If you're reading this, thanks
! If you don't care/don't want to read through the back story, skip down to the 6th paragraph, lol. I'm really annoyed with myself right now because I'm having doubts about a dress that I've already made a down payment on.
About 2 months, my sister, mom, future MIL, and friend went to a bridal shop to look at dresses for me, not really expecting to buy one. The wedding date wasn't set in stone yet, although I was
trying to find a place for an Oct 1st wedding (at that point, it was 5 months away). So the bridal consultant (also owner of the shop) sat down with me and asked me all of the basic questions: when is your wedding, what's your budget, what styles are you considering, etc. When she asked me what I did NOT want on my dress I told her that I want to avoid strapless and bows. She said that she had plenty like that but she might also pull out some strapless b/c straps can always be added.
So I tried on about 6 dresses, a couple I really liked and considered buying that day. As I was trying on dresses, I was getting a bit frustrated with all the trying on and kept thinkging, "I don't want to do this more than once! Maybe I should just get one today!" After the 6th dress though, I was still unsure. I show the consultant a picture of a dress I found online that I looooooved, but couldn't afford at all. She said she had something similar, pulled it off the rack and asked me if I wanted to try it on. It was strapless and had a bow on it, so I told her I didn't really like it. My sister, who is very creative, suggested I just try it and then we could imagine what straps would look like and what it would look like without the bow.
As soon as I tried on the dress, I loved it. It was the best out of all the 7, even though it was strapless and had a bow. I didn't think I would find any dresses that I liked better, so I decided to get it. Everyone else loved the dress. The consultant assured me that alterations would work with me to make the dress look however I wanted it. We played around with a veil to imagine what straps would look like (I want sheer straps), and my sister assured me that it was indeed doable. She offered to make a clip (she makes really pretty hair clips) that we could add to the dress in place of the bow (I trust her!). So I signed a sheet of paper (yes, w/o reading it, I just assumed that i was signing my life away, which didn't matter anyway b/c I loved the dress), paid 1/2 down (~$500, from my MIL who is buying the dress for me, love her!), and took some pics. The consultant said that she would put the order in on Monday (it was a Saturday) and she would call me to let me kow when the dress would arrive.
Monday came and went, no phone call, so I called her on Tuesday. She said that the designer quoted that the dress would arrive end of September, which she knew wouldn't work if I had an Oct. 1 wedding, so she got them to rush the dress and have it sent in by end of August. That, she said, would give me time for alterations, which would cost about $200. I was fine with that, didn't ask any more questions.
Fast forward a couple of weeks: I asked my future SIL to come with me to the bridal shop to look at the dress in person (she is one of bridesmaids but I hadn't asked her yet). She herself was getting married in just a couple of months and she loved the dress, said it was beautful and wish she had bought it herself. Now, this is wear I started doubting. As soon as I tried on that dress the second time, I doubted whether or not it was the right one. I immediately starting critiquing everything about it. I didn't voice it outloud b/c I thought it was normal and I didn't want to talk about it there.
So now it's two months later and I do not like the dress anymore. When I look at the pictures I am not excited and I can't picture myself wearing it on my wedding day. I've been looking for a photogorapher, which required me to look through tons of wedding pictures, and I couldn't help but notice how happy the brides looked in their gorgeous dresses - I don't see myself like that at all anymore. I think the dress looks like too much with all of the beading, it's too poofy and stiff, the tulle or whatever is at the bottom looks cheap, and the top of the dress comes up too high on me, so there won't be much to do with straps w/o making the top look overwhelming. I show the picture of me in my dress to one of my friends who reminded me that the dress didn't even fit right, so it's hard to picture it with straps, without the bow and so on. She offered to go with me to the bridal shop again (which requires us to make an appointment to try on a sample dress, even though I've already paid 1/2 on my order. Had to do that when I went with my bridesmaid and there weren't even any other customers in the shop. Annoying!). She bought her dress from the same place and wasn't completely happy with their service because they ordered the wrong color gloves for her and her bridesmaids for her wedding a few years agao and the shop wouldn't correct the problem. When we go, we're going to take a bustier, shoes, jewelry, and curl my hair to try it make it look more formal. On the day I found the dress, I looked like crap! No makeup, no work on my hair! Made for crappy pictures.
I don't really know what I expect to happen. I don't know what's on the form that I signed, but I assume that there is a no refund policy; however, I'm kind of hoping that the shop will let me use my 1/2 down payment toward another dress in their shop, like another sample or dress from a trunk show? And then they could cancel my order if I do find another one, or just sell my dress to another bride once it arrives? That might sound naive, but it's all I can come up with! Of course, the other option is to just stick with the dress and not worry so much. But that doesn't make me very happy right now, lol. From her experience, my friend expects the consultant to talk me into keeping the dress and to tell me that nothing can be done, which I'm sure is the norm. If I can't exchange it, then I have to be stuck with it. Selling it isn't really an option because my MIL is paying for it. She doesn't even know that I don't like it anymore, and if she did, she would probably tell me to do whatever I want but I would feel bad if she lost any money.
If I can figure out how, I will upload a pic of me in the dress. It's a Robin Jillian design. Color is Ivory. Pay no attention to the thing on the bow - it's a hair clip from the bridal shop that we used to imagine something in place of the bow.
Any advice you can give me on what I might be able to do to the dress or with the bridal shop would be soooo helpful! Thank you for reading through all that!
