dress advice needed...help!

saisongbird

Hi everyone...I could use some advice! So I did a round of dress shopping the other day with mom, FMIL, and step-mom. I'm large and have been curvy since I was about 10 (I currently wear street-size 14 but that's after losing some weight), and finding dresses for any occasion has always been difficult for me. Mom gave me a budget and I told the attendant who was helping us but my step-mom and FMIL didn't know the budget and just started pulling dresses that looked pretty. I didn't expect for this to happen, but one of the dresses I tried on could be THE dress. I walked out and everyone got quiet and mom and I started tearing up. The dress is $1500 over our dress budget and when mom and I went to dinner afterwards she said that for that dress, she would get rid of the budget, which is sweet, but then I started thinking and I don't know that she thought about tax and shipping (I offered to cover alterations and the bustle). What do you ladies think? We're going shopping again today and I'm hoping to find something less expensive at a different salon, but playing devil's advocate and nothing compares to that dress, what do I do? My wedding is July 2010 and this dress is part of a trunk show that is leaving pretty soon so I may not be able to come back and try in on again in a few months. Thoughts?

linz_e_moore

I sort of went through the same thing, but my dress was only $1500, so not quite.  I had a budget of "around" a thousand, but when I tried on the dress we all knew it was the one.  The dress was only $900, but with custom fitting, tax, etc, it came to close to $1500.My mom scrapped the budget immediately.If your mom has offered to pay the extra and truly seems okay with it, go for it.  Or, another alternative is to look online at real websites (Pearl's Place, Top Dresses, Once Wed, Pre Owned Wedding Dresses) and see if you can find it new or used on there.  That might save some money.Good luck today!  Let us know how it goes!

Skip10

If you love it and mom said its fine, get it. Its your wedding, you should feel amazing not like "this could work" when you get married.

Moneypenny424

Have you done a lot of dress shopping already?  I would consider shopping around more and seeing if anything else compares.  If not, get the dress.  Even if it isn't at the store anymore, you can still order it.  Have the store take note of the style # and everything and you can order it later if you choose.

mbcdefg

I also went a bit over my dress budget when I found the one I wanted I'm about the same size as you and I know what you mean about having difficulty finding nice clothes). My mom was very generous and paid the 50% deposit for me, so the money that I will personally pay out of pocket will be in my original budget. You could try calling wholesalers like Pearl's Place, Netbride, RK Bridal, etc. to see if they can give you a wholesale price for it. Or you could post a picture of it here, and maybe someone can suggest a copycat style from a less expensive designer. But if your mom said it's O.K. and you know it's not going to put her in the poorhouse, I'd personally just go for it. If you feel bad, you can always give her some cash here and there (maybe pick up some overtime or a weekend job) to pay her back for some of it.

Ainslie325

Did you discuss your budget issue with the sales associate at the salon? Is that the absolute best that they can do on price? My sales associate knew I needed to be under $1000, and the price of my dream dress (in one run from the dressing room to the front of the house) went from $1240 to $860. Usually, the tag price isn't the store's bottom line.

saisongbird

Hi again! Here's the update: We did round 2 today and I tried on a bunch of dresses that gave me a much better figure than the dress that is over budget. Mom loved a few of them, but none of them gave me the same feeling that the first dress gave me. I loved the look of some of them, but I loved the feel of the first dress even more. So we talked and decided that neither dress (one from today and one from Thursday) is the dress, and we're off for another round of dress shopping, but with a much clearer idea of what we want. ::sigh:: I know it's part of the process, but I really hate dress shopping.

jessabered

I know how you feel, the dress I fell in love with is 1500 over the ideal budget too.  I was shopping in minneapolis and I live in Washington.  My dress was the third one I tried on, I tried on 67 more over two days and there was nothing else even close.  My advice Scour everywhere, ebay, preownedweddingdresses.com, oncewed.com you should be able to find it.  When you do, go for it, once you get that feeling the first time nothing else will be good enough.  If you look really long and hard and you can't find it oder the original, just go for it.  You only do this once right!?