Saturday was my second... and third time trying on wedding dresses. I went to a shop in Fargo after vacation and found 3 dresses I liked, but am really turned off from the prices. (My favorite from that day was $1,800)
So, this past Saturday (2.2.13) my parents flew up to Bismarck with Dr. W for the day. Jen was able to come along too. We started off running at 10 a.m. at White Lace Bridal. I used to work at St. Mary's with a gal *Vanessa* that works there. She was SO helpful. I loved the atmosphere at the shop. It was calm and quiet and all of the girls were so helpful and honest. I swear I tried 30+ dresses that morning and narrowed it down to 1. I had a birthday party to go to for one of my daycare girls at noon.
Then we hit David's Bridal at 2:30. It was so crowded. Yea I am aware that it is the season to be purchasing dresses, both wedding and prom. But good gravy it was nuts in there. I went through about 30 dresses there as well with minimal success. I did end up with 2 that made the cut but I don't think I like them as well as the one from the morning session. I didn't like how the workers there were all using the same lines on their clients, just trying to sell the dress, even when it wasn't what made the brides look their best. There are certain things I was looking for in my dress and the girl helping me didn't really listen There were also a lot of random extra charges that kept being tossed into conversation. One being a charge for extra length because I am "too tall". The one dress was 2.5 inches to short even in flats. The extra length is 4 inches. then I would have to pay to have roughly 1.5 inches cut off and a new hem sewn. Plus a corset back put in and anything else they come up with. The $700 dress I liked there would soon and quickly cost over $1000.
My plan for this coming weekend was to run down to Aberdeen and check out the bridal shop there. But today I called them and they only allow appointments and they don't have one until the 23rd. I was told by both shops last weekend that I should order by the end of the month or close to it. So I have decided to go with the dress from White Lace! I was pretty ready to order it last weekend but had the appointment at David's and figured I should see what is all out there. So hopefully this Saturday I will get my dress ordered and I can get my girls all together and we can start shopping for their dresses!!!
YAY for deciding on your dress!!! I have dealt with David's Bridal down there for 3 seperate weddings and had small hopes that this most current wedding might be a different experiance. Though the fitting and trying dresses on was a better experiance (but we went in knowing the exact dress she wanted us to try on and there weren't 200 people in the store yet that morning (we were there at like 11 or something and I did expect more people...) we've had nothing but problems since then. The bride friend ordered her dress from them when she was out in DC this summer and had MANY, MANY problems with it. And NO money back when they are the ones that sent the wrong stuff. (She paid to have it shipped to her parents because it was going to show up while she was still in DC. The sash was the wrong color than what she ordered, bra was two sizes smaller than what she ordered, underskirt was a size bigger than the dress and the dress wasn't even the correct size and there were further issues with the dress. The packing slip had the correct sizes listed, they just didn't get packed!) We went into the local Bridal shop here looking for a veil for her dress and instead she walked away with a veil and a new dress that she loves. It was a little more, but alterations are going to be less and she loves this dress. They've also been MUCH nicer to deal with! She still wanted us to get our bridesmaid dresses from there because none of us are in the same place and there have been so many problems dealing with them. And they were talking wanting $200 to alter my dress! I didn't even pay that much for it! There were many problems getting them ordered, show up, and more as well. The junior bridesmaid dress showed up and when she went to try it on the liner on the dress was COMPLETELY sewn wrong! Apparently they weren't very nice about it either when she called them. Speaking from experiance I don't blame you for not wanting to do your dress through them. I've been in others where we've used D.B. but they store was MUCH better than the Bismark one. Good luck on everything else!
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