The Ultimate Budget Bride Purchase

As some of you might have heard, weddings are expensive. In fact, they're stupid expensive. I think when you tell someone that you're buying something for a wedding, they just automatically double the price. So in an attempt to not spend a small fortune on what, in the end, is just a big party to tell people "Yay, Jake and I are going to...keep hanging out", I've been doing my best to negotiate with vendors, and hunt for bargains. I've been doing lots of research and one thing I've found is that if you buy your wedding dress online, instead of from a traditional bridal shop, you can save a LOT of money. Like 50%. For the exact. same. dress. You just have to be brave enough to order the most important dress of your life from a very seedy looking website, knowing that if it arrives at your door (or doesn't) looking totally different than how you expected, that there will be no store for you to go to, and no salesperson for you to complain to. Scary.

When I first ran across the idea, I wrote it off. But the more I've looked into it, the better it sounds. I've found a website, Pearls Place, that has a fantastic deal on my dress. Now, their website is not exactly a thing of beauty, but it is tied to an actual brick and mortar store in New Orleans, and if you call the number, you talk to actual people, who are very helpful. The store has been in business for over 20 years, it has a favorable rating with the BBB, and it's an authorized dealer of the designer that makes my dress. And I've talked to several brides who have ordered both their gowns and their bridesmaids gowns from Pearl with fantastic results.

So, I think I'm going to take the ultimate budget bride plunge, and order my dress off the internet!! Please think good thoughts for me!

And in case you think this is a terrible idea: my sister got married five years ago in an absolutely gorgeous dress, which just happens to be my size. Should the worst happen, I have backup!!