I am now one step closer to being ready for the wedding, I've purchased my dress!
I have been stalking the Vera Wang blog and website for months, looking for news of the fall sample sale. Finally just before Thanksgiving the new came that there would be a sample sale in December, and even better news, that the sale would take place in L.A., instead of the usual New York store.
My Mom and I made plans to travel to L.A. to check out the dresses, with hopes of finding an amazing dress, and get an amazing deal. I made several calls to the store in an attempt to find out what dresses would be in stock, sizes, and how many people they expected to show up. Unfortunately this was the first sample sale for the Vera Wang store in L.A., so David (who answered the phone every time I called) was unable to give me much information.
So we planned for the worst and hoped for the best...
Our luck started on Saturday when we were able to get seats with her buddy passes on an oversold flight direct to L.A., on our first try. We had been prepared to wait at the airport for a while tyring to get on a flight, so when we arrived in town earlier than expected we decided to spend the afternoon shopping in Beverly Hills. Our luck continued when the Saks bridal salon had a cancellation and I was able to spend a couple hours trying on gorgeous gowns (of course all designed by Vera Wang).
After an afternoon of shopping we headed over to the Vera Wang boutique on Melrose to scope out the crowd and determine if we were going to be camping out overnight in line. Much to our surprise the street was quite and no one was camping out. So we made a hotel reservation and planed to get there bright an early in the morning.
We showed up between 7 and 8 am the next morning expecting to see a line around the block only to find that we were the 4th car to arrive and no one had even gotten out of their cars yet! We spent the next couple hours in a tense game of "chicken"with the other brides staying warm in their parked cars, all of us wondering which bride was going to cave and get out of her car first and wait in line on the street. Finally at 9 am I couldn't take it anymore. Every time a pedestrian walked by with their dog I was convinced they were going to take the first spot in line, and I couldn't handle the suspense any more. So I got out of the car and managed to be the 3rd person in line by the time I got to the front door. A perfectly acceptable spot in line considering I later found out the first two brides in line had shown up at 9 pm the night before and 3 am. The had placed a skateboard and blanket down on the sidewalk to hold their spots. I'm not sure this would have worked in New York, but in layed back L.A. everyone seemed to be fine with that. I was just happy that we were able to sleep in a hotel for the night, and not camped out on the street.
By 11 am the line had grown to about 50 brides with their entourages. The doors opened everyone flooded in and it was a mad dash for dresses. I quickly grabbed the first three dresses I could get my hands on, and in the interest of trying on as many dresses as quickly as possible my mom and I staked out a spot on the floor and I proceeded to strip down and try on gown after gown. I quickly realized that they were all beautiful and I was going to have an extremely hard time selecting just one. After about 30 minutes I had my choices narrowed down to 2, then one of my absolute favorite dresses was put back on the rack by another bride who was not interested in it. I had tried on this dress half a dozen times and seemed to compare every other dress to it, so I was extremely excited when I was able to add it to my group of dresses to chose from. By this time everyone in the store seemed to be enthusiastically helping me choose, even the other brides came over to help me choose. In the end I chose a dress that I have been in love with for months, and actually tried on several previous times. It was very serendipitous that I found that particular dress, I really can't image any other dress being more perfect. As soon as I made my choice Terra, the manager and my best friend of the day brought out champagne for my mom and I to celebrate with before we headed back to Seattle. Overall I couldn't have asked for a better shopping experience!
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