Finding the Dress: A Complete Waste of Time

After my fairly successful trip here, where I really narrowed down my choices, I decided to schedule another trip to go look at dresses with my cousin/bridesmaid, N. We were both living in Toronto at the time, so we decided to drive down to Buffalo in New York to see if they had more styles available compared to what we had in Canada, and to pay a visit to David's Bridal, which we had heard of but never visited. This was a bit of an impromptu trip, so prepared with the addresses of a few shops and N's GPS, we hit the road.

The first store we hit up was located in a very residential neighbourhood around the outskirts of Buffalo. We basically only chose this store because they sold Maggie Sottero dresses and I wanted to show my cousin my much-coveted Rachael. Okay, so, we arrived at the shop, and while walking through the parking lot, noticed it was fairly empty. This was okay though, since we didn't have an appointment. We entered the salon, and there was no one there except for two ladies standing at the front desk, who both worked there. I went over and explained that we didn't have an appointment but was wondering if I could try on some dresses, and I even knew specifically which one I wanted to try. The lady who I spoke with seemed very hesitant to help us, but finally agreed only because I knew what I was looking for. I told her the style name and she went back to the stock room to look for it while we waited in the front room. She came back out, called to me to come back into a changeroom, and when I met her there, I noticed it was the wrong dress. I guess Maggie Sottero has a style called Rachelle, and a style called Racheal (my dress!), and she had pulled the Rachelle. No big deal, I explained that it was a different dress, gave her the spelling of it, and she went off to find the right one.

She came back into the room carrying a dress, and it was the same one again (Rachelle)! So I told her again, no, that's not the right dress, and she seemed pretty confused. The other lady who was at the desk originally came over with the Maggie Sottero style book, so we looked through and I pointed out the Rachael that I wanted to try on. She then proceeded to tell me she didn't have that dress, because they didn't carry dresses they did not like, and they did NOT like that dress. Umm... okay. Kind of random, but no big deal. So I asked them if they had any similar styles that I could try on, and she lead me back into the stock room. After looking around for less than a minute, she stopped and said to me, "You know what, I don't think we have anything here you would like. As I said we only carry dresses here that we like, and we don't have any styles like that"... So, that was pretty much it. It was definitely my Pretty Woman moment, and so frustrating! Keep in mind, there were no other customers in the store, and it was open for several more hours, so I really didn't understand why it was so inconvenient for them to help me!

As we were leaving, I asked them if I could at least have the price of the Rachael, since I was from Canada and wanted to compare the prices. She was somewhat helpful outlining the price and payment schedules, and how long it would take to order the dress. She was so close to redeeming herself, until she asked me when my wedding date was. I told her July 2011, and she snidely remarked "Oh, well you are kind of jumping the gun here, aren't you?" Umm... excuse me? It was April when were there, so although it may have been a but early based on some suggested timelines you see online, she had just finished telling me it would take about 8 months to order in a dress... So how is that jumping the gun? It was definitely time to leave. So as we were heading out the door, I went to pull on my (cute, not sloppy) boots, and she called out "Oh! Someone wore her comfortable shoes today!" Like she was accusing me of not coming in wearing Jimmy Choo's or something. Um, excuse me? So I kind of gave a fake laugh, and booted it out of there. Ugh... Who did she think she was? This was some random little shop in upstate New York, not a high-end salon in New York City! It definitely left a very bad taste in my mouth.

Our next stop was David's Bridal. I had never been to one before, and we don't have them in Canada, but I had seen commercials and heard people talking about them online, so we decided to pop in and see what it was all about. We arrived at the nearest David's Bridal, again without an appointment, but the girl at the welcome desk was super friendly and booked us right in for an appointment. I didn't realize the dresses at David's were off the rack, so we headed over and started to pull some dresses that caught our eye. After about 15 minutes, I heard this loud voice from across the store calling my name. Like, loudly calling my name. Like, pretty much yelling it around the store. I searched around until I found the person to whom the voice belonged to, and met my consultant. She stopped yelling, grabbed our dresses, took us to the back room, and set me up in a change room. Then she disappeared. Luckily, I had N and another girlfriend, A, there to help me in and out of the dresses, because the consultant totally disappeared. I think another customer came in randomly and she started helping them instead. By the time she came back to see how we were doing, I had already tried on all the dresses we pulled, and decided that they weren't really the ones for me. So that was it. David's Bridal is definitely great for the bride on a budget, and they do have some beautiful dresses there, but I just didn't like the quality of the fabric and found the cut of the dresses didn't flatter by body too well. And even though the dresses are off the rack, they would need a lot of alterations. So, goodbye David's!

All in all, we had a fun day, and the experiences had at both bridal salons kept us laughing for quite a while. We still managed to make a good day trip out of it and did some shopping and had a delicious dinner! Oh, and I found a super cute dress at TJMaxx that I can wear for a shower or other bridal event. For 20 bucks. 20 bucks! I loves shopping in the states!

And, because there has been a LOT of writing in this post, and no pictures, here is another gratuitous shot of the elusive Rachael.

I Love You Rachael!

Did you have any interesting experiences while shopping for your wedding dress? Or while shopping for anything? Have you ever had a Pretty Woman moment?