THE DRESS

I went out on a limb.

I ordered my wedding dress-- the dress-- from a wholesaler in China.

I found the dress and couldn't take my eyes off of it. I kept going back to it when I searched. So just 2 days after we got engaged I ordered the dress. I can't describe it because it's still a secret from the future hubby... but trust me it looked beautiful.

The website, milanoo.com said wedding dresses take about 30 days from order to delivery so I waited patiently for my $165.99 wedding dress.

and waited

And then one of my friends told me about her disastrous experience online with her bridesmaid dresses and when she found out I ordered from Milanoo, she got nervous because that was where she ordered her custom fit bridesmaid dresses.

But I trusted that ordering a stock size instead of a custom fit would work out fine. So I waited some more...

and waited...

and waited not so patiently and got online and chatted with the customer service reps who assured me the dress was finished being made and was on it's way to quality control.

Finally, we got the email that it had shipped and I checked the tracking number incessantly, getting very nervous for the outcome. And finally, it arrived to my parents house in Pennsylvania last Monday. My mom and I both sewed and she reassured me that although it came in a package smaller than a pillowcase, the immaculately made dress had almost 8 layers and looked picture perfect-even better than the photo online.

Yesterday I drove 2 hours to my parents and I tried it on. Although it was much bigger than the size we measured me to be (and we even rounded down), my mom had planned on altering it, so she spent the day altering. So after taking about 2 inches off of each side, it fits amazingly perfect.

And that's how you have thousands on a wedding dress. $165.99 was all I paid for my dream wedding dress (which I'm sure would have retailed for at least $900 in a retail store.)