Shopping on the Internet

After I found my dress I decided to find the flower girl’s dress.  Since my dress is kind of unique (sorry, no further details) I knew I couldn’t have a mini-me dress, but I didn’t want something that would clash either.  My aunt Karen and I spent an entire day shopping for the perfect dress.  Pretty much every store I visited flower girl dresses were around $120.  I called Abe who said that is ridiculous amount of money to spend on a five year olds dress and didn’t want me spending that much on the dress.  He told me to see if I could find it cheaper anywhere else.  Considering my aunt Karen and I had already searched every store in a million mile radius, I turned to the internet.  Not only did I find the perfect dress, but it was only $59 dollars ($74 with the cheapest shipping)!  I got out my credit card and ordered it.  Madison was so excited that soon she’d get a princess dress J 

Several weeks went by, actually about six, and I hadn’t got a confirmation email, confirmation number, or anything.  I tried to log on to the website using my user name and password which is the same for all things wedding that I order online.  Didn’t work – “user name not valid”  I clicked the Contact Us tab only to find that this company is located in Shanghai, China.  Unbeknownst to me Shanghai is known for scamming people and the Chinese mobs.  Great right? They had an address and email address, but no phone number.  Darn it!  I felt scammed.  I emailed customer service asking for help in accessing my account and inquiring on any tracking information.  I provided my name, address, and what I was sure the user name was.  The website promotes their customer service response time to be within 24 hours.  Sure enough the next morning I had an email from customer service asking what was the date I paid for the dress.  After checking my credit card statement, I immediately responded.  Actually I responded with more than that.  I responded with the amount I paid for the dress, the dress style number, the size I ordered, the color the sash was supposed to be, and my order number that I was given after I entered my credit card information.  I patiently waited more than the 24 hours suggested and heard nothing.  I sent another email and heard nothing.  Ugh!  I was already trying to figure out what I was going to do.

Another week went by, still no emails.  I received a call at work.  Abe had been home and the dress had been delivered.  First of all the worst packaging ever.  The dress was rolled in a ball and packaged in what looked like a black trash bag.  At this point I was just happy to have the dress.  I opened the package only to find the dress was nearly big enough to fit a 13 or 14 year old.  What the heck!?!?  I ordered a child size six.  I checked the tag.  The handwritten tag on the inside had a number 6.  Besides the size somehow being wrong, the dress was only supposed to come to Madison’s knees, I had purposefully chosen a short dress since the wedding is in September and I want her to be able to move and be comfortable.  I pulled the dress up online just to make sure I wasn’t going crazy.  The picture didn’t look much like what I was holding.

I really didn’t and couldn’t send it back, I had no account information and it had already taken nearly 2 months to arrive, plus I’d be out $20 to send it back and feared that I’d never see it again.  I took the dress to my moms and had Madison try it on, she loved it although it hung off her body.  The top was below her chest, the sash that should be right under her chest was hanging at her hips, it was wide enough to both fit herself and a friend in it at the same time, and hung so far under her feet that I had to carry her through the house.  My aunt Sue happened to stop by when I was over and said she knew someone that does alterations.  She would explain what was going on and get back to me. 

Later that night I found out it would be around $75-$100 to get this dress altered.  That would mean I would be paying more for the alterations than the dress and be spending around $50 dollars more than if I would have bought a dress in-store for the now low-seeming price of $120.  Hoping that a second opinion would be lower, a friend here at work said she had a friend that likes to sew and could probably do it cheaper than what I was quoted.  When she came to look at the dress and I explained what needed to be done she said she wasn’t interested in such a project, but confirmed that I could expect to pay around $100 if I took it somewhere.  She also said she had a friend that sews and does alterations, but she wasn’t sure if the lady would be interested.  I now debated between buying a new dress to avoid hassle or getting this one altered.  At this point, it didn’t really matter what I did since it was going to cost about the same amount. 

I really did like the dress that I tried to order.  It was actually my favorite of all the ones I had looked found.  It took me longer to find a flower girl dress that I liked then it did to find both my wedding dress and my bridesmaids dresses combined.  I decided to get it altered.  I called the friend of a friend’s friend and drove to her house and gave her the dress.  She explained that she’d have to take it completely apart and remake the whole thing and she would do her best to make it look like what it is supposed to.

I learned my child clothes shopping lesson (now stored in my mind for future reference) – Just buy it!  Abe will never understand this part of life J

Dress Shopping from the MOH's (Maid of Honor's) Point of View

So it’s cold, and when I say cold I mean bitter snowy, icy cold.   And this is the day Liz has decided to go dress shopping.   (These two must have a thing for the cold considering they got engaged in frigid temps with Liz’s toes frozen).   But anyway….we were meeting at David’s Bridal for Liz to try on dresses.  And by we, I mean Liz, her aunt, Abe’s mom and me.   I don’t know what I expected to find (maybe something calm and relaxing and magical like on Say Yes to the Dress) but whatever I expected is not what it was.  It’s a mad house!!  Lots of girls all trying to find “the dress.”   Not even knowing what size Liz would wear made the first attempt at finding only 3 dresses rather hard.  But we did it!  So she tried on those three and then proceeded to try on about 100 more….okay not 100 but it gets so hot and crazy there that you feel you’ve been at it for hours.  But basically she tried on several dresses and liked a few.  She left thinking she liked a dress but I was less than convinced.  Knowing how excited Liz is to marry Abe and how much she’s putting in to this wedding day, I just expected to see a giddy girl leaving the store.  Instead, I saw my best friend looking like she would settle for a dress.  Not good!!

So….a few days later, we decided to go to another shop in the Reading Bridal District.  And there was where I found my calm, relaxing, magical experience that I had been expecting.  Liz, her sister Sarah and I went and thankfully the shop was not crowded and we had amazing service!  We picked out a few dresses including one she has had her eye on from the beginning of this whole experience.   So she begins trying on dresses…the first one was okay.  Of course she looked beautiful (I mean honestly, she could wear a trash bag, walk down the aisle and still look amazing) but it didn’t have that magical wedding day feeling.  And then she put on the one she had been wanting to try on and there I saw my best friend’s face light up and a smile like I’ve never seen.  I knew that instant that this dress had to be “the one.”  But you never know if there is something better out there, so the search continued.  She tried on a few more dresses and came upon another that she really loved as well.  So of course we had to compare and eventually convinced her to put “the one” back on.  And there was that glow and that smile again.  And after much thought and deliberation and nervousness….she said yes to the dress. 

I don’t think I can explain how absolutely gorgeous my best friend looked…and that’s no make-up, no hair, no jewelry.  I honestly can’t imagine her looking more beautiful (even though I know she will on her wedding day).  I can’t wait for everyone else to see her in “the one” and see that glow and that smile that I got to see.  Abe sure is a lucky guy….to get such a beautiful girl, inside and out.

Not Just a Tablecloth

When my aunt and I visited Lake Lynsday to find out if it was the place I wanted to have the reception, it happened to be decorated.  Browns, creams, tans, and gold tablecloths, overlays, and accents made the humongous room come together.  It was so stunningly beautiful that I considered changing my colors, after all brown is one of my favorite colors.  After seeing their display, I was eager to shop for linens. Really I was!  Again I met up with my aunt Sue and we visited several different linen rental places.  We spent a couple hours at the first place.  There are so many types of fabrics-crinkle, satin, iridescent, sequined, taffeta, polyester, checked, pintucked.  Plus a selection of different prints, overlays, and runners.  I was so overwhelmed, my head was spinning with ideas.  Then of course money always helps limit my million ideas!  Since we were on a budget, I decided to do half of the tables white polyester tablecloths.  I’d use accent pieces to throw in color.  Now was the hard part…finding fabric in our colors.  Sangria, apple green, and mango orange were not easy colors to find.  I was told that those were “coast” colors that hadn’t made their way inland yet.  Hmmm, guess I’m just too trendy!  We spent all afternoon tearing tablecloths and runners off hangers and setting showroom tables to get a better picture.  Between the tablecloth, runner, napkin, and chair sash, not all seemed to be available in the colors I needed.  I was beyond frustrated.  The salesperson at the rental place was very nice, but kept trying to persuade me to just change my colors; especially since at this point I hadn’t had my bridesmaids dresses.  We left with new colors-green and yellow.  It made me think I was throwing a baby shower.  I wasn’t happy.  Period.  I didn’t want to change my colors.  After all, it’s not just a tablecloth we’re dealing with here.  It’s precious fabric that would help set the mood of the reception, not to mention be the same colors used throughout the entire ceremony, reception, and just everything in general related to our wedding.  In a mission to find my colors, sangria especially, we continued to visit two more places.  We were unsuccessful, one place was closed and the other was equipment rentals and a selection of maybe 10 polyester tablecloths.  My aunt Sue and I even thought of making our own tablecloths. We went to a fabric store looking for something in my original colors that might work.  No luck!  They only had sangria sequined ribbon.  We went back to her house and got online.  Maybe I’d try ordering tablecloths online.  Heck, if I found what I wanted for around the same price I was going to rent them, I’d just buy them.  Don’t know what I’d do after the fact, but if it worked for the wedding day, that’s all that mattered.  We were on the internet from early evening to when I left her place around 10.  So far no luck.  When I got home I spent a couple more hours online looking, still no luck.  I went to bed and woke up (sleep deprived) the next morning wondering why I spent the night dreaming of orange crinkle cloth?!?!  I called Abe, who was getting off at 8am and told him to meet me at the linen place.  We were taking care of this not just today, but now.  With Abe’s clear cut decision making and patience, it was within an hour that I had linens (including tablecloths, napkins, runners, and chair sashes) I liked in a similar color scheme to the one I originally wanted.  I felt much relieved.