I jinxed myself this time, no doubt. The 3 months that I waited with bated breath for the arrival of my wedding gown, I had the dreadful thought that something would be horrifically wrong with it when it did finally arrive. Looks like this time I had ESP. 🙂

Receiving paperwork in the mail that my gown had arrived I became so excited that I emailed everyone letting them know that my gown was in!!! Just a bit excited huh? I called Bridal Town to find out about picking up my gown and about if they would store it until I would have the alterations done. Now this is where I don’t understand places, while I had a great experience at Bridal Town when I went to look and try on gowns, they weren’t overly informative about if you purchased your gown from them how things would be handled. Me, a first time, only time, bride not knowing any better did not think to ask about storage and what happens once the gown arrives from the manufacturer.

I now know that once delivered, I can either wait until I start my alterations in mid-July to go in and look at my gown or if I want to look at my gown prior I would either need to start my alterations at that time, or take the gown home with me!!! CRAZY, I am a bride who just was informed that my gown is in, the gown I am going to be wearing on the most important day of my life, the day I marry the man of my dreams, my soul mate and best friend! You want me to WAIT until July to even look at it… what if it isn’t the right dress, color, or something else is wrong with it… I wait until July, then what???  Good thing I decided to look at my gown and take it home because if I would have waited until July to look at my gown, we’d of had a problem. One would think that you would be able to look at your gown once it arrives, as a courtesy (to make sure there are no problems with the gown) and then allow you to store it at their location. If you wanted to continually look at your gown, that is when Bridal Town could charge you or make you take it off premise. Considering that we had to pay for the entire thing up front, to ease one’s mind a one time “gown glimpse” should be included in the fee.

Mom met me the day I went to pick up my gown. Since I had to make an appointment to pick it up, I made it for after work. I wanted someone to be there, for again this is something you only do once and I thought having Mom along to share in the experience would be special. Figuring I would just be looking over the gown and off we’d go, both Mom and I were happy when asked if I would like to try the gown on… “Oh yes please can I” 🙂 As I stood there in my gown looking at myself in the mirror, realizing that wow a lot of alterations are going to need to happen, but enjoying the moment of being in “MY” gown, I hear Mom say ” What is that?” – Excuse me, what did you just say, you are interrupting my daydream and moment of sheer happiness!!!! Moment interrupted, we come to find that the gown had a mark on the back of it…. not just any old mark, but a mark in the shape of an H. Odd.

Needless to say, my gown did not come home with me that day. After many phone calls, messages, waiting for return phone calls (which did not ever happen) and disappointment, I came to learn that a new gown was being ordered for me and would arrive in about 8 weeks!!! At first it was thought that maybe the gown was marked for bead work to be done and the beads were never put on, but after a closer look and after I thought about it more, I think that the fabric was scratched.

All I have to say, is I am glad that I opted to be a typical bride who is excited and wants to look at her gown as soon as it arrives, for if I would have waited until July to even look at the gown, we would have had some major problems. I don’t doubt that Bridal Town would have handled the situation and made sure I had my gown in time, but maybe they should re-evaluate how they handle gown deliveries and allow brides to come in and view their gown once it is delivered and then let the bride make the choice to either keep it on Bridal Towns premise or take it home.

I still think my gown is going to be perfect and I am so anxious for it to arrive, hopefully without any graffiti!