Hallelujah, I’ve Purchased My Wedding Gown

Well, people, I bit the bullet and bought my wedding gown. No, I did not pay $1,425. I paid $300 and no, I’m not stupid. Believe me, a lot of checks and balances went into purchasing my dream dress for 20% of the retail value.

1. I actually tried the dress on. I found it at a high-end Chicago boutique. The designer is San Patrick. It’s everything I wanted in a dress for a destination wedding. It doesn’t look like a puffy, elaborate quinceanera dress. It’s sleek, chic, and perfect for a petite midget like me.

2. I found the dress on Buyer100.com which is probably a slave labor camp for Chinese women. While there are several of these ‘made-in-China’ sites, I particularly liked Buyer100 for their thoroughness and promptness in responding to all of my emails. I feel like I have a pen pal relationship with Adela in Beijing. Their pricing is slightly higher, but I appreciated their higher standard of customer service.

3. Buyer100 sent me at least a dozen pictures of actual dresses that they’ve created on mannequins. I was able to compare these with the designer pictures to get a sense for how closely they resemble the couture dresses. They are pretty damn close. I’m not going to lie and say they’re identical. It’s obvious why a dress is several thousand dollars–there’s more beading, more lace. It really does look better, but the difference surely does not warrant a several thousand dollar difference.

4. The normal turnaround time is two months, but I decided to get mine expedited to one month for an additional 10%. So call me in a month and ask if I’m happy.

5. They have a 100% return guarantee within seven days. If for any reason I’m unhappy, I’m shipping that dress back pronto.

6. I paid with my credit card which I think eliminates a lot of the riskiness factor. If it doesn’t show up in one month…I’ll make sure my credit card refunds me. Not what I wanted?…I’ll be sure to get my money back. Worst case scenario and the shop is a scam? I’m fully protected.

Looking forward to the package arriving in the mail. 30 day countdown.