Bridesmaid Dresses
With the wedding fast approaching, I knew I had to get cracking on a few critical items. At the end of April, I flew out to LA to decide on a cake, finalize the wedding menu, choose the table design, hire a photographer and find a dress for my bridesmaids. All in all, it was a busy, but successful trip where my maid of honor even managed to squeeze in a bridal shower.
But the one item on the list that wasn't so successful was finding a dress for my bridesmaids. For some reason, I'd thought this would be an easy task where we would just walk into the garment district of LA (aka cheap bridesmaid dress central) and effortlessly choose a dress at a very affordable price. Reality hit when we found an abundance of stores with essentially the same generic, bland-looking merchandise. Each store might have one or two dresses among many that their neighbor did not carry.
Generally, if the store had nothing particularly interesting to offer, the sales staff tried to be as helpful and polite as possible. Unfortunately, the store stocking the most varied, interesting dresses had the bitchiest shop owner I'd ever encountered. It was toward the end when I'd felt that our shopping tour was going to be a bust that one of my bridesmaids spotted what I thought was our jackpot. There were so many cute dresses to choose from, and the line for the fitting room snaked through the store. Within minutes, we'd found "the one", "that dress." One of my bridesmaids emerged from the fitting room after a long wait and modelled the dress for us. Perfect! Our shopping trip was now a success! All I had to do was flag down the shop owner to place our order and try to negotiate a volume discount.
(LANYTransplant) Miss, excuse me. How much is this dress?
(Sales lady) Eighty-five.
(LANYTransplant) If I order five of them, can I get a volume discount?
(Sales lady) No. Eighty-five, that's it. I don't order dresses (snatching the dress out of my hand).
I reached over to grab the dress that the bitch put back on the sales rack only to have her snatch it out of my hands again.
(Sales lady) You can't have it.
(LANYTransplant) Well, can I just look at it? (taking it back)
(Sales lady) No, it's against store policy. (snatching the dress right out of my hands again)
(LANYTransplant) I just want to see the label.
(Sales lady) No, you can't see it! It's against store policy!!
And with that, my bridesmaid dress hunt in LA was a bust. But what I did manage to do was sneak a peek at one of the many dresses that the shopowner carried all under the exact same brand. The shopowner was careful to have ripped the main label off of all of her merchandise, but missed the side ribbons, bearing the Rose and Lula label. I googled the brand name, hoping to order the dresses online only to discover that Rose and Lula was a designer label with a $200+ price tag on each of its dresses. That, and the dress I saw at LA's garment district must have been a discontinued model since I couldn't find it anywhere online.
Now back in New York after having accomplished all of my other wedding tasks, I decided to find a dress by a well-known bridal brand and order the dresses online through either House of Brides or RK Bridal which carried several suitable bridesmaid dresses in the $100 range. But time was running short, and with the 16 week lead time that these retailers required to be safe, I was out of options.
Now I was stressed. Where would I find five of the same dress in various sizes that I could order quickly at the affordable price that I'd promised my bridesmaids? Right about now, the Fiancee chimed in, "What about that garment district-y store we walked into down the street once?" I didn't remember what he was talking about, but dashed out the door dragging the Fiancee behind me and demanded that he show me the place.
In less than ten minutes, it was LA's garment district deja-vu right in the middle of White Plains! Some of the dresses were the exact same disasters of a gown I saw in LA, but each dress had non-negotiable price tags. With the prices printed on each dress, there was no need to bargain or haggle, as the owner had priced each dress at the floor already. I even saw the same dress that I wore as a bridesmaid for my cousin's wedding at a price cheaper than what she paid after negotiating a volume discount and haggling even further with the salesman to bring the price down to what she thought was the floor. She had about $5-$10 left to go.
After a short browse through all of the dresses, I pulled a satiny green knee-length halter dress from the rack and modelled it for the Fiancee. With it's $39.99 price tag and various sizes available to order and pick up within 10 days, this would certainly do. I snapped a few pictures and sent off images of the dress to my bridesmaids for approval. Within a few days, I'd collected everyone's dress size and returned to the shop over the weekend to place my order.
(Shopowner) Ahh! Hello! You guys back to order the dresses! I have right here!
The shop owner pulled out an order slip, and asked me to fill out my name, address and phone number before taking down my order and calculating the total.
(Shopowner) Ok, you have five dress. When you need it by?
(Fiancee) As soon as possible.
(Shopowner) Well, when you get married?
(Fiancee) Soon, very soon. We need the dresses as soon as you can get them to us. We're getting married out of state and need to mail these out.
(Shopowner) What's so rush? Ok, ok. I get them to you as soon as I can. You put down half deposit today.
Since these were my bridesmaids who would be paying me back, I handed the shop owner my credit card.
(Shopowner) What? You stand there and let your wife pay? Hahaha. Just kidding! It ok.
Haha. Funny, funny. Not really.
(Shopowner) Ok, miss. You sign here. And where you live? What your address to pick up dresses from?
(LANYTransplant) It's right there on your order slip. I wrote it down, remember?
(Shopowner) But that his address (pointing to the Fiancee).
(LANYTransplant) Yes, well mine, too.
(Shopowner) Oh, you two not marry and living together?! Oh, bad bad! Very bad! (now wagging his finger at us) Hahaha! Just kidding! Just joking! OK, I get those dresses to you very soon!
Not funny. Annoying, even. He probably thinks I'm pregnant.
But the one item on the list that wasn't so successful was finding a dress for my bridesmaids. For some reason, I'd thought this would be an easy task where we would just walk into the garment district of LA (aka cheap bridesmaid dress central) and effortlessly choose a dress at a very affordable price. Reality hit when we found an abundance of stores with essentially the same generic, bland-looking merchandise. Each store might have one or two dresses among many that their neighbor did not carry.
Generally, if the store had nothing particularly interesting to offer, the sales staff tried to be as helpful and polite as possible. Unfortunately, the store stocking the most varied, interesting dresses had the bitchiest shop owner I'd ever encountered. It was toward the end when I'd felt that our shopping tour was going to be a bust that one of my bridesmaids spotted what I thought was our jackpot. There were so many cute dresses to choose from, and the line for the fitting room snaked through the store. Within minutes, we'd found "the one", "that dress." One of my bridesmaids emerged from the fitting room after a long wait and modelled the dress for us. Perfect! Our shopping trip was now a success! All I had to do was flag down the shop owner to place our order and try to negotiate a volume discount.
(LANYTransplant) Miss, excuse me. How much is this dress?
(Sales lady) Eighty-five.
(LANYTransplant) If I order five of them, can I get a volume discount?
(Sales lady) No. Eighty-five, that's it. I don't order dresses (snatching the dress out of my hand).
I reached over to grab the dress that the bitch put back on the sales rack only to have her snatch it out of my hands again.
(Sales lady) You can't have it.
(LANYTransplant) Well, can I just look at it? (taking it back)
(Sales lady) No, it's against store policy. (snatching the dress right out of my hands again)
(LANYTransplant) I just want to see the label.
(Sales lady) No, you can't see it! It's against store policy!!
And with that, my bridesmaid dress hunt in LA was a bust. But what I did manage to do was sneak a peek at one of the many dresses that the shopowner carried all under the exact same brand. The shopowner was careful to have ripped the main label off of all of her merchandise, but missed the side ribbons, bearing the Rose and Lula label. I googled the brand name, hoping to order the dresses online only to discover that Rose and Lula was a designer label with a $200+ price tag on each of its dresses. That, and the dress I saw at LA's garment district must have been a discontinued model since I couldn't find it anywhere online.
Now back in New York after having accomplished all of my other wedding tasks, I decided to find a dress by a well-known bridal brand and order the dresses online through either House of Brides or RK Bridal which carried several suitable bridesmaid dresses in the $100 range. But time was running short, and with the 16 week lead time that these retailers required to be safe, I was out of options.
Now I was stressed. Where would I find five of the same dress in various sizes that I could order quickly at the affordable price that I'd promised my bridesmaids? Right about now, the Fiancee chimed in, "What about that garment district-y store we walked into down the street once?" I didn't remember what he was talking about, but dashed out the door dragging the Fiancee behind me and demanded that he show me the place.
In less than ten minutes, it was LA's garment district deja-vu right in the middle of White Plains! Some of the dresses were the exact same disasters of a gown I saw in LA, but each dress had non-negotiable price tags. With the prices printed on each dress, there was no need to bargain or haggle, as the owner had priced each dress at the floor already. I even saw the same dress that I wore as a bridesmaid for my cousin's wedding at a price cheaper than what she paid after negotiating a volume discount and haggling even further with the salesman to bring the price down to what she thought was the floor. She had about $5-$10 left to go.
After a short browse through all of the dresses, I pulled a satiny green knee-length halter dress from the rack and modelled it for the Fiancee. With it's $39.99 price tag and various sizes available to order and pick up within 10 days, this would certainly do. I snapped a few pictures and sent off images of the dress to my bridesmaids for approval. Within a few days, I'd collected everyone's dress size and returned to the shop over the weekend to place my order.
(Shopowner) Ahh! Hello! You guys back to order the dresses! I have right here!
The shop owner pulled out an order slip, and asked me to fill out my name, address and phone number before taking down my order and calculating the total.
(Shopowner) Ok, you have five dress. When you need it by?
(Fiancee) As soon as possible.
(Shopowner) Well, when you get married?
(Fiancee) Soon, very soon. We need the dresses as soon as you can get them to us. We're getting married out of state and need to mail these out.
(Shopowner) What's so rush? Ok, ok. I get them to you as soon as I can. You put down half deposit today.
Since these were my bridesmaids who would be paying me back, I handed the shop owner my credit card.
(Shopowner) What? You stand there and let your wife pay? Hahaha. Just kidding! It ok.
Haha. Funny, funny. Not really.
(Shopowner) Ok, miss. You sign here. And where you live? What your address to pick up dresses from?
(LANYTransplant) It's right there on your order slip. I wrote it down, remember?
(Shopowner) But that his address (pointing to the Fiancee).
(LANYTransplant) Yes, well mine, too.
(Shopowner) Oh, you two not marry and living together?! Oh, bad bad! Very bad! (now wagging his finger at us) Hahaha! Just kidding! Just joking! OK, I get those dresses to you very soon!
Not funny. Annoying, even. He probably thinks I'm pregnant.
posted by LANYTransplant at 4:14 PM
2 Comments:
LA girl... i having some similar issues with cancelling my NYSC contract. they are making its extrmely hard, and not being very nice.
today, after my who knows how many attempts, i asked to speak to a manager the guy would not even let me!! said i have to wait 48 hours before i can speak to one!!
i'd like to find out what you did to fix this
could you perhaps email me? its whats in quotes at gmail.com "gu.stadmody"
I had a corporate membership, and I got lucky - the contract accidentally allowed a transfer clause so that I could transfer my membership to anyone. My company specifically barred transfers in their corporate contract with NYSC, but NYSC gave me the wrong form that allowed transfers, so they let me cancel my contract. Otherwise, it's difficult to cancel a contract at NYSC. They weren't very nice to me either until they found out that they screwed up to contract.
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