Success! A New Dress!!

I picked up my Mom who just happens to live next door at 10:30am and off we went in search of the perfect dress for the wedding!  Little did I know at the time that the search was indeed a search! 

We pulled up to the first place and I guess I should have thought about it a little more because anytime the words "boutique" is in the title of the store name, one should know that its going to be pricey!  My Mom had a limit in her mind of what she wanted to spend because at this current time my Dad isn't working a lot because #1 he is a realtor and everyone knows what that means in today's economy and #2 he had 2 more stents put in his heart last Friday which now put him at 13 stents!  I just pray that he is okay everyday.  Anyhow my Mom "thought" she could get a dress for around $200.00.  

Well the first "boutique" we went into the lady took us upstairs and showed all where the long gowns were.  The first price tag I looked at said $760.00!!  That's almost as much as Mocha paid for her Wedding Gown!  I explained to the sales associate that my Mom is on a fixed budget and needed to stay around $200.00.....well she looked at me like I had 4 eyes and said that she didn't have anything even near that price!

So we were off to the 2nd place and had to travel 45 minutes.  When we got there we were again taken up to the their 2nd floor (I don't know why these places put the Mother of the Bride/Groom dresses on the 2nd floor....I immediately explained that my Mom was looking for a dress for around $200.00....again I got the 4 eyes look and she said that no indeed did they have anything that price.  She said their dresses start at $500.00!  Sticker shock!!

By then it was 12:30pm and both of us were starting to get hungry.  My Mom has diabetes and so I knew she had to get something to eat soon.  We grabbed a slice of pizza and off to the 3rd place we went.

I knew this place was going to have something because it is the largest bridal store in a 50 mile radius!  When we got there the parking lot was full....until we realized that it was full because there was a parade going on and everyone parked there!  We finally found a parking spot down the street and walked a block down to the store.  I get up to the door and pull on it and it is locked!!  Locked!!!  I then looked at the sign with the store hours and it said, "Saturday...by appointment only!".....what!?   By appointment only!?  On a Saturday!?  Isn't Saturday like a designated shopping day??  And at the largest bridal store around!  Ugh!  So back we trekked to the car and by then we were getting discouraged!

Store # 4 had a selection of about 10 dresses....all in sizes 2 and 4!

Store #5.  My Mom had already been here 2 weeks ago but I suggested we try again because that is where Mocha got her gown.  We get there and it was very busy.  We made a bee line for the "Mother" dresses and I'm crossing my fingers as I'm looking through the selections.  I find 1 for her to try on and she finds 1 and both of them were priced at $208.00....I am very hopeful at this point!

She goes into the dressing room and tries on the one that I had found.  It looked nice on her but she said the material didn't feel very comfortable but she said that she would get it because she said that she was running out of time...and places!  As you can tell from the picture, she wasn't very thrilled with the dress!

I told her to try on the other one because maybe she would like that one better! 
And she did!  She said it was comfortable and she liked the way that it fit!!

Her facial expressions are hilarious!
The sales associate went and got her matching shoes and a purse and the look was complete!

What made it even better was that since Mocha got her dress there, my Mom got $20.00 off the dress and 10% off the shoes!  Then the purse had a missing rinestone that was barely visible and so they took $10 off!  Her total for the dress, shoes and purse was $260.00!  Plus it didn't need altered!

It was a long day but I am so glad that she found something and the price was just right!  When we got home she was so excited to show my Dad!  She put it on and modeled it for him.  He said she looked beautiful!