress is scary, because I might end up with nothing I like. And that's what "they" want me to fear, and cave in, and buy it now.

Also, the 15 weeks gap makes it so that later in June, if that's when a girl starts looking for a dress, model 123 won't even be in the store anymore and they will have all new models, so that when model 123 makes it to eBay on June, the girl that just started looking won't want to buy it because she has no chance of trying it on at the store since they don't carry it anymore.

So the trick is to start looking for your wedding dress waaaaay early, find something you love and be able to try it on at the store, have the time to wait until it goes on sale on the various discount websites, and if that doesn't work out, still have at least 15 weeks ahead of you to order something else from the store. I know, it's a lot of work, but it's the only way to possibly get the dress you want at a better price.

Off the Soapbox now.

Before I finish this post, I also want to share with you some good links.

Wedding dress inspiration: Maggie Sottero - Pronovias - David's Bridal - Alfred Angelo - Eden Bridals

Wedding dress classifieds: weddingbee classifieds - eBay

Preowned wedding dress: Encore bridal - Wore it once - Preowned wedding dresses - Recycled bride - Penelope's bridal - Sabrina Ann

As for me, I have four options:

1. Buy the dress tomorrow

2. Wait and see if I can find it on sale in June

3. Try to find something similar and used now or even later

4. Bring a picture to a seamstress and have it custom made

We'll see what happens...