Saturday, January 15, 2011

Wedding Dress Is PURCHASED!!!

So back on November 27th, I booked an appointment at Novelle Bridal for my very first day of dress shopping. Liz had mentioned that she had previously tried on this amazing dress that she thought I might like. We ended up choosing a whole bunch of dresses to try on as I'm sure every bride to be does. Well, if you've ever watched "Say Yes To The Dress", I committed a cardinal sin! They always warn soon-to-be-brides to stay within their budget and not try on dresses that are out of their price range. You're playing with fire! Plain and simple. 

My consultant was a new girl that had started at Novelle, Diana. She put the 5-6 gowns aside that we had chosen and gave me a final warning, "You do know this dress is out of your price range right?" Now my budget was $1000. I was willing to go $1500 tops if I really loved it. So I really have no idea what I was thinking trying on a gown that is $2675. I stepped into it, zipped it up and Diana came in with those magical red clamps. Perhaps it was those magical red clamps or it was just before my period but I took one look in the mirror and thought beautiful as tears started to well up. Of course I stopped my sappy self from having a full blown tear fest and told myself I'm being ridiculous because it was the first dress I had tried on! I recall half the girls that were with me were busy looking at bridesmaid dresses when I emerged from the dressing room, but that didn't matter because I was so engrossed in the amazing dress! It wasn't until Diana said, "Your friends are missing this!" that they realized I had stepped out. After trying on the rest of the dresses, I ended up going back to the first dress. The thought of getting married in the dress once again brought some tears to my eyes as I stood in on the little platform looking into the large mirror. We tried it on with a beautiful veil and I was so ready to make the purchase had it not been $2675!!! I still remember LeBao (who also watches Say Yes To The Dress!) ask me, "Sandy is this your dress?" and I managed to cut myself off at "Y......It's so expensive!" 

So after trying on what felt like a million dresses, I just couldn't get the first dress out of my mind. Deep down I totally knew that nothing would compare so I toyed with the idea of getting a replica made of it in China. I scoured Ebay and even Etsy and DHGate to find a vendor. For $200 USD, it was worth the gamble to potentially save $2475! That was until Wednesday January 12! I was poking around on the designer's website as I've religiously started doing and on their front page loaded this: 
Ahhh! I was ecstatic! *click click click* for an appointment!!! I was disappointed when I realized it was only applicable for US residents. I was so desperate for a call from one of their associates I even took a friend's address and used it. They never did call me back. Maybe the 780 area code tipped them off. I called Novelle immediately after trying to schedule an appointment in the States and asked Angel (the store owner) if they were also having 20% off that designer's gowns. She didn't even realize they were having the sale so she was going to call the States and get back to me. 


The next day I decide to call a Calgary store, Evalina Couture, to see if they have the 20% off. Unfortunately, they don't even carry the line anymore. So I get a message from Angel and give Novelle a call back. I speak to Diana and she explained to me that the prices in the US are actually about the same as Novelle even with the discount but Angel was willing to give me 15% off. I book an appointment to go in to try the dress on again and although I'm sure she's not lying, the Asian in me needed to call the US to confirm. I harass Jamie to find a state that is in the same time zone and I ended up calling Montana. 


The store did indeed have the dress I wanted only for the duration of the trunk show annual bridal event. The price tag: $3343! My jaw dropped! Take 20% off of $3343 and you end up with $2675! I guess Angel wasn't lying after all. For her to offer me an additional 15% despite the price being the same, was very gracious of her. She explained that she couldn't give me the 20% because they need to budget in shipping costs for the store. 


I am still amazed that the first dress is the one I decided to go with. If you go watch Say Yes To The Dress clips, the clip called First Dress Knock Out, you'll hear a neat stat from the sales director. Approximately 85% of brides choose one of the first 3 dresses that they try on. My best friend, Liz, ended up choosing the 3rd dress she had tried on. As for myself... Yesterday with my 2 closest friends, my brother and sister-in-law by my side, I made the big purchase!!! Wahooo!! The first gown was the knock out gown! Now we wait... and do all the other ten million things that weddings require us to do. 

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