Alright, so I'm going dress shopping in two weeks with four women who I care about very much: mother, sister, close cousin, and grandmother.
When I broached the subject to my mother, she immediately said she would buy the dress. Fantastic! That's $400 that can go to something else in my wedding!
"You can get a sample dress for like $50 nowadays, right?"
=___=
This then led to me educating my mom and my sister about dress shopping, prices, about how samples only come in a few sizes, and it's unrealistic when first looking to only look at samples, etc etc.
"Well that's fine, you're a size 18, I'm sure you'll fit into a 16 sample."
This THEN led to me educating them on sizes and how depending on the designer, a size 18 dress can fit anyone from actual size 14-20.
"Oh, well, we'll just hit up the Goodwill's then, I'm sure they have a dress that fits you."
Add this to already going family drama, and my head is likely to explode. I plan on talking to my mother about what her max price is for a dress (and let her know about alterations and extra fees like bras and sleeves). So if my "dream dress" or even "dress I find that fits" is more than what my mother is willing to spend, do I offer to pay the difference? My mother can be pushy when it comes to financial decisions, so what if I find the dress that I want, but that she's not willing to put any money toward? Do I go ahead and buy it (eventually) and go over my mother's head? do I just wait until my mother finds a dress she likes and is willing to pay for (that veribly doesn't exist)?
And on top of all this, my grandmother and my cousin (bridesmaid) are talking about not going just to avoid possible drama with mom and sister. I ended up begging them to go, saying I really needed them there.
Help!