Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Dress Shopping - Take One

Remember how I said I was going to eventually write about my wedding planning process...well the time has come. Over the course of the next month or so, I will put up one maybe two write-ups each week that will be wedding related. I will continue to update my blog as usual with running related postings as well in case weddings are of no interest to you. I know they were of no interests to me until I had to plan my own. Okay, here we go...

Let's go back to early 2012 or perhaps it was even late 2011, I was randomly at a David's Bridal one day with my sisters helping my mom look for a dress for my other sister's wedding. I wasn't even dress shopping at the time but at the urging of my sisters, I threw on this dress just for fun. I really liked this dress and especially the ruffled neckline. At the time, this dress was a high contender for being "the" dress. When I came back months later and looked at it again, I didn't like it as much and so the search continued.


Last summer was when I officially started dress shopping.


We went back to David's Bridal because for some reason it seemed like a good place to start.


My little niece was not even walking by herself at the time. I remembered being really worried because I really wanted her to be the flower girl at my wedding and wasn't sure if she will be walking on her own by then. Look at those little chubby thighs!


To make a really long story short...I did not have a very good experience at the David's Bridal that day. I remember calling the shop on a Monday for a Saturday appointment and all they had that day was a late afternoon appointment so I took it. I came in that Saturday with my sisters during my scheduled time. Before I go on, I just want to say that I am a patient person most of the time but this day really pissed me off. It was supposed to be a fun day but we waited for almost 30 minutes before a consultant came to greet us. The staff is not very friendly because they always overbook.

Anyhow, after the consultant finally came out to greet us, she led us back to the dressing area and asked us to have a seat...for another 20 minutes before she came back again. She was helping 4 other brides at the same time. WTF! I was really upset by this because if they were already booked up, they should have just told me on the phone when I called that they did not have any openings. I would have gladly came back on another day when I could be properly helped. Instead, they jammed me in a timeslot with 4 other brides to be assisted by one consultant.

Of course this was a formula for diaster because she was so busy that she was not really even paying attention to me the whole time. I needed help because I had no idea what style of dresses would work on me. All she did was go grab an armful of dresses, hung them up in the dressing room and left to go and help the other brides. She wasn't there more than half the time to help me get the dress on or pin it up and if you have ever had to try on wedding dresses you know what I'm talking about. They are not like regular dresses. It's like a puzzle to get it on correctly and tie/button everything up.

After not helping me much during the consultation, the consultant had the nerves to try to pressure me into buying a dress that I thought was just decent. I didn't know any better at the time and almost gave in because I was afraid of having to go through another day like that again. It was 4+ hours of dress shopping hell! Luckily, I decided to sleep on it before making my final decision. Needless to say I never stepped foot back in that place again. Oh and don't make the mistake of giving them your name or info because you will start to get mysterious calls and mail from wedding vendors far and wide. You've been warned.

I'm sure not everyone goes through this with this place but they treated me terrible and I'm glad I didn't spend my money here. So this was the dress that I almost purchased and yes it looks fine but to this day I am so glad that I decided to sleep on it. This wasn't the best start to my planning process but things definitely got better from here on out.


1 comment:

Julie D said...

My first place was also at David's, and it was equally annoying. I'm glad I didn't go with them, either.