Repost from 05 : Dress Dilemma (long) - input appreciated!
Bunnymonkey
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Repost from 05 : Dress Dilemma (long) - input appreciated!
Okay, here is the dress dilemma:
I tried on a sample Amsale last week that was gorgeous - and marked down from 4K to 1,200. (eek!) I put it on hold. i LOVED everything about it, except one thing : The weight. It felt really heavy on. The seamstress assured me that once she cuts off the 12 or so inches from the bottom (I am a midget) and takes out some of the crinoline, it will feel much better. One of the reasons I really want the dress is because of the label and the fact that it looks like a VERY expensive peice. I'll admit it...I am a bit of a label whore. But the dress is STUNNING. Another thing: It needs cleaning from being a sample and this makes my mother very uncomfortable - there are a few small stains and some dirt around the neckline - I know it would come out but buying a dirty dress is scary.
It looks something like the first one below: It's Silk satin, Alcecon (?) lace around the waist and bottom, ivory, box pleats, long train.
Then, I go and try on a Maggie yesterday and fall in love. It's the Chantilly (I HATE the way the model looks in it - it is so much prettier in person.) I LOVE everything about it except: I am doubting whether the style is too fancy for my outdoor vineyard wedding. It's very black tie to me - but I felt amazing in it. I know I can 'pull off' anything I want because I am the bride, but I just don't want to look silly coming down the grass aisle of my supposedly casual wedding in a huge sparkly thing - you know?
I was just hoping for some thoughts fromyou ladies and just general guidance from anyone who has been in a smilar situation: Do most dirt stains come out at the cleaners? Have you had a lot of your dress hemmed and it felt lighter?
I have to make a decision by tomorrow- they will not hold the Amsale any longer.
i love the amsale beautiful. howevery i tried on the chantilly dress and it is gorgeous. omg it is really pretty and because the lace does not have beading on it i dont think it is too much for you wedding. i would be concerned about the stains on the amsale it is silk and it is harder to get stains out of silk it may leave 'water stains' but if you love it and will take that chance then go for it.
Maybe I am in the minority, but I would be very nervous about spending $1200 on a dress that needs to be cleaned if it has visible marks or stains on it- I am with your mom. I think if I tried on another dress I loved and looked good on me that was new, I would get that one- JMO.
I bought a sample sale dress and it's had it's ups and downs. Ups - I love it! It's a designer dress in a wonderful fabric with a fresh/creative design. Saved nearly $2K on the purchase price. Downs - I am stressing about where to get my alterations and cleaning done. Madame Paulette's in the city is suppose to work miracles on any stains but they are not cheap. Remeber that drycleaning and alterations will add on a couple of hundred dollars at least to your savings. Also, I had to track down all the other pieces on my own since it was straight for the designer - veil, shoes, etc. It's been a lot of work.
Be careful with stains. My sisters dress had stains that the place was supposed to get and the chemicals they used to clean the dress made a larger stain than the original dirt stain.
I am getting married outside also (July 4th) and kept that in the back of my mind every time I tried on a dress (and there were about 70 of them!). It's good to think about the heat and humidity as some fabrics breathe easier than others. BTW I wound up with a Maggie as well the Grace dress. Everytime I tried on a ball gown it seemed to much for my daytime, mid summer wedding but that's just me.
I would definitely think seriously about the stains and being realistic with what you can and can't live with on your wedding day. I originally had bought the sample of my dress which only had two small noticeable stains under the arms from where everyone yanks it up. They had assured me those stains would come out and it would look as good as new. Well when I went back to look at it a few months later, they had told me they had already thoroughly cleaned it, but the only two marks that i had originally noticed were still there -- don't know if they had dimished slightly or not, but I was definitely very disappointed with the outcome and wound up paying the addt'l money that was originally discounted to order my dress new. Thank goodness there still was time to do so, cause if there wasn't I knew I wouldn't be comfortable the day of my wedding if i hadn't. And to me being comfortable on that day is probably the most important thing.
If you love the Maggie, go with it. In terms of formalness, they both look along the same level. If anything, the Maggie, looks a little less formal than the Amsale (or at least that's the way it looks in the pic). But I think it all depends on how you accecesorize (ok, I know the spelling on that is WAY off).
