Monday, January 17, 2011

Your Dream Dress and MY dream dress!

As promised, this post will be all about THE dress!

Had I done this really in chronological order, this post would have come before my last post about setting the date.

That's right, I got my dress before I set the date!  Craaaaazy, right?

Let me tell you how that came to be:

As you know by now, Joe and I got engaged on December 15, 2009.  I decided that I wasn't going start any wedding planning until after the holidays.  I just wanted to enjoy being engaged and enjoy the holidays before diving into all the wedding details.

BUT of course I couldn't stay away from all the wedding websites and blogs out there!  In my browsing I saw an ad for a website called yourdreamdress.com and clicked to check it out.

Your Dream Dress sells only couture dresses that are samples in excellent condition, new, overbuys, or cancelled weddings.  None have been previously owned or worn or altered.

They also offer something that I've never seen at any other wedding dress site.  They allow you to have three days from the time you sign for the package to decide if you want to keep it or not.  If you decide you don't like it, or the fit is off or anything you can ship it back to them and they will refund you the full purchase price, and all you will be out is the shipping cost.
As I was browsing their dresses I went to the clearance section of the site (of course!) and found a dress I was instantly drawn to.  It was  Anne Barge 374.


The dress was beautiful, but not at all what I thought I'd like in a dress.  But I loooooooved it!

And because Your Dream Dress has such amazing dresses at even more amazing prices this gorgeous dress was only $450.00 and originally retailed for almost $4,000.00 (it came out 87% off!)

But I was very nervous to buy from online, and I really didn't think it was "time" to buy a dress yet.  So I told myself to hold off.

However, the next day or two I just couldn't get that dress out of my mind.  I knew that if I took my sweet time and went back to order it and it was gone I would have really regretted it.  So, after talking to my mom I ordered the dress.  After all, if it didn't work or I didn't like it in person I would only been out shipping costs.

So, I ordered the dress and planned to have a seamstress look at it to make sure the needed alterations could be made before I decided to keep it.

Well, I ordered the dress on December 22 and the evening of Christmas Eve my dress was at my door!  I was shocked!  And a little bit stressed!  I really didn't think that it would arrive until after Christmas.

As I said I had 3 days to decide to keep it or ship it back, and my three days were Christmas, the day after Christmas and the following day (the 26th and the 27th were also a Saturday and Sunday).  I was worried that I wasn't going to be able to find a seamstress to look at it by then, so I emailed them and Kimberly emailed me back and was very understanding and was more than willing to give me some extra time to decide.

I had a overall amazing experience with Your Dream Dress!  They communicated with me so well!  I emailed them with questions about the dress before I purchased it and the question about extra time to decide after I received the dress.  Both times they answered me personally, promptly and were very helpful.

As it turned out, a seamstress was able to look at the dress and the proper alterations were able to be made.

So very quickly, very unexpectedly I had my dress!  I didn't have date or a venue, but I HAD MY DRESS.  And it truly was (and still is) my dream dress--and at a dream price!

So without further ado here's the dress on my big day:


This was the perfect dress experience for me, but it might not be for other brides.  I'm a very indecisive person, so big shopping trip with bridesmaids, my mom, my mother in law and lots of opinions would not have been the best for me.  I thought that's what would happen, but in hindsight I'm glad it didn't go that way.

Had I had to buy the dress sight unseen with no return policy I would NEVER have been willing to buy it, but because I could look at it, have it seen by a seamstress before making a decision I ended up with a gorgeous dress that made me feel beautiful!

Would you ever buy a dress online or do you need an in store shopping trip?

2 comments:

  1. Wow! Your dress is beautiful! I considered buying online, but only if I could try the dress on in person first; fit is a funny thing ;-)
    I ended up getting a sample dress from a bridal store that was in pristine condition, and about 80% the original price.
    If I had known about Your Dream Dress I probably would have went for it!

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  2. Andrea Jean,

    Congratulations on your wedding! You looked absolutely gorgeous in your Anne Barge couture bridal gown! I love how beautiful the bustle on your gown looked, too! You were such a Beautiful Bride! I would love to post your feedback and photos on our website.

    It was such a pleasure working with you! :-)

    Best Wishes,

    Kimberly Hoffman
    Founder of YourDreamDress.com

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