Part III: Which dress did I choose?

As the last of the wedding dress stories, I want to walk you through how I decided on my dress.

I looked through hundreds of styles, materials, designers, and suppliers over the course of 4 months. After worrying that I would spend a ton of money on a dress, I took a short break.

I was constantly plagued with the memory of one of the women saying, “I think we just send the dress to China to get altered.”

This made me realize, “Why don’t I just go to China to get my dress? I should go straight to the talent!”

Unfortunately, I didn’t get to go to China, but I did go to the World Wide Web! Specifically, at the end of month four, I was looking around on Etsy. As wedding luck would have it, Etsy is a game changer for all things everything!

I came across an amazing dress maker who publicly goes by the name: Mary Jin Mei and decided to go with her for this once in a lifetime dress. My final price was $410, including shipping, tailoring, and design. While I don't always recommend buying such a big-deal-dress without seeing it first, if you do enough research, you won't have to spend thousands of dollars.

I read almost every single one of Lace Marry’s reviews, if not all of them. I viewed her personal site as well as every dress that was viewable online.

If you're in NYC, or one of their many other locations, and you have a smaller flexible budget, I would head right on over to Pronovias. They have exquisite styles for less than $3k.

If you're a big spender and more into spending at least $6k, go to Kleinfeld Bridal. They have unbelievable dresses and are definitely willing to make you feel gorgeous!

Always keep in mind though there is a chain of pricing involved with goods of sale. I worked in fashion for some time and I know there is a basic scheme of how it gets from the source to the store to the consumer.

A basic breakdown is along the lines of: $100 to source (designer’s cost for materials and manufacturing); $350 to sell to the store (designer’s price for a department store or boutique, etc.); $2500 to sell to consumer (this is how much you pay at the store).

This money “tree” is why I’m very reluctant to buy things without thought. Not to mention the people we should be thinking about at the bottom of the tree. The ones who work their fingers to the bone to give us what we take for granted.

Ps. The headpiece ($70) was also from Etsy, specifically from LadyHatsBoutique! I was going for a more modern approach for my headwear. Veils are gorgeous; but I found the perfect accent to my dress that didn't overtake anything, yet still added the "wedding touch" to my hair.

Likes:

• The timing was perfect! Headpiece was ordered and received within 4 days and the dress was ordered and received within 6 weeks.
• The dress was already pre-cut to my measurements. I didn't have to keep trying it on and coming back and forth for alterations. It was MINE!
• It was very personal. I was completely in charge of the gallery and picking my styles, prices, colors, etc.
• The dress was under $500 - this gave me total freedom to go near the river, walk down a dusty road, leave the reception with red tennis clay all over the bottom, and not worry about anything! The price was such a surprising stress relief!

Dislikes:

• I would have really liked to have been able to try on several dresses. After spending two different days in my dress, I grew uncomfortable haha but I mean, in all fairness, who spends a ton of time in their wedding dress? So that was superficial.
• The bust was a little bent, perhaps from shipping? It wasn't a big deal; but in some of my photos it was rather visible, so I had to be alert during the nicer photo opps.
• If I had needed to send the dress back for alterations (for any reason), it would have been too expensive in relation to the total cost of the dress. So it was all or nothing...a real commitment.

Alterations:

• I removed the three flowers from the shoulder because they interfered with my hair.
• I removed the Tulle from the bottom so it would be more flowing.

Now that you know about my Wedding Dress Journey, how was your experience? We would love to hear about your wedding story too!

xoxo