Hey ladies!
Newbie here! I posted my first post the other day on the Wedding Classifieds board because I was hoping to find someone that was selling a Maggie Sottero Leoni dress. I tried it on at Modern Bride, but forgot to look at the price tag before doing so, and it is $1400! I have checked my area craigslist as well the craigslist sites for many major cities and anywhere I have family that could pick it up for me. In doing a google search, the only places I could find that were selling the dress used were in Northern Ireland and the UK. I also checked out sites such as Once Wed and other sites designed to buy/sell used dresses.
So, I have only been looking for a couple of weeks and my wedding is not until June, so I know that I have plenty of time and should not panic. BUT, I did find the dress on a Canadian craigslist. Here's where the crazy part comes in: it is a seven hour one way drive (380 miles). The dress is listed at $800 (roughly 840 once converted to USD). If I figure in 100 bucks for gas (I drive a Civic) and maybe $40 for tolls, I am saving approx $450.
The dress I tried on in the store was a size four and was so tight, my ribs hurt. The dress for sale is size 8, which I think will probably be perfect, but even with alterations, I would still be saving money (I don't know how much alterations would cost).
What do you think of this plan? Is it crazy? Should I keep looking locally? I was thinking of possibly driving up during my vaca in September and bringing some friends along to make it into a road trip adventure. (I wouldn't go alone anyway for safety reasons.) Other than driving up, I'm not sure how else to do the transaction. If I sent the money and something was wrong with the dress, what recourse would I have?
One last point-I was thinking that I could probably sell the dress after the wedding for at least $600, so I would recoup most of my money after the fact.