The Engagement Dress

So let's forget about the wedding momentarily, and focus on the event that is much much closer, the engagment party, just 4 weeks away...and most importantly the engagement dress.

The invites have been sent, 150 RSVP's collected, colour themes chosen, decorations purchased, catering under control, all running smoothly without, dare I say it? A hitch!

I consider myself to be quite the bargain hunter, I don't like to pay full price for anything, especially when I know I can find it cheaper elsewhere. Op shopping, eBay, garage sales... I don't think I was always this way, the fiance the "accountant" has probably had a positive affect on my money spending ways.

I began my search, knowing that I wanted a full length gown, always the most pricey option! Now I'm not the one to go shopping on Chapel St and Bridge Rd for the designer dress, although I do dare to dream about Channel shoes and that perfect Louis Vuitton bag from time to time. A Knock-off is always the favourite choice for me and my bank account. A few days later I found the dream dress!!! Imported from the high classed "Chinese" online store. Some of you may chuff at that remark, but hey, its international, and China do a great job of making other items we use on a daily basis, seriously look around you and see if you can tell me nothing in your surroundings has the "Made in China" badge.

So I did my research on the site, took my measurements, selected the colour, paid using trusty PayPal and continued on my merry way expecting to see the dress in 21-30 days...

However this wasn't as ease free as I had hoped, two days after ordering I jumped online to show my mum the dress I had chosen, and to my shock the site was gone! The inner panic set in, but I managed to calm myself thinking, it's ok, sites go down all the time, it'll be back tomorrow...

The next day came and the next, but nothing...heart was racing, im sure my cheeks were reddening and the inner bride panic attack kicked in. Where's the site gone? Have they stole my money? How am I going to afford a NEW DRESS???

I sent email after email, set up a complaint in PayPal and waited and waited... two weeks later I recieved a poorly formulated email to let me know my dress was on its way and asking if I could kindly remove the PayPal complaint. Trusting Stacey had far but disappeared at this point, I wasn't budging until the dress arrived!

And you know what, some very valuable lessons were learnt here, patience is a virtue, give things time, websites do go down, and they do disappear! It is always best to trust...the dress arrived and it was stunning, not a stitch misssed, a perfect fit, and the dress I know I will look back at in many years to come, and to tell the story of how already...the inner Bridezilla had started to appear...