The Dress Adventure

I have some issues with wedding dresses. The first one is that I thought it would be very hard to find a dress that fit my body type. I'm barely 5'2 and very busty. My other issue is that I HATE poof. Crinoline, petticoat, netting, whatever you want to call it - I absolutely hate it. Its itchy, annoying, and just not-my-style.

When T and I first got engaged, one of the first things that I did was look for dresses. I figured it would be a really long process to find something that I liked. Then I came across the Maggie Sottero Destinations dresses and I instantly fell in love.

The dress that caught my eye the most is JD8103. So once we got closer to the 1 year mark I started calling stores to see if any of them carried the dress. No one did. I was disappointed, but not ready to give up yet. I ended up finding a company that replicated dresses online and it was 1/3 of the price. I figured, hey, this is my only chance to get this dress, so why not.

Two weeks ago, my mom and MOH came with me while I tried on dresses. The first store carried a lot of Maggie dresses, but not the one I wanted. I knew that I was going to get a Maggie dress and didn't bother to try on any other designers. The 2nd store didn't carry any Maggie dresses, but had Mori Lee ones and a few were similiar to what I wanted. Some of the dresses looked absolutely amazing on me. I would have never expected that. But I could not get JD8103 out of my head.

Last week I started calling stores again and found 2 stores that might have the dress. The first store was really rude to me on the phone and after some googling, I realized they are just horrible to everyone. So, I called the 2nd store. I spoke with the owner, Brenda, who told me that she didn't have the exact dress, but she had it's sister. I scheduled an appointment for today.

I ended up going to the store alone. Brenda had me try on 2 dresses before I tried on the sister dress. As soon as I put the sister dress on, I knew that I needed to order my dress. With no regard to the budget, the fact that I was alone, or that I could wait to order the dress still, I placed an order.

JD8103 is now mine! When I had found the dress online, I cut my dress budget down to factor in the savings. The real dress ended up costing me $200 more, but that included shipping and tax that I never added in for the first dress. In all, the dress came to $492.

While part of me still thinks its crazy that I'm going to only wear this dress for 5-6 hours and its $500, I know this dress is meant for me. I'm never this decisive and I had to have it.

Now I get to enjoy the waiting game. Brenda told me the if the dress doesn't come in by December, then it will come in February. (Apparently Maggie Sottero takes off for January) I absolutely can NOT wait for the dress to come in!

As for the budget issue; well, I went over, but it wasn't by too large of an amount. So, if I don't cut $200 from somewhere else, I'll just take it out of my non-wedding related savings account. My mom also mentioned she would have some money saved next year and planned on giving it to me. So maybe Mom will cover the extra cost in the dress.