The Wedding Dress Saga

I've told this story about 300 times to about 300 different people, so I thought I'd share it here. Part of this story is also featured in Episode 4. As I sat down to write this, Kerry messaged me and said "We are going to need a 20 chapter book about you saying yes to the dress by the way". So, without further ado, welcome to my novel. Written in one sitting, fueled by anger, sadness, happiness, "A Fever You Can't Sweat Out" (Panic at the Disco) and caffeine. My brother use to (lovingly) call me Tiner the Whiner (among other things). I feel like I've done a lot of wedding whining lately and that isn't usually me. I'm *not* the bridezilla type. Our wedding was set up to be stress free for all involved. I wanted 1 dress, I had that image in my mind of the dress I wanted, and that was going to be that. It had to have 3 very important things, and 1 negligible thing 1) It had to have pockets 2) It had to be something I could pee in by myself (so, tea length) 3) It could not exceed $500 Canadian dollars. 4) (the negligible) Ideally it was going to be something I could wear again, because, sustainability. I found an even better dress than I could have dreamed. It fit literally all 4 categories. I searched for over 3 years for it. It was going to be PERFECT. (Anyone who has seen this dress, knows that it is. Y'all will see it when I wear it to my reception next year...) The one issue is that perfect dress (PD as I'll refer to it) had to be shipped to the border store (benefits of living in a border town!). No big deal, we'll just go pick it up. I ordered some sweet tank tops too for the summer. Overall cost, including my tank tops, was about $200 USD. Then the border closed just as my dress arrived at the border store. More importantly, as my tank tops arrived. Fa la la. Guess I'm wearing those next summer. Alright, so the border is closed. No big deal. Better buy a backup dress just in case. I've been using Poshmark for sometime without any issue. (shameless plug - sign up using my code IAMNOTEPAD for $15 off!) I've ordered from a handful of people and have had a really great experience so far. So why not scour there for a wedding dress? I "liked" a bunch of dresses on there to see if any offers would pop up. [Side note: If you're unfamiliar with Poshmark - generally if you "like" something, the seller will open up a private offer to you - usually cheaper shipping or a discount. Private messaging isn't a thing with Poshmark either, you can leave public comments though.]

The elusive WD (seller's pic)

One dress in particular, we'll call it WD, caught my eye. It was $100 but the seller offered it to me at a discount with discounted shipping for .... $56 CND. Holy crow! I won the lottery! Accept the offer immediately. A day goes by with zero emails. Maybe the seller got busy. No big deal. (Generally I see shipping labels generated within 48 hours so I'm getting a bit concerned)

The next day happens, nothing. Until later that night. I get the dreaded email. It reads "Seller cancelled due to damage"

Alright, no big deal, except it kind of is. I want this freaking dress. Just look at it! What's the damage? We're entering scary countdown time here (this was late June). I turned to my friend and said "I'm going to go be *that* person". I decided to put my big girl panties and comment on the original post to see what was wrong; if the dress has minimal damage we can deal with this (stains? no big deal. some minor damage on the bottom? no big deal! zipper broken? well... that might be a deal breaker.) For $56 I'm willing to take my chances.

The seller of WD doesn't message me back so I go (now panic induced) hunting mode on Poshmark. I order what I think is a super cute shorter dress, lots of lace detail. Perfect. I now have a THIRD dress. (We'll call this dress NA).

The elusive WD (seller's pic)

Seller finally gets back to me about WD later that night. "It's really wrinkly". WD = wrinkly dress. Get it? ... We can deal with wrinkles! We have the technology (steamer) for this! I was expecting it to be wrinkly anyway, it's being shipped through the mail! Alright. I message back with "no big deal! my dress is currently stuck at the border! I'm still interested". Seller replies back with "I'll re-list with a picture of the damage and you can make your own judgement call! Sorry about your other dress!" She re-lists and I buy. The damage picture wasn't listed but whatever. Wrinkles or not, here we go! 48 hours go by and I get a notification from Poshmark saying they're reminding the seller of WD to ship. The seller of NA has already shipped and it arrives the next day. July 7th rolls around. About 72 hours later from my second attempted purchase of WD. Tracking says that NA is due to arrive today (hurray!) and radio silence from WD. I go out to shoot another friend's wedding, had a lovely time, arrive back home and discover that WD has been cancelled *again* due to damage. Fa la la. Mood killer.

NA dress. Seller's picture.

Good news. NA is here! I whip off my clothes. Throw on NA and holy crow. Nice Ass!! (get it now?). It's a bodycon dress. Liveable, I love it and its hot as heck... but, not quite what I had envisioned to be wed in. My butt has never looked so good though! This will be *perfect* for concert going and nights out. I attempt to get it off my body but can't do it alone. Thankfully my best friend was over and pulled it off of me like I was 3. (Full on arms up "help!" mode). So I say "nah" to NA and tuck it away for a rainy day. (For $30 shipped it was a STEAL.) Alright so... WD. Say something I'm giving up on you... Radio silence from the seller and I decide not to pursue further. Time to release that dream. Back to Poshmark I go. In the meantime I've checked other sites etc but nothing fits the dreams I had, or the shipping was starting to get sketchy timeline wise. Poshmark seems like the best idea. I find this SUPER cute tea length yellow dress. It's currently in the mail. $20 it's a steal. Worst case, I have another yellow dress (YD). Perfect. I love me a fun bright dress. I originally wanted to get married in yellow or black anyway. This is dress number 4 for those of you keeping score.

Today rolls around (it's now July 9th.) My phone rings. It's my aunt (Kerry's mom). She volunteers at a local thrift store near my house. "Where are you?" "Home?" "Get your shoes on and get down here. We have wedding dresses." I reluctantly get out of my pj's and bolt out the door. There's 3 dresses available. The first one is too big. The second one isn't quite what I wanted, although it fit. The third one... well, let's just say I'll be using it the day of our wedding. Just call it Goldilocks. The best part? It was 50% off wedding dress day. My $50 thrift find was $25. I plan on re-donating it back to their organization once I'm done with it. It's a touch too small but, I can suck it in for the 30 minutes I need it on for. Winner winner dress #5! What about YD? I'll likely change into it for the rest of the day and to go visiting in. What about PD? I'm still sad. It'll live at the border store until I'm able to retrieve it. I'll wear it to our eventual reception and beyond. It's not a typical wedding dress so I'll get a lot of use out of it. If by some magic I can get it in time for the ceremony I'll wear it. I'm still super freaking sad about my tank tops though. I'll get them when I get my PD. It'll be a bittersweet day when that happens. Thanks for reading and letting me share my story. Now go out and sell some stuff on Poshmark and make someone's dreams come true. xx - Cousin Laura