My sister has been extraordinarily supportive of FI and I regarding our wedding planning. In fact, she's going to be the one to walk me down the aisle. So last weekend we went dress shopping for FI. We really just made the appointment so that FI could get a better idea of what she might want, since she's never even worn a prom dress before and was getting frustrated looking at pictures and trying to figure out what she wanted. We took my sister along with us. Of course, we ended up finding "the dress." Before we could even really start talking to the consultant about the price, my sister stepped up to pay for it. And she made it clear that she intends to buy my dress as well.
Now, this is awesome, and we're really grateful. It's a huge help because we're really trying to do this wedding on a pretty tight budget and the dresses are a significant budget item. I know she wouldn't offer what she can't afford, but we just got back from a vacation we took with her where she paid for a LOT of things we didn't expect her to. She's sneaky and insistent about it, too -- she's the type who will make an excuse to leave the table at dinner and end up paying the bill before anyone else knows about it. I know she does it because she wants to, but we don't want to take advantage of her generosity, either. And dinners, etc, is one thing -- paying for two bridal gowns is a much bigger chunk of change. It feels weird to have somebody spend this much money on us.
Anyway, I have a bridal appointment in a little over a week, and now that I know she's planning on buying my dress I'm not sure how to approach this. She won't set a price range -- she says to pick out what I like and not worry about it. There's a dress I'm really interested in, but it's about $250 more than what FI's dress cost and I don't want it to seem like I'm trying to push her budget or take advantage. In my mind, it would be reasonable to pay the extra $250 myself if I love the dress as much as I think I will, but I doubt she'll let that happen.
So what would you do? Only try on dresses that cost the same or less than what she's already spent? Refuse to go into the changing room until she sets a budget? Try to get the consultant involved in a plot to only let her pay up to the amount she spent on FI's dress and charge the rest to me if I choose a dress that costs more? I know she really wants to do this for us, but I don't want to be a mooch.